As a product designer, is the goal of the design to appeal to the audience?

It sounds like a stupid question, but I think there are different ways to answer it. Of course, as a designer one of the first things you do when planning a design brief is to look at your audience. Once you define your audience and shape your design with that information, the goal is to appeal in some sort of way.

This article raises and interesting point saying that taste is objective and depends on person to person. With that being said I feel like it’s quite impossible to please everyone with a design and that you can establish a goal outside of ‘pleasing the audience’. I often think the best designs are the ones that do the exact opposite to the audience because instead of catering to the audience they break some rules, and make the audience feel differently with their designs. It might be a smart move for a product designer to steer away from the traditional path. They’ll create interest and stand out from everything else. It’s risky, but may be worth it in the end.