I am going to have a new boss in a few weeks so I need to give him mad props (not to be confused with mad skills) before it is seen like I would kissing up if I gave him mad props. Ken Norton recently detailed when you should listen to users. I like the emphasis not just on the type of user but when you should listen to them. I would like to mash his thoughts together with a great presentation given by Adam Bosworth at a salesforce.com conference. If you combine these thoughts into a sort of “quick reactions to feedback from the right customers at the right time” I think you have a good healthy attack plan for building a business. The one thing I think Adam misses is the importance of the top level vision. Salesforce was trying to provide CRM capabilities to small and medium size businesses. The had a top level vision which I think is critical. This shouldn’t be confused with the 5 year plan that Adam derides. This vision represents more of a “we are going here…at least until I learn differently, then we will go somewhere else” kind of vision. If everybody isn’t trying to build the same thing (within a particular product) you end up with a mess.