In my case, my boss was on board with whatever I thought was best – but sometimes others, not in my department, were not. I tried to get around that by establishing myself as an expert – which worked in some cases and not in others, and took time.

To answer your questions, though, I saw best practices as the minimum I should aspire to – once I was there, then I could move on creatively, but they were really the heart of everything I did.