Generally, you develop a product that solves a problem people have, are aware they have, have taken steps to solve, and failed to reach the desired state. I.E:

Generally, you develop a product that solves a problem people have, are aware they have, have taken steps to solve, and failed to reach the desired state. I.E: the talking generally happens before building, and that's how you know what to building. One case in which you don't need that is whenever you are the target segment and you know exactly what's missing and you can build it, but even then, you talk with people to slightly generalize the product and not hard code it to your exact workflow. Reach out to your target segment. Explore more channels (in person as well). Figure out problems and budgets.