The One Question a Principal Engineer Asked Me That Changed My Perspective

It wasn’t technical. But it hit me harder than any code review ever did.

The One Question a Principal Engineer Asked Me That Changed My Perspective

“What problem are you actually trying to solve?”

It sounded simple — almost too simple — when the principal engineer across the table asked me that. But in the moment, it stopped me cold.

I had come to him with what I thought was a solid idea: a new microservice architecture that could streamline part of our backend system. I had a few slides, some performance metrics from a prototype, and a confident pitch.

He didn’t challenge the technical details. He didn’t debate the pros and cons. He just looked at me and asked that one question.

“What problem are you actually trying to solve?”

When Complexity Becomes a Distraction

As engineers, we love to build. We like elegant solutions, smart abstractions, and the challenge of optimizing a system down to the last millisecond. It’s easy to fall in love with an idea because it’s clever or because we saw someone else do it at scale.

That was me — enthusiastic, caffeinated, and ready to drop some Dockerfiles and redesign our architecture.

But when he asked that question, I paused. Because in that moment, I realized I hadn’t truly defined the problem. I had jumped straight to the solution.

The Trap of Premature Solutions

I’ve noticed this pattern many times since then, not just in myself but in teams I’ve worked with.

• A team decides to switch databases because they hit a scaling issue — but the real problem is poor indexing.
• Someone proposes a complete rewrite of a legacy system — but the actual pain point is a single unreliable integration.
• We choose Kubernetes when what we really need is a simple deployment script and a cron job.

We jump to conclusions. We assume the problem is obvious. We assume complexity equals sophistication. But that question — “What problem are you trying to solve?” — acts like a flashlight. It cuts through the noise.

Why This Question Matters More Than Ever

In fast-moving tech environments, we’re rewarded for being action-oriented. Quick wins. MVPs. Shipping code.

But taking a moment to ask why before how can save weeks — or even months — of wasted effort.

The principal engineer who asked me that question wasn’t trying to shoot down my idea. He was trying to help me see more clearly. To make sure I wasn’t solving the wrong problem beautifully.

And that’s the mark of a good engineer, and an even better mentor.

Bringing the Question Into Everyday Work

Since that conversation, I’ve made that question a personal ritual. Before every big proposal, design doc, or technical debate, I try to pause and ask:

- What problem am I actually trying to solve?

- Who is experiencing this problem?

- What would success look like if we solved it?

It changes everything. Suddenly, conversations become less about tools and frameworks and more about outcomes. We stop fighting over implementation details and start focusing on what matters: delivering value.

In Hindsight

The microservice I pitched? We never built it. We solved the actual issue — a flaky job scheduler — with a much simpler solution.

And no one missed the microservice.

But I gained something much more valuable than a greenlit project. I learned a mindset.

So now, whenever someone comes to me with a big idea, I try to channel that same clarity and curiosity. I don’t say no. I don’t poke holes.

I just ask, kindly and genuinely:

“What problem are you actually trying to solve?”

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