Not every development task arrives with a finished design and a clearly defined specification.
Sometimes an idea needs investigating before anyone knows whether it can be built. An existing system might introduce unexpected limitations. Several platforms might need to communicate with one another. Or something simply isn’t behaving the way it should.
I help break those problems down, understand what’s happening and find a practical route forward. That might lead to a new piece of development, an integration, a different technical approach or simply a clearer understanding of what is realistically achievable.
What’s Included in Technical Problem Solving
The aim is to remove uncertainty before it becomes expensive development work, while finding solutions that make sense within the technology already in place.
Technical Scoping
- Breaking requirements into clear technical tasks
- Investigating existing functionality before development
- Identifying dependencies and potential limitations
- Exploring alternative implementation approaches
- Helping establish what needs to happen before work begins
Feasibility
- Assessing whether proposed functionality is achievable
- Investigating third-party systems and platform limitations
- Prototyping or testing approaches where necessary
- Identifying technical risks early
- Helping turn broad ideas into realistic requirements
API & Integration Work
- Working with third-party APIs and external data
- Connecting front-end experiences with existing systems
- Understanding available endpoints and data structures
- Handling different response states and scenarios
- Working around the limitations of third-party platforms
Debugging & Investigation
- Tracking down unexpected front-end behaviour
- Investigating issues across existing codebases
- Identifying conflicts between systems or scripts
- Reproducing difficult or inconsistent problems
- Finding the cause of an issue rather than simply masking the symptom