1) Client/user Engagement
Getting out there to both understand what users are trying to achieve and what they see as a strong brand to them. It’s about client discoveries.

2) Investing in Time
If not the most important thing, it is having enough time to create something worthy of a loyal customer. Rushing to market is going to ensure a hit on your brand currency and result in taking more time and money to achieve the overall strategy.

3) Cut the Clutter
A brand is strongest when its focus is narrowed, while a user experience is best when it is simple. There seems to be an overall tactic of bloating with features, the fact remains clients and users would rather have one thing to do a task brilliantly rather than one thing that does a lot of things not too well.

4) Work Smarter
Analyse, interpret, adapt, overcome… and repeat. Finding the core information and articulating before you commit to a build will save time and resources, it’s that simple. Or Agile methods as most know about.

5) Not all feedback is useful
Interactions will raise common themes, but then again some will raise the useless the client or user thinks is awesome but isn’t. “If I had a cat it would wear pants” maybe feedback but it’s never going to be useful because it doesn’t answer the core question of functionality to define what is useful. It may answer what a user would do if they had something added but does it really add anything of use?

6) If it feels right
Go with your gut, if you are quality professional the years of experience will allow for the spidey sense to tingle when you are onto a winner.

7) Conflict is good
Creative conflict as I put it is a good thing for professional teams. The ability to have conflicting points of the argument then consider is one of the most important parts of building an effective product, challenging the ideas make a mute agreeable product simply pop.