[solatic]

IMO this kind of question will get "faster horse" kind of responses, not "a car" kind of responses (context: https://www.inc.com/michael-graber/people-would-have-asked-f...)

Don't focus on price. Don't focus on other people's ideas. The word "need" is overloaded; too many people will tell you the solution they think they need and not the emotional need itself that is not being met by a solution. Instead, try to understand how other people are suffering, and only then try to come up with ideas for how to alleviate their suffering.

[bckr]

It's a good point, but I think this is still a valuable exercise. The strategy shouldn't be "listen to what people say they want and then build that", but instead listen through what they say they want and into their problems. If nothing else this may lead, eventually, to discovering a class of problems you weren't aware of.

[solatic]

If you listen to what people say they want, it becomes difficult to actively ignore that in favor of a better overall solution. The sheer fact that a solution was proposed becomes ammunition that the proposed solution is what you should build. It becomes a form of authority bias.

Part of the insight that good product managers have is that their customer base aren't omniscient gods. They're flawed human beings like the rest of us, with limited experience and perspective. Our customers often don't know what we're capable of building, so why should we let our customers' proposals limit us?

This is why it's most important to focus on customer suffering. The facts of the gap that stands between them and happiness. That is the purest signal.

[dijonman2]

It’s a catch 22 as you could potentially be solving a problem that someone doesn’t even know they have.

The journey of identifying a shortcoming and attempting to address it is a critical part of the product journey.

If you don’t understand what you are solving chances are you won’t be the best at it.