“When we’re trying to understand our ‘users’ and ‘customers,’ we have to remember that they’re people just like us, and just like us they regularly cross understood boundaries and categories… People are inconsistent, often inarticulate, and they challenge social and cultural boundaries in unexpected ways.” - Subject to Change by Peter Merholz, Brandon Schauer, David Verba, and Todd Wilkens
Subject to Change by four great folks at Adaptive Path is a fabulous look at customer experience and how focusing on it can transform companies. I highly recommend it!

Good Layout and design. I like your blog. I just added your RSS feed to my Google News Reader. .
Jason Rakowski
The beast way to understand ‘users’ and ‘customers’ is to realize they aren’t users or customers. They are partners in a mutual success story. If the people who choose your products / services are wed to your success b/c it enables their own, great things will happen. Shut up, listen to them, and act accordingly.
Thanks, Jason! Sorry for the delay in getting your comment up - It got trapped in my spam filter.
Chris - Great point!