Customer feedback tells you what problems exist. It doesn’t tell you how to solve them.

Users describe their pain points through the lens of their current understanding. They’ll request features, suggest changes, demand specific solutions. But they’re not designers. They can’t see the system you’re building or understand the constraints you’re working within.

Framing and re-framing problems is one of the key skills as a leader at any level. It allows for different perspectives, and hence new insights and new strategies, to emerge.¹

Your job is to listen to the feedback, understand the underlying problem, and then solve it properly. Sometimes the right solution looks nothing like what customers requested.

Using input to understand problems creates opinionated design that solves real needs.

Most people don’t naturally separate problems from solutions. When frustrated, they jump straight to what they think would fix it. This is normal. It’s faster to say “add an export button” than to explain “I’m struggling to get this data into the format I need for reporting.”

Your role is to dig deeper. Ask why. Ask what they’re trying to accomplish. Ask about the context.

Usability problems are different. If five users can't figure out how to complete a task, that’s not a feature request. That’s a fundamental design failure.

But even then, the solution isn’t necessarily what users suggest. They might say “add more instructions” when the real problem is the interface is too complex.

At GreenFlux, customers request specific dashboard changes. “Add this metric here.” “Change this filter.” Each request makes sense in isolation.

But stepping back reveals the real problem isn’t missing metrics or filters. It’s information overload. Users can’t find what matters because everything is visible.

The solution isn’t adding more. It’s removing most of it and letting users customise what they needed.

No customer requested that, but it solves the problem they’re describing.

Find the balance

This doesn’t mean ignore customers. Start with the customer experience and work backwards to the technology. Reduce mistakes by increasing frequency of contact with real customers.

Listen closely. Test constantly. But interpret, don’t just implement.

Your expertise is understanding problems and crafting solutions.