I had a similar moment of clarity a few years ago, finding that whilst explaining the issue to someone I worked out the answer before I could finish. This obviously was helpful but wasted their time.

My initial solution to this was going to be buy a life size Darth Vader cut out, but it in a disused cupboard and then when I or anyone else needed to talk through a problem they could just go talk to darth in the cupboard.

My boss rejected this solution. Solution 2 was project duck. A collegue bought in a rubber duck and we could then explain the problem to project duck instead.

When I left that company, project duck came with me to the new company and sits on my PC monitor and helps me in time of need. (well almost….)