Problem Approach Router

Concept of the skill

Use when facing a new problem and unsure which problem-solving methodology or foundational skill to apply first.

Coverage

Routes between the five foundational problem-solving skills by classifying the problem type before any approach is applied. Does not teach any methodology — it dispatches to the skill that teaches it. The routing table covers: novel problems with unknown assumptions (first-principles-thinking), recurring or familiar problem shapes (pattern-recognition), system-understanding and explanation tasks (mental-models), constraint-dominated or boundary-rich problems (constraint-awareness), and workflow and user-goal decomposition tasks (task-analysis).

Routing Rules

Evaluate the problem against the signals below. The first matching row determines the skill to activate. If multiple rows match, the problem is multi-layered — apply the skills in the order they match (start from the top of the table).