Thanks. I'll clarify one thing, using your example: "You know you want to do a kitchen remodel, the question is how do you go about it. " The real question is "what are you trying to achieve by remodelling?". Do you need different ways to cook? Are you running out of storage room or worksurface space? What about things you might not have considered, perhaps because they are adequate in your existing kitchen - like maybe ventilation? Once you have answered these questions, you are in a place to start specifying what the newly remodelled kitchen can do, and hence on to architecture and design.

To your last point, when I did my engineering degree over forty years ago, we were given lots of ways of solving problems, and some hints as to which sorts of problems each method was suited. We did almost nothing on identifying the problem in the first place. I know that, at least at my alma mater, this has changed.