It’s widely accepted that the two most important things a startup needs to get right are building a great product and talking to users.

As a technical founder, building has always come naturally to me. Talking to users? Not so much.

Especially in the early days, it’s easy to get stuck. When you don’t have users yet, it’s not clear who you’re supposed to talk to. Do you cold DM strangers? Ask your friends? What do you even say?

So, like many engineers, I defaulted to what I knew best: writing code. I convinced myself that if I just built something great enough, users would come—and then I could talk to them.

But over time, I realized that not talking to users was holding us back. I now believe that if a startup doesn’t have at least one person consistently talking to users, you’re ngmi.

If you’re still unsure how to start, I highly recommend this talk from YC’s Gustaf Alströmer on How To Talk To Users. It’s a fantastic primer.

In this post, though, I want to go deeper. I’ll share some of the misconceptions I had about talking to users—and the surprising benefits I’ve discovered from doing it consistently.

Misconception I — Talking to users means talking to your users.

One of the biggest misconceptions I had was that "talking to users" meant only engaging with those who were already using our product. But that’s not the case. The essence of this practice is identifying and understanding the people you're building for. Whether you're targeting startup founders, B2B businesses, or another niche, you need to connect with those specific groups. They don't have to be your customers yet. The goal is to get insights from your ideal customer profile and refine your product based on their needs.

Misconception II — Talking to users means getting feedback on your product.

It's tempting to jump straight to product feedback, especially when you already have something to show. But the real value in talking to users isn't just about collecting comments on your latest feature. It's about immersing yourself in the problem space. When you deeply understand the challenges your target users face—like why payroll or tax compliance is such a pain point for startup founders—you gain insights that go beyond what a demo could reveal. This means falling in love with the problem itself and exploring how it impacts their daily lives. It's about understanding their world before you even bring your solution into the picture.

One of my favourite examples of this is Carta. Engineers often confuse them as just a spreadsheet SaaS, whereas I humourously like to describe them as a legal firm. This explains why building an open-source Carta is somewhat laughable; the real value of the product is not the spreadsheet but the value-added service.

The below are some of the benefits I started to experience from constantly talking to users.

Users will help you understand value creation. This is especially important for B2B SaaS.

In the world of B2B SaaS, understanding how you create value for your customers can sometimes feel like a guessing game. While some verticals might have clear, straightforward metrics—like cost savings or revenue generation—others require a deeper dive to uncover the true impact of your solution. By engaging in conversations with users, you gain a nuanced understanding of how your product fits into their workflows and the specific pain points it addresses. This insight is invaluable when it comes to pricing and positioning your product in the market. It helps ensure that you're not just building features, but delivering tangible value that resonates with your audience.

Users will help you understand their problems at a much deeper level.

As technical founders, we often get caught up in the intricacies of our code, APIs, and system designs. This technical perspective, while valuable, can sometimes obscure our view of the broader problem space. By engaging in open-ended conversations with users, we can break out of this narrow mindset and gain insights that we might otherwise miss. These conversations allow us to latch onto nuances and subtleties of the problems our users face daily. It's about going down the rabbit hole of their experiences to uncover insights that no one else is tracking. This deeper understanding can illuminate new opportunities and guide the evolution of our product in ways that purely technical thinking cannot.

As a corollary to the above, users will open you up to new opportunities.

By diving deep into users' problem spaces, we often uncover unexpected opportunities that weren't part of our initial thesis. These moments of discovery are some of the most rewarding aspects of talking to users. They can lead to new features, entirely new products, or even shifts in our business model. It's like exploring the unknown unknowns, and there's something truly beautiful about that, especially for early-stage founders who are still shaping their vision.

Users help you think about your business and value proposition more deeply.

Talking to users has pushed me to rethink the questions I ask about my business and its value proposition. It's easy to assume we know the right questions, but engaging with users reveals which questions truly matter. Often, the answers we thought were profound turn out to be obvious, prompting us to refine our approach. This iterative process of honing in on the right questions and seeking deeper insights has sharpened my ability to explore and define our value proposition. It's a skill that has proven invaluable for navigating the complexities of startup life.

Users will lie, but it’s okay. Your job is to seek the truth.

It might sound humorous, but it’s true—users can and do lie, intentionally or not. As a founder, your role isn't to take their words at face value, but to seek the underlying truth. Through open-ended conversations and careful listening, you can discern when feedback is genuine and when it's a reflection of something else—like politeness, or a misunderstanding of their own needs. This rigorous pursuit of truth ensures that when you do ship your product, you're not blindsided by unexpected reactions. It helps you navigate the fine line between what users say they want and what they actually need.

These have been my own learnings, and I’m eager to hear how other startup founders navigate this space. Whether you're a technical founder like me or a software engineer looking to start a company, I hope this piece resonates with you. It's been a rewarding journey, and I’m curious to learn from your experiences as well. Thanks for reading!