Users Don't Actually Want to Build Your Product

Your users don’t actually want to define your product.

The build-in-public movement goes against this - asking for feedback on every feature, and requesting input from users on what to build next.

Users will tell you they want to be involved, and say they want to look behind the scenes. It is an impulse driven by the need for instant gratification. Human intuition is naturally driven to remove any uncertainty, even at the expense of the feeling of surprise and delight.

As a company, it is tempting to respond to users to satisfy their immediate desire, but disclosing everything and engaging them in your process takes away the power to create magic in the unexpected.

Emotions are triggered and expressed differently when they are not primed - they display more raw and authentic responses, and are often more powerful.

It is similar to an audience asking for what happens in a movie before watching it. We call the content of what we disclose “spoilers” for a reason.

Keeping a distance from your users creates a space for imagination, and a healthy tension between a passive trust in your process and an active excitement for it to reveal itself.

In a fast paced world in which we all have a tendency to want to move from one thing to the next as quickly as possible, leaving room for the unknown helps sustain attention and engagement.

Leaving users out of your product development process also has other benefits: you can tune into your intuition better without the noise, narrow your focus without competing priorities, and avoid creating artificial expectations you can’t meet.

The truth is: your users buy your products because they trust you to know what they want and need better than they do. Otherwise, they would be doing it.