our clients are basically asking us to decide for them the requirements and that's simply absurd? they're supposed to tell us what the hell they want. if we actually take creative liberties, i bet it'd take a day for them to ask for a do over

IMO that's normal up to a point. Some clients have a budget quota they have to drain by the EOY or else the money will disappear. So clients sometimes ask for ideas what to implement/improve in the project. And I welcome that very much.

Sometimes clients like to consult about future features with a vendor because they are uncertain of technical abilities/difficulties/timelines to implement things.

@netikras no, they're just wasting our time. this is an ongoing project that changes every quarter basically. they can't get up their asses and work for a change, so they throw it on our laps and blame us later for anything their bosses dislike

@netikras just so you get the pic, they won't even give us the go ahead on a preview of what we come up with. it's about accountability, not about creative input

This is usually a symptom that your client is not "the" client, but just some intermediary agency.

They try to prove how proactive and cool they are by requesting stuff before the real client asks, and then claiming the medal.

Of course, if *their* client doesn't like their innovative proactive changes, they'll deflect the blame on you faster than the speed of light.