Reflecting on Steve Jobs

Today we lost a luminary. Steve Jobs died this afternoon, leaving a hole in the beating heart of Silicon Valley, and a virtually unparalleled legacy in high-tech history.

Steve will be remembered for many things. What I will remember him for is perhaps something...different. He didn't design all these lauded products we covet. He didn't invent all the great technology Apple is known for. What he did do, however, is transform Apple into a product-based company and instill his philosophy of quality and simplicity in the teams that he assembled.

Apple is a great company because they have great internal processes for product development, they exhibit outstanding execution with regard to production and delivery, and they have one of the best marketing teams in the world. Steve Jobs didn't architect or design all of these components, but he recognized the business value of them, hired the right people to get the job done, and invested the required time and effort to get things done right.

Steve Jobs exercised professional discipline. Other business leaders would do well to note that, and not chalk up Apple's success to fortunate sparks of creative genius. Doing so only shows that they don't understand Steve Jobs, his role, or the business principles that make Apple great.

Thank you Steve.

Comments

Building Better Products Using Quantitative & Qualitative Data

Disclosure: This was an internal post I wrote and shared with my colleagues back in 2015. While cleaning out my Confluence space, I came across it and thought that I'd share it with everyone. There is a much more recent and polished post by my good friend Glenn Block on Mind the Product that you can read here: https://www.mindtheproduct.com/2018/01/need-quantitative-qualitative-data/ What Data Is/Not Data cannot compensate for bad design or replace good design, but it can inform designers. Data cannot compensate for listening to actual users, but it can inform the kind of user research we conduct. Data cannot tell us what to build, but it can inform what we should investigate. Example If you can visualize a funnel report where visitors are leaving a buying process during various stages of the journey, quantitative data can give you information about where you may have a problem. In the above example, the quantitative data ( QT ) informs you that 36 pe...

Luck Is Not The Answer

As the 2011 season of the National Football League approaches, so does the rabid anticipation of its parasitic counterpart; fantasy football. Anyone who knows me knows that I love football (not fútbol); particularly the NFL . I grew up a dedicated Patriots fan and have since become more of a fan of the game itself rather than just a New England loyalist. I tend to keep up with NFL news throughout the year, and regularly download the Rich Eisen Podcast for listening during my morning commute. Rich's guest on the most recent episode was Michael Fabiano, the resident fantasy football expert at NFL.com. At one point during the podcast, Rich and Mike were exchanging viewpoints on what constitutes being an expert and how no matter how much of an expert you are, you need to be lucky to win a fantasy league. A similar sentiment was expressed during a 2010 podcast by one of the guests (I forget whom); that it's all luck and you can't really predict anything. I take exception t...

Why Have a Product Strategy?

About two weeks ago, I attended my first event hosted by the Silicon Valley Product Manager's Association (SVMPA). The main speaker was Barbara Nelson, a consultant for Pragmatic Marketing who gave a presentation entitled " Why Have a Strategy ?" What follows are some takeaways from that presentation. One would think that by now, most organizations would know precisely why a strategy is necessary. When I say organization, I don't just mean high-tech companies, as many in the valley naturally assume. This applies to all organizations; large, small, corporate, non-profit, etc. Think about it for a moment. Think of all the activities that your organization is engaged in. Are they strategically aligned to accomplish a goal? What is the strategy? Is there even a goal or a vision in place? A 2006 study titled " Making Strategy Execution a Competitive Advantage " showed that only just over half (54%) of companies surveyed have a strategic execution proces...

Product Matters

Search This Blog