Yes, I agree with what @TMiller has said. The thing being that you need to keep the neutrality to not to trigger any direction of the minds of the stakeholders. It becomes fatal in the later stage.
I have found in many cases that after showing the initial mockups(not well planned), product owners who cannot see the small yet important difference tend to rush towards final prototyping ignoring the polishing or the iteration that has to take place.
To maintain and keep the neutrality among the stakeholders. I first work on persona and user stories, combining both of them I try to get a common opinion on the attributes and pains that we need to solve. Then I iteratively roll out the mock-ups with the quick usability testing from keeping them in reaching any conclusions that cannot be changed later.
I regularly present them with the results, to keep the relation healthy. Timeline is kept strict so that they know when the high fidelity wireframes and workflow will be ready and no one rushes to conclusion.
Sometimes, with people who are not patient enough. I start my work with illustrating the design processes high end product/service companies follows. That gives them an idea of how much effort is required to build what, and also provides my stakeholders with the necessary insights.
Educating stakeholders often plays an important part in this.