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I'm dealing with that right now. Completely negating someone's opinion only shuts down communication. It's all in the phrasing and makes it sound like you are on different teams, especially in a work environment.

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When doing consulting and engaging a sensitive issue, I always begin with, "Correct if I'm wrong, is this how this feature is supposed to work..."

What this does is diffuse a tense situation and allow the client to issue a correction without feeling bad.

I think that's a great approach, especially when handling a new client. The worst situation is landing a client who also personally designed or developed the last iteration of their website or app. They need to be dislodged from the work they've done and sometimes that takes kid gloves.

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