Listening to users is essential to avoid building products no one wants, but overemphasizing user feedback can lead to a bloated, unfocused product. Successful companies strike a balance by aligning user feedback with their core vision.
For instance, Basecamp focused on its main product despite customer demands for additional features, resulting in long-term success. Brex chose to prioritize startups over SMBs, sticking to its vision even at the cost of losing paying customers. Apple removed the headphone jack from iPhones, a controversial move that ultimately set industry trends.
The key is to listen to the "why" behind user requests, but remain opinionated about the "what" to ensure the product stays true to its vision while addressing real user problems.
Discussion (1)
This is exactly Product Management 101. You can’t take your users advice literally, it always backfires. When you end up listening to them (which I have seen my peers do) the original requester of a feature almost never users the feature, and neither does anyone else.
People are bad at telling you what to build, but they are good at complaining. So it’s your job to figure out how to cut through the noise and understand hoe to creatively solve or win over an audience or customer.