In my experience, this is patently not true. I remember having a work dinner at a conference and I pulled out my phone to show someone something in our app. I opened it and ... a button simply didn't exist. I remember getting angry that I couldn't figure out how to use our app. The lead designer, watching this entire reaction said, "Huh, 40% of our user testing showed that removing that button gets exactly that reaction." We got a good laugh about it then (and he was serious, 40% of users got rage-level angry). But in retrospect, 40% of millions of people is a shit ton of people. I wonder how many heart attacks were caused by removing that button...<p>I digress. Listening to users <i>is</i> <i>usually</i> a fool's errand, however, listening to the <i>right</i> <i>users</i> is a gold mine. If you've done the whole "who is my customer" profile thingy, you know what they look like. So, actually seek out the real versions in your user database. Get to know them, take them out to dinner. Get to know their problems and how you can solve them. Those people will take you places.