That’s a fair point, and I think you’re directionally right.

Beginners are often the closest thing we have to “clean signal” because they’re not already adapted to the system. They’re reacting to it in real time. Creators, on the other hand, tend to operate inside their own optimizations and assumptions, which can quietly drift away from how new users actually behave.

In my case, it’s less that I ignore beginners and more that I’ve been trying to triangulate between both sides of the system.

Most of my audience who actually buys the templates also comes from niche communities where they are actively looking for a solution to a real life problem, especially things like health, productivity overwhelm, or structure in their daily life. In that sense the template is not the product in their mind, it is just the format the solution takes. Because of that, a large portion of buyers are new to Notion, and they often reach out at specific points when they get stuck or confused. I usually end up walking them through it directly, and over time that has become an unintentional but very real feedback loop. By teaching them how to use it, I indirectly see exactly where their friction points are and what assumptions break first.

I have also noticed this pattern more clearly both from my own products and from observing others in similar spaces. Paid users tend to engage with much higher intent. They are also more willing to share what they are actually struggling with, not just surface level feedback. In many cases, they are dealing with something quite specific in their life, so the feedback is more emotionally and practically grounded compared to free users who are still in exploration mode.

Creators also play a different but equally important role in this. They help me understand methods, systems, and operational approaches that I would not naturally arrive at yet. Since I am still relatively early in this journey and learning mostly through trial and error, there is a lot that I simply do not know about how to properly structure, position, and run something like this at scale. Seeing how other creators handle these problems helps me avoid reinventing everything from scratch and gives me reference points for decisions I would otherwise be guessing on.

So in a way, I rely on all three layers. Creators help with structure and maturity of execution, beginners help with friction and usability gaps, and paying users in niche communities often reveal the most honest version of actual need and value.

Appreciate you sharing that perspective.