Do people know what they want, or should we create products that we want?

There's no right or wrong answer but to me, it's a bit of both. Did anyone know they wanted to get into strangers cars for rides? no. But they definitely did want on-demand ride services. It's really a constant cycle of making assumptions and testing it. Rather than focusing on what people want, I think it's more identifying a problem that people have (the more the better). Find a way to reach people that want that problem solved. Build a solution for that problem. Then focus on what they want :) Just my .02.

1. It takes a lot of empathy to understand what people want. 2. It takes a lot of brutal self reflection to understand that what you want may not be what "people" want. 3. If you're starting from scratch, (ie, 0 users on day 1) by definition you can't rely on user feedback. So you have to trust your gut, empathize and do some self reflection. 4. Most importantly: Building is better than thinking.

Two sides of the same coin.

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You can ask the challenges they face but not what product

I think this could be a combination of both. People might (or might not) know what they want, but not know about how to use a product that services what they need. So in a way, it can be up to us to create something the general public wants/ needs.

People dont know what they want, but they know that there is a problem that needs a solution.