Talking to users is one of the most important activities. Since volumes have been written about how to do it effectively I will not try to re-explain it here.

A lot less has been written about just how harmful it can be when done incorrectly.

One of the main problems is that, as harsh as it may sound, not everyone’s opinion is equally relevant.

Listening to an accountant when building a profit and loss statement is obvious. But there are better people to talk to when looking for advice about routing algorithms.

Similarly, the company CEO won’t mention the same problems as the warehouse managers. And if you are building a product for warehouse management, you need to listen more to the warehouse manager.

Similarly, not all investor advice is created equal either. Advice from an investor with experience in your niche is much more relevant than advice from a career banker.

Talking to the wrong people leads you towards building the wrong thing

Not only does this mean that you would waste time working on the incorrect thing, but you might also ruin parts of what you already have that are good.

To mitigate this, you need to talk to customers correctly and to the correct customers. And then you need to back up anything they say with data.