Decision December Week 2: Customer Signal vs Noise
Building What Customers Truly Value at OpenSource DB
At OpenSource DB, we believe product direction should never be shaped by assumptions, internal opinions, or hypothetical enterprise needs. It should come directly from the people who rely on us every day, our customers.
As Harikiran always says, “The strongest roadmap is the one written by real users, not wish lists.”
This week’s theme reflects exactly that: Customer Signal vs Noise.
Beyond Feature Requests: Validating Real Problems
Teams often receive long lists of “feature requests,” but most of these are downstream symptoms, not the actual problems customers face.
In Week 2, we focused on shifting from a feature mindset to a problem validation mindset.
Instead of asking:
❌ “What feature do you want?”
we now ask:
✅ “What problem is slowing you down today?”
This approach has helped us uncover deeper needs across automation, observability, and operational efficiency in PostgreSQL environments.
Where the Strongest Signals Are Coming From
Through tuning and migration engagements with our customers, we’re collecting clear, consistent signals. These are the areas where users are repeatedly investing and where our product direction for 2026 is becoming sharply focused.
1️⃣ Multi Cloud Postgres Control Plane
Customers want a single view and control experience across regions, providers, and architectures. Fragmented cloud operations are becoming expensive and error prone, and the demand for unified automation is growing rapidly.
2️⃣ Performance Optimization and Observability
Slow queries, index drift, and poor visibility remain the biggest operational pain points. PostgreSQL teams want deeper insights, actionable recommendations, and automation that reduces manual tuning.
3️⃣ Automation Led Managed Services
Customers consistently seek solutions that reduce repeated operational overhead.
The strongest signals point towards automation in:
- PITR and backup validation
- Bloat management
- HA verification
- Failover readiness
- Security and compliance checks
These aren’t “nice to have” features, they’re business critical.
Validating Across the Ecosystem
We’re not shaping the 2026 strategy alone. Partnerships with global leaders such as Aiven, pgEdge, CYBERTEC, DigitalOcean, Reforms21 and others are helping us validate these signals across industries and regions.
The goal is clear: eliminate noise and prioritize direction backed by real ARR driving use cases.
The 2026 Roadmap: Grounded in Reality
Our 2026 roadmap isn’t a wishlist.
It’s a reflection of what paying customers are actively asking for, investing in, and long-term relying on.
The foundation of the 2026 roadmap:
✔ Customer validated automation
✔ Multi cloud native operations
✔ Deep Postgres intelligence
✔ Repeatable, scalable services
✔ Real adoption metrics, not hypothetical enterprise desires
We are building for the customers who trust OpenSource DB today so we can serve them even better tomorrow.
Closing Thoughts from Harikiran
Harikiran often reminds the team:
“Every successful product starts by listening closely to the smallest signal and having the discipline to ignore the loudest noise.”
Week 2 reaffirmed that mission.
At OpenSource DB, the future we’re building for 2026 and beyond is grounded in clarity, validated by customers, and aligned with where the real demand is strongest.