Deciding how much influence users should have on product development is complex, as user feedback is essential for creating a product that aligns with customer needs, yet it must be balanced with strategic goals. Making a product roadmap public can enhance transparency and trust, especially for B2B companies, but it also exposes strategic plans to competitors. Alternatives like public feature request boards can engage users without fully revealing strategies. Gathering user feedback through various channels, including surveys, interviews, and analytics, helps validate product strategies and align them with user expectations. Effective feedback management involves segmenting users to prioritize insights from valuable user groups, such as power users, while avoiding feature creep. Tools like impact-effort matrices can assist in prioritizing features that align with the overall vision and capabilities of the development team, ensuring that user feedback is integrated thoughtfully into the product development process.