I've watched this pattern repeat over and over—and it almost always ends badly. Teams get tunnel vision on shipping features. They're convinced: once we drop X, everything changes.

But here's the thing: communities don't work that way. While you're head-down building, sentiment is quietly dying. The buzz fades. People stop talking. Momentum shifts from "when" to "if." And then when you finally ship? Nobody's around to care.

Meantime the token bleeds. Not because the product is bad—because the culture already moved on. You spent all your energy on the roadmap and zero on keeping people engaged.