I've found new hires to be more successful when they join, get some easy wins, and then find their own problems to solve. But maybe it's just an artifact of working at large companies where most of the day-to-day stuff is figured out.
(d) although the initial statement seems credible, the problem is actually ill defined and under specified and therefore not solvable as originally stated.
Example: our start-up plans to "fix health care"
Definetly it's a trap. If you are a purist it's nigh impossible. But if you ruthlessly 80/20 it most stakeholders will be pleasantly surprised.
I have no clue why I end up in these situations but I sure do like them.
I do realize this would sound more of a perpetual "not invented here syndrome" but technical implementation of modeling aspects for 3D and computational geometry is such a scarce talent you actually get to do novel stuff for your business.
The last time this happened I designed & implemented the core modeling architecture and led the implementation effort for our new map feature[0]
[0] See section "Stunning new building facades add practical value" in https://www.mapbox.com/blog/detailed-architecture-and-new-de...