Faced with a perplexing problem I use 2 strategies to get perspective: * First principles. I look for some kind of model of the situation and ask what the model predicts. * Imagined outcome. I put myself in the future looking back on a successful outcome & work from there.
I'd add feature/domain analysis to filter/reduce the space of solutions - and then ignore everything but the 80% if the most useful remnants. Works well with product/project not people perplexions!