[Timberwolf]

I tend to swap between two modes.

If I'm working with well-known tools and a problem I understand reasonably well, I'll approach it in ultra-strict test-first style, where my "red" is, "code won't compile because I haven't even defined the thing I'm trying to test yet". It might sound a step too far but I find starting by thinking about how consumers will call and interact with this thing results in code that's easier to integrate.

However, if I'm using tools I don't know well, or a problem I'm not sure about, I much prefer the "iterate and stabilise" approach. For me this involves diving in, writing something scrappy to figure out how things work, deciding what I don't like about what I did, then starting again 2 or 3 times until I feel like I understand the tools and the problem. The first version will often be a mess of printf debugging and hard-coded everything, but after a couple of iterations I'm usually getting to a clean and testable core approach. At that point I'll get a sensible set of tests together for what I've created and flip back to the first mode.