Keeping track of what is going on in the world outside of your project is important. It allows you to get a feel for where the world is going and what users are expecting and anticipating.
Learning from what competitors do and implement and what their users ask for or complain about can indirectly work as feedback for you.
Keeping an eye on what is going on in the standards organizations for things that are related to your project is another way to "put your ear to the ground". It gives you a sense of what people are working on and hope to see use for going forward.
Creating surveys and forms for users and fans to fill in and answer, can be yet another way for you to learn what people want and where they think the world is going. You probably do not want to move your project in a direction that is not aligned with the world and your users.