About 4: I swear by "dog fooding." I've seen quite often that someone picks up a request (issue, story), and interpret its in the first way that comes to mind.

About 4: I swear by "dog fooding." I've seen quite often that someone picks up a request (issue, story), and interpret its in the first way that comes to mind. That's natural, if only because users rarely express their needs clearly. What helps is using your product as a user would. Understand your users tasks and needs viscerally. That makes it easier to get a welcome result, and shorten the prototype-critique cycle.