I think that most software engineering work can be roughly divided into straightforward, difficult, and exploratory work.
Straightforward work is work where it's obvious to the team what needs to be solved and how it should be done. This is often repetitive; there may be examples of very similar work that can be copied, and the systems involved are probably well documented.
Difficult work requires a deeper understanding of the systems involved. It may involve undocumented, unusual, or subtly complicated systems. Or, it may involve implementing a change that doesn't feel natural given the existing structure of the code. The team is probably clear on what needs to be solved, but it won't be obvious how to solve it.
Exploratory work is about figuring out what should be done. This can be extremely impactful - a good recommendation here might save your team weeks, months, or years of wasted effort. It's also easy to bullshit, because it's difficult to measure or assess. In order to do this effectively,
