The inspiration behind this IoT dev kit was a personal annoyance of needing to wire the same basic components for each prototyping project. (Almost every IoT project will need Wi-Fi, maybe Bluetooth, audio for notifications, LEDs for notifications, SD cards for data logging, etc.) Before designing the board, I was able to find 173 ideal buyers in the maker community and created a voting process where they could nominate components/functionality they'd like incorporated on the boards and (much like HN/Reddit) +1/-1 the ideas.
Through their feedback I was able to affirm some of the ideas I already had, but also challenge myself to apply my ideas outside of the scope I had originally envisioned. It was through the voting system where functionality around addressable LEDs (controlling many lights with a single pin), removable jumper pins (being able to re-use the pin of the maker didn't have a need for one of the built-in components), and selectable VIN (toggling between USB and battery power) all came to fruition.
Despite the difference in physical products and software, I think the notion of "listen to your users and seek feedback" holds true.