Problem
solving performance review phrases

Found the actual cause of [recurring issue] rather than fixing its symptom for the fourth time.

Breaks ambiguous problems into parts other people can pick up, which is why the work parallelises instead of stalling on them.

Knows when a problem is not worth solving, and says so before the effort goes in.

Worth writing up how they approached [problem]. The method is more transferable than the fix.

Ready for the genuinely undefined problems, where the hard part is deciding what the question is.

I stopped patching [issue] and spent a week finding why it kept happening, which ended it rather than deferring it.

I killed a piece of work that was not going to pay for itself, which was less satisfying than finishing it and much cheaper.

Works problems through methodically rather than reaching for the first available answer.

Checks assumptions with the people closest to the work before committing to an approach.

Escalates the right problems at the right time, with enough context to be actionable.

Solves what lands on them well. The next step is asking whether the problem as handed over is the real one.

Worth slowing the first ten minutes down. The framing of the problem determines most of the quality of the answer.

I have started restating the problem in my own words before starting, which has caught two briefs that were asking for the wrong thing.

I escalate earlier than I used to, with the context attached rather than just the alarm.

Reaches for the familiar solution before establishing whether it fits this problem.

Fixes tend to address the symptom, so the same issue returns in a different form.

Escalates problems without the context needed to act on them, which moves the work rather than the decision.

Before proposing a fix, write one line on what is actually causing this. If you cannot, that is the work, not the fix.

When you escalate, bring what you have tried and what you think should happen. Escalation without those is delegation upward.

I move to solutions quickly, which is fast when the problem is familiar and expensive when it is not.

I want to get better at telling the difference between a symptom and a cause before I commit effort.

The same issues have recurred through the year without the underlying cause being addressed or escalated.

Problems have been escalated without analysis on multiple occasions, moving work upward rather than resolving it.

We need a written approach for the next three problems: what is the cause, what have you tried, what do you recommend. Reviewed in six weeks.

If the constraint is time rather than method, say so, because those need very different responses from me.

I have been firefighting rather than fixing, and I have not made the case for the time to do the second.