You need to do those coffee dates and relationship building to figure out what (other) people want, so it's not even far removed from the philosophy you quote.

You need to do those coffee dates and relationship building to figure out what (other) people want, so it's not even far removed from the philosophy you quote. Yeah, it's _ideal_ if you're your own customer and you have this intuitive knowledge of the product, but that's actually less common (and needn't be common either). As a tech person, I don't find it slimy (at least, anymore). On the pure tech front, it's a process of finding requirements, which flows into the this whole business conversation side of things. For example, if you view building a business that people want as a challenge, those requirements will vary from place to place and time to time, so finding that out is super important! Interestingly, I've always viewed the Indian business environment as one that requires a lot more relationship building than (say) a place like the valley, but this article seems to imply that the UAE probably views us the same way I view the US ecosystem...