Over the years (and especially during my time at university) I have noted a few skills that have really helped me in my approach to developing solutions and tackling large, and often daunting, tasks. I now find myself applying a very strategic thought process to any situation I am faced with, which can be outline by the four qualities below.

Agile


Overcoming an issue is mostly about planning a successful course through the hurdles you will face to grant your desired outcome. However, in almost every situations, things never tend to go to plan - sometimes things can change for the worst (and we must adjust our plans to compensate for this), sometimes things can go much better than expected (and we must seize this as an advantages opportunity). Either way, it is important to maintain a critical and introspective approach where one can recognize and action areas of improvement and opportunity.

Awareness


Awareness is essential to solutions development, it is important to understand what current existing solutions are available and the competition you will face. One needs to maintain emotional understanding of the competition and be able to identify areas in which your solution improves upon theirs, as well as predicting their next move. Even in a non-competitive environnement, emotional awareness allows you to understand what motivates individuals and will give an advantage towards achieving your goals.

Systematic


As mentioned, my strategic thinking development has been greatly improved through an agile approach to issues - it also requires an element of systematic process. The best way to learn is through defining success and trying to achieve that success (and often failing). Observing the process, however, allows you to make the right move at the right time with a Fail Fast mindset. The worst thing for one to do, would be to move between a number of differing strategies without fully understanding why one was successful and another is not.

Conceptual


conceptualization and abstract thinking have also played a massive part in my ability to strategically think and plan when considering solution design. Having the ability to see the whole picture of a project and understand the begging, middle and end of the strategy of attack is a necessity. With this comes a requirement to be able to toggle between this big picture view and a microscopic details surrounding strategic plans - identifying the threats and opportunities that surround it.