Recently in my ex-team while attending a presentation made by a Senior Person who regularly interacts with the clients, I asked if we as solution providers ever made an effort to observe how the end-user is using the system and what kind of feedback does the solution get from them...
The response I got was that the size of user base is just too big for them to actually go and do that. So they relied on design folks who would/should know about user experience as well.
I came across this article today...
http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/107/business-at-its-best.html
Companies differentiate between the User and the Costumer. The User being the person who uses the solution and the Costumer being the people who Pays for the Solution. Chances are... in most cases the Costumer is listened to and the solution is implemented as per their liking. And the likelihood of the needs of the user and the customer being radically different are quite high. The Priorities and the Perspective of the customer will be radically different. The solution thus built when exposed to the end-user faces rejection. Throughout my career I have felt the need to gather feelers from the end users time and again.
The example given here in the article is specific to banking whose costumer base is large but can apply to any other type of business.
