How to Build a Product People Actually Want

Amazon didn't kill retail. Bad customer service did. Netflix didn't kill Blockbuster. Ridiculous late fees did. Uber didn't kill the taxis. Lack of access and fare control did. Airbnb didn't kill hotels. Limited availability and pricing options did.

You can build a brilliant product or offer. You can write the cleanest code, design the slickest brand, or spend months perfecting the details. But if people don’t want what you're building or worse, can’t use it, you’ll still struggle to grow. Building a great business starts with a great product and ends with deep understanding of the people it’s built for.

You Can’t Build a Great Product Without Talking to People

No matter how innovative your idea is, customer connection is non-negotiable, especially in the early days. It’s tempting to skip this part. Founders often want to focus on launch plans, growth hacks, or flashy PR moments. But none of this will save you if your product doesn’t work for real people.

The most sustainable growth starts with deep, ongoing conversations with your users. So ask them:

• When it comes to this problem, what’s the hardest part for you?

• Have you tried anything else to solve this? What worked? What didn’t?

• Can you walk me through how you use my product?

• If we could take one thing off your plate, what would you want it to be?

  
  

These answers can guide everything from your product roadmap to your marketing copy.

Pro Tip: Don’t overthink the process. Just start a real conversation. You don’t need a polished survey or a formal interview. And remember, your goal isn’t to sell them on your idea. It’s to listen.

Build Trust Before You Build Hype

Early growth isn’t about going viral. It’s about building relationships and listening to your customers. You can run ads, get press, and create buzz, but if your product doesn’t solve a real problem for real people, that momentum won’t last. On the flip side, when you take the time to earn trust early on, your users become your advocates. They give honest feedback, they stick with you through the bumps, and they tell others why you’re worth believing in. Organic growth—powered by real value and word-of-mouth—is more sustainable, more defensible, and more forgiving when things go wrong.

And trust us, things will go wrong. The site will crash. A feature will break. A customer might post a public complaint. But when you’ve invested in building a genuine connection with your users they’re far more likely to give you the benefit of the doubt. It’s about being real, responsive, and committed to getting better. That’s how trust is built and that’s how businesses grow.

Start Simple. Learn Fast. Improve Constantly.

One of the biggest traps early-stage founders fall into is perfectionism. You want to get it right. You want your product, service, or offer to be flawless before anyone sees it. But waiting until everything is “perfect” is often just another form of fear. If you spend too much time trying to get everything just right behind the scenes, you miss your most valuable resource– real feedback from real people. Your product doesn’t need to be perfect, just useful enough to launch, listen, and improve.

The best way to build something people actually want? Get it out there, then learn in public. Iterate based on how people use it, not how you imagined they would. Here's how:

• Watch how people use your product

• Pay attention to where they get stuck

• Make small improvements each week

• Keep talking to your users

  
  

The goal isn’t to get everything right up front. The goal is to keep making it better.

Still Not Getting Traction?

If growth is stalled and excitement is fading, don’t assume you need better marketing or another course on scaling.

Start by going back to your users.

If people aren’t sticking around, it’s worth asking if what you’ve built truly solves the problem they came to you with. And the only way to fix that is by understanding what your customers actually need. So before you obsess over your next social post, go talk to someone who’s used your product, or someone who decided not to.

The answer you need is probably waiting in that conversation.