Today I sat with commanders and soldiers.

No deck. No pitch. No feature roadmap.

Just observing. Listening. Watching how they actually operate.

Where do they need backup—human or technological?

What surprised me most wasn’t the tech insight.

It was how critical their internal relationships are.

Trust, dynamics, subtle communication—those make or break their ability to use the system well.

It reminded me of something we all say—but rarely do:

In early-stage products, your job isn’t just to optimize features.

It’s to understand humans.

Before data, before NPS, before churn analytics—

You need to see your user.

Sit with them. Don’t interview. Don’t interrupt.

Just observe. Be human. Let the friction reveal itself.

In a world chasing AI precision, human intuition still wins in early discovery.

When’s the last time you just watched your user—without selling, without coding, without measuring?