Understand Thy Customer

One of the reasons I love this saying from great American entrepreneur Henry Ford,

If I'd have asked them what they wanted, they'd have said a faster horse.

is that great companies have the vision to understand how great products will provide true benefit to their customer.

So as I was staying up late tonight to watch the Beijing Olympics, I happened to catch 2 advertisements from DirecTV regarding NFL Sunday Ticket that showed me they are tuned in to their heavy-usage customer:

1. An edited replay service so that a viewer can watch an entire football game (usually 3 hours) in just 30 minutes
2. The ability to watch 8 games on the screen simultaneously
   

Now these offerings were impressive. Not just providing convenience (time savings) but also capability one wouldn't normally be able to jury-rig on their own!

If I had football in my blood (rather than ice hockey, having grown up in North Dakota) I'd certainly see these as premiums worth convincing the wife we needed in the household...