For a startup, should product requirement understanding be considered a part of UX process.

I am a part of a small organization. Should our UX lead be the part of the requirement elicitation process? Is it a general practice in the industry?

The process we are going through is finalizing and prioritizing the product requirements and features?

Usually, it's considered product designer/product developer task to be part of this process, but for this project, we are planning to include our UX lead in the process as well.

What are the best practices around the larger corporations for this process, what are the advantages and disadvantages for this approach?