[evek]

Techniques of interaction design might help you, as many of them covered exactly this problem, namely:

-User interviews will help you understand the problems and contexts your target users have. -Personas for focus on the target user. "Jobs to be Done" is a popular alternative. -Scenarios and user flows will help you better understand the temporal context and flow between states -Prototyping in tools like inVision, etc will help you test ideas before committing too much time and effort -User testing goes hand in hand with prototyping, you will better understand how your users perceive your software, which usually differs quote a lot from makers perspective

I don't know what type of software are you building, but design systems like Salesforce Lightning Design System and Google Material Design provide ready-made patterns with extensibility in mind. They usually have similar patterns, but enterprise ones are more focused on "optionality".