It’s true, there’s definitely a time and a place for getting one’s hands dirty. Sometimes there’s just no way around digging into the details and making things right. Sometimes, even as a designer, you’re going to have to play with the CSS to get the alignment right, because if not you, who will? Still, it’s important to remember that at the outset of a project, and even beyond that, limitless imagination is a requirement…because limiting yourself to a technology will hamper one’s ability to truly solve a problem.

It becomes so easy to get wrapped up in technology, but we need to remember that a client and user’s true need is to solve a problem, not have a piece of software. Before deciding to build software, we should consider the true problems, and discover what should be done to fix them. Sometimes it’s a policy that has grown stale. Other times it’s as easy as adding a whiteboard to your kitchen so that people don’t forget to communicate. And even other times it might be imperative to create a digital, internet connected, multi-touch capable whiteboard in the kitchen so that it can sync up with your local events database, rather than a new intranet.

My point is that we shouldn’t underestimate the power of imagination. When exploring design solutions. Your first idea will (in all likelihood) not be your best. Look beyond the obvious.

Oh, and be sure to staff a tactical, imaginative designer.