Stop Asking for Feedback: The Better Metric Every Founder Should Track

Photo by Katt Galvan on Unsplash

Your users will lie to you.

Not maliciously — they don’t know what they actually want. Here’s the one metric that tells you the truth.

I’ll never forget the moment I realized customer feedback was a trap.

I had just finished a dozen user interviews for a project management tool I was building. I asked the same question to everyone: “Would you use this? What features would make you switch from your current tool?”

The responses were incredible. Enthusiastic, even.

“This is exactly what we need!”

“I’d definitely pay for this.”

“When can I sign up?”

I felt like I was sitting on a goldmine.

Three months later, I launched.

I emailed all 12 of those enthusiastic interviewees with early access. How many signed up?

Two.

And of those two, one never logged in again after the first day. The other used it twice and then ghosted.

That’s when I learned the most painful lesson in entrepreneurship: People are terrible at predicting their own behavior. They’ll tell you what they think…