This is very true. I'm going to read the NVC book after reading your comment. Similarly, I've found that users often express all sorts of suggestions for how

This is very true. I'm going to read the NVC book after reading your comment. Similarly, I've found that users often express all sorts of suggestions for how to accomplish some need they have. While many of their ideas are (from a UX/design standpoint) horrible, the core need is valid and often highlight something important that has been misunderstood or overlooked by the design. The hardest people to get "needs" information from are intelligent, computer-literate people, who are often unwilling to admit that they find something counter-intuitive, and often frame their feedback in a way that conceals that fact... But who will end up not using something because of the friction that a suboptimal design causes. I've also found it helpful to let people draw mocks of their solutions with a sharpie and to also share my own impromptu sharpie mocks with them based on their feedback. At the very least, this process makes them feel respected and lower their guard which can often help them share information that is helpful in designing a product. The craziest moments are when it turns out after weeks of trying to understand a user's feedback, that the user simply wanted a report view of some information and was trying to give feedback to make an interaction design turn into a report. This is quite common, especially in a feedback group where the highest status person is the manager who does actually need a report but is offering general feedback on general usability.