For most organic and medicinal chemists flash chromatography is just another step in the synthesis work flow - react, analyze, purify, react, analyze, purify... until the final product is made. The desired product of each reaction, and the mixture of other species present are, of course, different with each cycle. Separating the desired compound efficiently without a lot of hassle is something I have written about in this post as well as in others in this series.
In this post, I've written about how that TLC (thin layer chromatography) plate you use for monitoring your reaction can be used to create reliable, efficient, effective gradients.