(Part 2) We Just Undid Three Months of Dev work. Here's What We Learned.

Hmm,<p><i>We launched a major development initiative based on our internal ideas of what users wanted. In retrospect, we should have spent much more time speaking with customers and vetting the ideas.</i><p>I do not know a magical formula for features that make money. I do know that Steve Jobs very clearly says that he creates products by asking what would be really cool to have. Sometimes users know what they want and are correct. Sometimes they wrong in the sense that what they describe won't really satisfy them.<p>There could be difference between a niche market and mass market in these considerations as well as many other consideration. This is not to demean the article in the least - it's more that this is really hard problem and there aren't easy answers even if what works in a given situation is usually something simple.

The skill comes with being able to digest and boil down what the users are saying. This is going back to the old Ford lesson, that if he'd listened he would have built a faster horse.<p>There is just going to be a lot of noise and out of that one must pick out recurring themes and look for patterns that tell you whether or not something needs to change.

great article. we all need to constantly remind ourselves to listen to our users and to not just look at the competition.