I caught up with a founder working on an early version of his product. It doesn’t currently exist in the market. And he’s not sure that the pain point is big enough to justify the product. He’s been focused on getting it in the hands of users and converting them to paying customers. But today he shared a new approach with me. He now realizes that feedback is more valuable than revenue at this point. Feedback will help him understand whether he’s going in the right direction and help him fine-tune the product. He’s decided to give the product away for free (for now) in hopes of acquiring more users so he can get more feedback.

I like this founder’s approach of prioritizing feedback over revenue. For his situation, it makes sense. I suspect the feedback he receives will lead to valuable insights.

Customer feedback is important. It helps you understand what your customers want, which is key to the success of any company. If you never listen to your customers, you’ll never be in tune with them.

If you’re building a company or thinking of doing so, consider incorporating customer feedback into your decision-making early. If you do, customers are likely to thank you with dollars!