So it is Friday night and you have nothing to do. Your friends are out of town and you are tired of watching the same reruns of “Cops” on TV. As the millions of options start to churn in your brain, you start to think to yourself, “you know, everyone at work has been talking about how great that show ‘Breaking Bad’ is and I feel like I have really been missing out. Perhaps it is time to join that conversation..” Or maybe instead you think, “I haven’t seen James Bond’s Skyfall and I heard that is the best Bond yet because I heard it starts the whole Bond saga over again!” You turn on your laptop (or cellphone!) and you log onto the website of streaming giant Netflix. Night solved.

The Los Gatos based company certainly hasn’t had the most meteoric rise to the top and it hasn’t always made the smartest business decisions (raising prices, separating DVD rentals and streaming businesses) but it has consistently delivered an excellent product of streaming thousands of movies and TV. Features such as the large library of films and TV shows rewards many benefits of convenience alone but that do the product complete justice.

It is important, however to weigh out what the product does (features) vs. what benefits it has to offer. Most importantly the feature of streaming itself is game changing. It is a constantly updated feed based on your past experiences with the product as well as new and fresh content gathered from movie and television rights. On the surface, though, when you log into Netflix what do you see? Is it the easy scrolling ability and category based display or is it the more tailored recommendations based on your previous viewings of programs that draw your eye giving it a more curated personal touch? Either way, these features of the Netflix product offer incredible benefits to the user. Features such as the large film and TV archive offer the benefit of convenience and choice. Recommendations (feature) based on previous viewings give the user direction (benefit). Finally the product of Netflix itself avoids costly cable bills every month.

While the user experience is essential in the success of the product, how dare we forget about their original programming? Netflix is now competing with huge cable channels for viewership as there could be a couple of potential future emmy winners with their shows like “House of Cards” or “Orange is the New Black”! And bless them for bringing back the far too short lived show of “Arrested Development”. The product of their original programming alone is a key ingredient for the company’s continued growth.

All in all, Netflix is taking the online media market by storm. They have literally thousands of different directions they can go. Whether they want to bank on their own programming to take them to the top or rather they simply offer a greater selection of Films and TV shows, there is simply no stopping the media giant. Who knows, perhaps they could even compete with Youtube and let users submit their own film and TV submissions??

Patrick Meeker does not work for or represent any individuals from Netflix Inc. He is an aspiring product manager enrolled in the Product Management course at GA under Thor Muller. He knows a good product when he sees it but also has an unhealthy addiction to his television. You can follow him on twitter @PatrickMeeker or subscribe to his Podcast at phattym.podbean.com