Here is a good reminder from B. Prendergast to “stop asking users what they want—and start watching what they do.”

Asking people what they want is one of the most natural instincts in product work. Surveys, interviews, and feature wish lists feel accessible, social, and collaborative. They open channels to understand and empathise with the user base. They help teams feel closer to the people they serve. For teams under pressure, a stack of opinions can feel like solid data.

But this breaks when we compare what users say to what they actually do (say-do gap).

We all want to present ourselves a certain way. We want to seem more competent than confused (social desirability bias). Our memories can be fuzzy, especially about routine tasks (recall bias). Standards for what feels “easy” or “intuitive” can vary wildly between people (reference bias).

And of course, as soon as we start to ask users to imagine what they’d want, they’ll solve based on their personal experiences—which might be the right solution for them, but might not be for other users in the same situation.

Prendergast goes on to suggest “watch what people do, measure what matters, and use what they say to add context.” This approach involves watching user interactions, analyzing real behaviors through analytics, and treating feature requests as signals of underlying problems to uncover genuine needs. Prioritizing decisions based on observed patterns and desired outcomes leads to more effective solutions than relying on user opinions alone.