Ford on Customer Centricity

This quote from Henry Ford is famous, but I think it's worth elaborating on it:

"If I'd asked my customers what they wanted, they'd have said a faster horse."

The quote succinctly and powerfully makes the point that customer-centricity is not just about blindly delivering what customers say they want. In the end, regardless of what customers may ask you to do, they want you to solve their problems. A skilled product manager will help you get beyond customer requests, understand the core problems they face, and define what it means to solve them.

Enthiosys's Luke Hohmann makes a similar point.

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