Many business owners are justifiably proud of their products or services and invest great amounts of effort and time in them, often with a program of enhancements and improvements.
Fewer of them consistently check that what they are providing is a good match to the customer’s requirement.
“Build it and they will come” is a mantra often quoted when people analyse early-stage businesses where a product or service is created without thorough market testing and analysis and is often regarded as a red flag by potential investors.
Building a product or service without market research is not always a failure – famously Henry Ford created the Model-T in the belief that if he had asked what people wanted, the answer would have been a faster horse. In a similar vein you could look at the Iphone creating the market for smartphones.
For the rest of us it really does not matter what you think of the quality of your product or service. What matters is what the market thinks.
If you are not checking the market perception you could be the next Steve Jobs or Henry Ford but it is more likely you are misdirecting your efforts!