A Staff Engineer's Secret: Find Problems by Absorbing, Not Thinking
How I Find Problems to Solve as a Staff Engineer
Lalit, a staff engineer on Perfetto, explains how he discovers high-impact problems to solve. Instead of scheduling thinking time, he acts like a sponge, absorbing complaints and requests from meetings, chats, and 1:1s. He lets problems pile up, looking for common shapes that reveal deeper needs. He then pressure-tests ideas with prototypes and RFCs before building. This approach led to Perfetto macros and extension servers, used by dozens of teams at Google. He emphasizes that finding problems is a continuous, engaged process, not a separate strategic exercise.
By the time enough of these had piled up, my head was the usual tangle: the requests themselves, the constraints on each and a handful of half-formed solutions.