Although an allegory about evolution, this question applies to our lives in general. For the profit-seeker what comes first, the product or the client? It’s pretty hard to have a functioning product without at least one client using it. But it’s also pretty hard to have a client without a product. That’s the beauty of it, and the beauty of minimum viable products.
We don’t know what comes first, and that’s great!
Did the Chicken, or the Egg come first? Did the Product, or the Client come first? It doesn’t matter.
What matters is doing something with the knowledge that there is a chicken/egg or product/client. In order to come up with a product you have to seek opportunities to improve imaginative client’s lives. In order to have a client you have to have a product to improve their lives. They’re one of the same.
Leave the “what comes first” question to the philosophical fools (no hate, I’m Phil-osophical myself), and start figuring out where to find the chicken/egg, where to find the product/client. Improvements to people’s lives don’t happen because we think long and hard for solutions, improvement happens because we work long and hard for the solutions. Start solving the problem instead of practicing possibilities.