[wting]

To add on to ethbr0's good response, a few other things to do:

1. Find early adopters of the thing you're building who are willing to use and give feedback (bugs, friction logs) in the early stages of the feature.

2. Build relationships with your users / VIP users and meet regularly to discuss friction points and upcoming features (feasibility, etc). To make it time efficient, make sure you're talking to staff engineers who can speak on behalf of a significant portion of your user base. Make sure your team is closing the feedback loop with these engineers (i.e. shipping things that address their concerns) in a timely fashion.