When I first saw this quote a few years ago, it was mystifying to me. I couldn’t reconcile decoupling evaluation from observation. But the more I considered the quote, and the more I familiarized myself with design thinking, the wisdom of this “ability” revealed itself.
I discovered that to truly understand an end-user, you must observe their actions with a beginner’s mind, and eliminate the constant urge to jump to conclusions about their intentions or behavior (that’s a step that comes later).