You want the truth about your product?
Do not ask for feedback.Do not run a survey.Do not obsess over your own feature list.
Just listen to what your customers say when they think you are not paying attention.
This week I watched a delegation tour a lab we automated. I stayed off to the side.
No pitch. No demo. No controlling the story.
And that is where the truth always shows up.
The Real Version
The project lead starts talking about Lab Donkey.
Not the marketing version. Not the polished list of features. The real version—shaped by pressure, deadlines, and what actually makes their day easier.
And guess what never comes up first?
The scheduler.
Not because it is bad. Because it is expected. If your automation platform cannot schedule tasks, you are not even in the game.
It is plumbing.
What Actually Matters
Here is what does come up:
1. They can use their instruments while a workflow is running
This feature quietly saves them thousands.
- No duplicate instruments
- No blocked workflows
- No scientists standing around waiting because automation is using the machine
It is freedom. It is efficiency. It is money.
2. Error recovery and the dashboard
This is not UI bragging. This is the category of problems where people say "we would have been in trouble without this."
They have hit real failures, and the system pulled them back from the edge. More than once.
The Moment That Mattered Most
Then the moment that mattered most:
The department director, who has never clicked a single button in Lab Donkey, steps in and explains that same feature to the delegation.
Perfectly. Confidently. With the impact spelled out as if he has been using it for months.
That is when I realised something important:
The real measure of a product is when people who do not even use it can articulate its value without hesitation.
That does not happen by accident. It happens when a product becomes a story inside an organisation.
A shorthand. A thing people rely on so heavily they talk about it for you.
The Truth Every Builder Needs to Hear
Your product is not what you say it is.
It is what your customers repeat.
- To visitors
- To colleagues
- To their leadership
- To entire delegations
If you are smart, you will not talk over those moments. You will listen and write them down.
That is where the real roadmap lives. That is where the real positioning lives. That is where the real value is proven.