[js8]

Don't wait for feedback from "real users", become a user!

This tayloristic idea (which has now reincarnated in "design thinking") that you can observe someone doing a job and then decide better than them what they need is ridiculous and should die.

Good products are built by the people who use the thing themselves. Doesn't mean though that choosing good features (product design and engineering) isn't a skill in itself.

[bluGill]

Too often that isn't possible. There is a lot of domain knowledge in making a widget there is a lot of domain knowledge in doing a job. when e complex job needs a complex widget often there isn't enough overlap to be experts in both.

sure 'everyone' drives so you can be a domain expert in cars. However not everyone can be an astronaught - rockets are complex enough to need more people than astronaughts and so most people designing spaceships will never have the opportunity to use one.

[baxtr]

I find that this argument is used too often to refrain from using your own product.

Yes you're right not anyone can be a domain expert. But anyone in the company needs to at least try to use the product as much as possible.

I worked in companies where even the CEO had never used the product but was telling us what to implement.

[js8]

I am not asking anybody to be an expert in both (although I am sure such people exist, however rare); I am saying people should ideally have some skill in both. Also, people can collaborate, and learn new skills.

If you're bottle-necked by waiting for the users of your product to give a feedback, you clearly need to spend more time learning how to be a user yourself. Or hire people with some domain skill who can also code.