Jun 3, 2025

The moment you stop building for yourself

Great products don’t come from genius. They come from listening.

Adam Martelletti

Adam Martelletti

2 min read

We Thought We Knew What People Wanted

When we started building eazysites, we were solving our own problem.

We’d built 50+ sites across different industries.

We knew the pain.

We knew the tools.

We knew the gaps.

So we assumed: We know what to build.

Here’s what happened next:

  • We designed onboarding based on what made sense to us

  • We added features we liked using

  • We structured the dashboard like we’d want it

And guess what?

Nobody used it the way we expected.


That’s the Moment It Clicks

We watched real users try to navigate.

They hovered.

They clicked around.

They got stuck.

And they asked questions like:

“Wait… what do I do next?”

“What happens if I click this?”

“Why is this even here?”

That’s the moment we stopped building for ourselves.


The Shift: From “I Like This” → “They Need This”

Here’s the brutal truth:

Your opinion as the founder doesn’t matter.

If users don’t get it, it’s wrong.

If they don’t use it, it’s wasted.

If they’re confused, it’s broken.

So we started asking better questions:

  • “What’s one thing that would make this easier?”

  • “Where did you hesitate?”

  • “What did you expect to happen here?”

The answers were painful.

But they were gold.


The Feedback Flywheel

We built a simple loop:

  1. Ship something fast

  2. Watch real people use it

  3. Listen to the pain

  4. Strip out what isn’t working

  5. Repeat

That loop changed everything.

Now, when we design something, we ask:

“Would they love this?”

“Or are we just being clever?”


The Founder Ego Trap

It’s easy to think you’re the visionary.

But true vision is humble.

The best products aren’t built from the top down.

They’re built from the outside in.

And that starts with shutting up, watching, and listening.


What We Changed (Because of Users)

This month alone, we’ve:

  • Rewritten the homepage copy 3 times based on where users dropped off

  • Removed a full layout feature no one touched

  • Changed our onboarding CTA from “Start Now” to “Launch My Site” — and conversions jumped

The smallest tweaks have the biggest impact when they come from real users.


Your Takeaway

You’re not your user.

What feels clear to you might be chaos to them.

So here’s a challenge:

  • Watch one person use your product

  • Don’t speak

  • Just take notes

That 10-minute session will teach you more than 10 hours of brainstorming.