Sales is this cure all for this problem. Get people to give you their credit card and I guarantee you they're actually interested.

Recording interviews is like magic. a) It stops you from taking notes in the middle and b) you can play that recording for people.

You have this idea that you think is awesome. You want to have that broadest group you possibly can. You don't want to just talk to 1 type of person and learn that, you want to get familiar with the space.

You want to learn about what's already in their heads. You want to avoid putting things there.

People who are using your product and putting up with all these issues, means that they are not actually the biggest problems.

This is true for most new products. The majority of people you're competing with are non-users. They are people who have never used your service before. And what they say is actually the most important. What they say is the thing that blocks you from expanding the size of your market with your features.

Most startups are not just built for the person who is using them. When you do that, every now and then you get really lucky and... are representative of some huge class of people who all want the same thing you do... but very often that just turns into a side project that doesn't go anywhere.