I often find myself balancing the desire to create content I enjoy with the need to engage with my audience and meet their expectations. I take a lot from the fact that I witnessed many user and creator interviews at Patreon, which helps me understand how users relate to a product. Many people don't know what they want, but their expressed desires indicate underlying problems in user experience that need addressing.

Listening to users is crucial, but you also need to use judgment to decide which parts of the product to invest in based on their feedback.

I do a lot of outreach to ask my audience what they want to see, but I don't treat their feedback as direct requests. Instead, I use polls and social media to gauge interest, while also considering that only a small percentage of my audience engages with me there.

We prioritize understanding our audience's needs over our own assumptions, which helps us create content that genuinely resonates with them.

When creating content, I focus on audience retention and constantly calculate how many viewers might tune out during a video.

It's essential to have a guiding North Star for content strategy, focusing on what the audience truly needs and how to deliver it effectively.

When building open-source software, it's crucial to listen to your core audience who are already using your product and love what you're doing, rather than getting distracted by outside feedback.

I trust my instincts about what my viewers want, as I know them better than anyone else.

I used to study YouTube analytics intensely, but now I focus on creating content that resonates with viewers rather than getting caught up in algorithm changes.