The most innovative and productive companies I’ve worked with had something in common: employees used the company’s products because they wanted to.

That willingness to use the product tells me more about a company than the size of its budget.

A company can hire excellent people and have a convincing plan for the future. But neither guarantees that anyone there will choose the product when they have a choice.

So when I think about what helps a company come up with useful improvements, one of the first things I’d look at is whether its employees choose to use what they’re building.