Let’s start with a fact: the customer is not always right. In fact, often the customer doesn’t know what they want, they just know they have a problem they need to solve.
For existing tools and services this isn’t so bad because at least the customer will be somewhat familiar with the available tools, products, services and approaches. There is enough knowledge out in the world that people are coming in with some initial impressions grounded in reality.
For new tools and solutions this is a fundamental problem. Many development teams want customer feedback on their solution as they are designing it. But we now get into our chicken and egg discussion: customers will provide feedback based on the world as they understand it – but they won’t always be able to predict what they need that doesn’t exist. In short – their feedback is questionable in quality because they may not have the right framing to give anything accurate.
This is also true for custom client projects (such as one-off transaction or consulting engagements). Often the client wants a very specific scope of work that they can sign-off on and sell to their management. The problem is that this assumes the information provided by the client regarding the problem being addressed is completely accurate and complete. How often is that the case? Rarely, but it is usually not intentionally inaccurate or incomplete. Clients do their best to provide good information.
Be willing to balance this reality in your expectations of feedback. Don’t trust all of the information you receive.