I've been working on back-end, middle-tier and front-end systems since 1999. I've tackled many tough problems around scaling an application, refactoring complex systems, and building from the ground up. I'm a creative developer and don't, however, consider myself a computer scientist. I build software for people (first) and typically out of necessity.
As for leading a project, I'm a long-time student of Agile and Lean methodologies. Learning through carefully crafted experiments, always comes first. I focus on determining which features to build and also which features NOT to build by enforcing a tight customer feedback loop. Iterating quickly and validating the most valuable features ...