It would be great to get all programmers to meet with customers, but this could be a Customer Service disaster if the programmers aren’t trained first. Sad to say, they’d have to be trained, perhaps with electric shock, to keep their mouths shut when somebody says something they disagree with. No interruptions, no objections, just LISTEN LISTEN LISTEN!

While I agree with you Adrian, that this is communication, I cannot agree that it can’t be described as training.

When a developer, no… a coder, the guy in the black t-shirt with the wall of Coke cans by his window, gets introduced to a real-life user for the first time, this is training.
That coder undergoes training in what a user is, how a user might think, how different a user is to himself.

I have seen many coders, testers, analyts, designers, engineers, and management get bowled over by the difference in their opinions to their users. Practices like this are brilliant and need to be promoted more througout the industry.

Nice post Jared. I will add this to my list of Blogs to follow.