It's true that market understanding and research are important for all businesses, what I mean is asking for specific requirements from your customers and desig

It's true that market understanding and research are important for all businesses, what I mean is asking for specific requirements from your customers and designing around those is less useful. That's probably less true however if you're selling something to a market of serious hobbyists who treat the hobby like a second job because they have probably spent a lot of time thinking about the problems with current products. On the other hand, if you asked me which features are important for a dishwasher I'd be unlikely to give you useful answers because I don't spend much time thinking about dishwashers. Another factor is that fashion is a bigger deal in the consumer space, if your product is associated with "cool" people will buy it regardless of whether it solves a real problem.