you are the expert, aren't you?

There are times when I am asked to be involved in designing interfaces without exposure to those who are going to use them. One of the rationales behind this approach is that as a user experience designer I should have enough experience and creative skills to dream of and create a solution. Asking for time, resources, and budget to research end users would somehow betray my inability to be creative on my own. In fact, from my experience, this is why some UE people are reluctant to push for user research or any type of user involvement.
If I were to design a solution for me and me alone I would be more than happy to lock myself in some garage and get creative, however, I am asked to design solutions for others and the least I can do is become familiar with those people, their needs, attitudes, and goals.
As UE professionals, our expertise is in unearthing, understanding, and prioritising those needs before we design solutions to meet and satisfy them. Our proudest moments should be when we become fully aware of our audience and find elegant ways to help them to achieve their goals, not when we spend hours dreaming of new approaches that are based on our assumptions, hearsay and personal preferences.