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At that point, usually me and the singer write with voice and acoustic guitar to get the basic chord progressions, rhythms, song structure. When that's more dialled in then bring in drums and electric guitars, in the recording phase bring in programming/synths, harmonies etc. I usually hear all the extra instrumentation in my head then work out how to make it happen.
I listened to the same podcast as @PolarityMan and while I can see where he's coming from that's not what I find works for me. I remember reading an interview with a pop producer who writes with the artist, and IIRC he just played root notes on bass as they worked out the song and melody, everything else got fleshed out later. He didn't even want to imply chords in case it pulled the vocalist away from the natural melody for the lyrics.
The way I see it is the music could be anything, you only have to type on "(pop) song title - metal" and you'll find multiple metal covers of pop songs on YouTube with vastly different instrumentation, still the same song though. That's not to say the music doesn't matter, of course it is hugely important, but my own methodology is song first instrumentation later.
I think you need to find an approach that works for you.
I generally write without any instruments, eg coming up with a vocal line, or hook. I'll then arrange the song around this.
The great advantage of this approach is that you can do it anywhere, eg on a train. Carrying a notebook is a good idea too.
Occasionally I might do something more riff based, in which case I would probably develop that from playing an instrument, usually, but not always, guitar.
To be honest I would say I'm much better at arranging songs than coming up with the original idea.
It really worth looking at well-written songs to see how great writers structure songs. The Motown catalogue is a good place to start.