✳flâneur — a map of the web's best reading

Building what customers need, not just what they ask for - Linear Blog

linear.app · 927 words · saved by 1 readers

Steve Jobs famously said customers don't know what they want until you show it to them. Henry Ford quipped that people would have asked for faster horses, not automobiles. Yet at Linear, we just built a feature specifically designed to collect customer requests. Seems contradictory, right? It's not. Here's why. Product teams face a fundamental tension. Build only what customers ask for and risk mediocrity. Ignore feedback entirely and risk irrelevance. Every product decision exists within this practical challenge. The most innovative products emerged without explicit customer requests. Nobody asked for the first iPhone, Airbnb, or Figma. These products came from vision and intuition. Meanwhile, the graveyard of failed startups contains countless visionary products nobody wanted. At Linear, we believe the best products come from strong opinions informed by customer reality. Customer feedback serves as the whetstone that sharpens intuition, rather than the source of product vision. Users

Skip to content → Now Practices Building what customers need, not just what they ask for Sagan Schultz · March 04, 2025 Notes from our product team on building the tools we use every day. Steve Jobs famously said customers don’t know what they want until you show it to them. Henry Ford quipped that people would have asked for faster horses, not automobiles. Yet at Linear, we just built a feature specifically designed to collect customer requests. Seems contradictory, right? It’s not. Here’s why. The feedback paradox ⁠ Product teams face a fundamental tension. Build only what customers ask for

Explore this link on the map →

saved by

related reading