Understand the true problems that need to be solved. Often these have nothing to do with written requirements. It may manifest itself in the system's design,

Understand the true problems that need to be solved. Often these have nothing to do with written requirements. It may manifest itself in the system's design, or in what you need to do to fight for time to work on a given area with management. If you're self-employed it may be to understand your customer's true needs, separate from what they think they want. Writing code is straightforward... it's a skill that can be learned by anyone given enough effort and time. To get to that next level, you gotta learn the real issues that need solving. That's what makes the great ones stand out.