This has always bothered me: I'm not the target user, but then who is? Some of the more unprofessional product managers can use this as a mantra when they really have no clue.
On the other hand, when you include a designer in your product, you really have to let them do their job! Yes, feedback (external and internal) will be killer, but if they are good and know what they are doing, they won't let this sway them: they want to deliver a product that you will love, that you didn't know you wanted, and not necessarily what you asked for. Professional UX design with IDEs seems rather new (e.g., Cloud9), and developers are surprisingly a rather conservative lot. But if you want innovation from your IDE vendor, you should give them some room to experiment and possibly make mistakes.
On the other hand, when you include a designer in your product, you really have to let them do their job! Yes, feedback (external and internal) will be killer, but if they are good and know what they are doing, they won't let this sway them: they want to deliver a product that you will love, that you didn't know you wanted, and not necessarily what you asked for. Professional UX design with IDEs seems rather new (e.g., Cloud9), and developers are surprisingly a rather conservative lot. But if you want innovation from your IDE vendor, you should give them some room to experiment and possibly make mistakes.
(disclaimer: MS employee, but not working on VS)