[csnewb]

Problem Solving 101 by Ken Watanabe provides a toolbox of problem solving techniques. One method I've been using to decompose problems us to use a "logic tree". Start here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Issue_tree. Another technique is to first explain the problem and solution at a high level (pretend you're explaining it to a friend or coworkers), then write pseudocode for how you would solve it, and then convert that pseudocode to actual code.

[oberver]

Logic tree is a good direction to look into. I asked the question in a broader sense, not just coding.