What drives the development roadmap?

Ryan gives the best answers.

I would argue the initial premise is false. Roadmaps and development should not be primarily driven by user requests. This is a common misconception on how great products are developed and particularly meaningful change in a product lifecycle occurs.

User feedback is one input, it’s a signal on where to explore, but user driven development doesn’t generally yield the best results. Instead, gathering many signals across a variety of inputs creates a foundation for exploration of opportunities.

Users are fickle. And you often only get direct feedback from louder voices. I prefer a user informed over user driven approach. Obsidian is blessed by an active community providing lots of feedback, but I wouldn’t want progress prioritized by that feedback.

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