THE KEYS TO CREATING GREAT PRODUCTS: KEEP IT SIMPLE, SELL DREAMS, CREATE INSANELY GREAT EXPERIENCES, AND DELIVER THE MESSAGE

One thing we've learned from Apple over the years: Roll out a limited product and expand it later.

When Steve Jobs unveiled the iPhone in January 2007, he famously described it as being a combination of just three things.

“It’s a widescreen iPod, a revolutionary phone, and a breakthrough Internet communicator.”

Though every journalist and Apple enthusiast in the audience (myself included) was won over by Jobs’s masterful presentation, by the time we stepped into the light of day, glaring holes were evident in the iPhone. Why didn’t it have 3G data? Where was real support for corporate email? And why couldn’t you write real applications for it?

On closer examination, it seemed Apple had blundered in its product strategy. Most famously, CBS MarketWatch’s John Dvorak claimed that Apple should cancel the iPhone before it shipped even one unit. How could a device with this many missing pieces ever succeed?

We know the rest of the iPhone story. Over the next four years, Apple has systematically added every single feature that it left out of the original iPhone while moving 129 million units. This slow and steady rollout of new features has been so successful that few remember that the App Store, now a central piece of the iPhone’s appeal and marketing campaigns, was not included in the original product.

What the media took for missing features or technical incompetence was actually a series of strategic choices that Apple made to scale down from all of the possible things a smartphone technically could do to the handful of things that the iPhone could do better than any other product on the market--media playback, visual voicemail, and multitouch web browsing.

Just Because You Can Eoesn’t Mean You Should.

There is no more exciting or rewarding activity a technology company can tackle than the development and launch of a new technology platform. There is also, however, no strategic move as risky. All too many new platforms, particularly in the technology industry, die out with their very first, unsuccessful product. It is therefore incumbent on great leaders to figure out what to include in that first product and what to leave out.

Oddly enough, seemingly under-powered and narrowly focused technology platforms tend to outperform their more broadly aimed peers.

• The Nintendo Wii dramatically outsold powerhouses like the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 for years. 
• The Amazon Kindle is the market leader in e-readers. 
• The original Flip handheld video camera began outselling much more full-featured camcorders shortly after its launch. 
• Apple’s “big iPhone that can’t make phone calls,” 
• The iPad, quickly seized more than 80 percent of the share in a tablet category that also includes devices capable of running all of Windows.

In technology, simple beats complicated in almost every case. Apple’s disciplined approach to product development with the iPhone is a textbook example for how to launch new technologies strategically.

Why Do So Many Companies Give In To The Lure Of More?

Despite the astounding success of the iPhone, many companies choose to launch new technologies in a fashion that is diametrically opposed to it. Somewhere along the line, the idea takes hold that releasing a product that tries to do everything, even if it doesn’t do many of them well, is the best way to drive growth.

It is the desire to leave options open that ironically closes down options for many otherwise promising technologies. Companies fear that their new offerings will be labeled one-trick ponies if they carry too much focus. Yet trying to be known for too many things at the outset is likely to earn you the distinction of being a no-trick pony.

Research in Motion has, unfortunately, demonstrated precisely how not to launch a new platform with its PlayBook tablet. What could have constituted the future of the company will be remembered as a fiasco. Announced in the fall of 2010, the PlayBook was positioned as a more business-oriented competitive response to Apple’s iPad. RIM executives proudly touted the many features it possessed that Apple’s offering lacked:

• Cameras 
• Adobe Flash compatibility 
• Multitasking 
• Support for business tools like Microsoft Office.

RIM’s devotion to outdoing the iPad in both consumer and business functionality led RIM to try to do too much, leaving dozens of critical features half-baked. Worse, by the time it shipped, Apple had added to the iPad the most important of the features RIM promised in the PlayBook. While the PlayBook is still technically on the market--as of this writing--it has failed to so much as make a dent in iPad sales. Sprint even canceled its plans to carry the device shortly after launch.

Launch With A Focused Product, Then Extend It.

When launching a new technology, it’s far better to constrain the capabilities of your big new idea--even if it’s an artificial constraint--than it is to over-promise and under-deliver. Being selective about features at the outset does not rule out later functionality or prospective customers.

The original iPhone was a very limited product--it only did three things. But it was built on top of iOS, a technology platform whose potential is still just beginning to be realized. Big platforms grow from little, focused products. Even if the geeks of the world think otherwise.

Pete Mortensen has a particular talent for articulating and expressing social, design, and business questions, and finding the answers. A journalist by training, he has written and edited for numerous publications, including Wired, BusinessWeek, Design Mind, Spin, Huffington Post, and the Windsor Times. He is a lead blogger for Wired’s Cult of Mac. Pete is also the co-author ofWired to Care, a critically acclaimed book about the connection between empathy and business growth. Pete holds a dual bachelor’s degree in journalism and English literature from Northwestern University.

COMMENTARY:    When I Carmine Gallo's book The Innovation Secrets of Steve Jobs: Insanely Different Principles for Breakthrough Success, I finally found the DNA, roadmap or keys to success in designing simple, beautiful and elegant products that truly enhance our lives.  

The Seven Principles inspired by Steve Jobs include:

1. Do What You Love: Think differently about your career.
2. Put a Dent in the Universe: Think differently about your vision.
3. Kick Start Your Brain: Think differently about how you think.
4. Sell Dreams, Not Products: Think differently about your customers.
5. Say No to 1,000 Things: Think differently about design.
6. Create Insanely Great Experiences: Think differently about your brand experience.
7. Master the Message. Think differently about your story.

Of the above seven, the three that jumped out at me, the ones I felt were the most revelent when it comes to designing new products were:

• Sell Dreams, Not Products:  Think differently about your customers.
• Say No to 1,000 Things:  Think differently about design.
• Create Insanely Great Experiences:  Think differently about your brand experience.

The above three have been the crucible or common demoninator in all of Apple's products.  Steve does not start out to create new products, but to create experiences.  

Apple has had a reputation for creating simple, beautiful and elegant products that as the above article points out, do not 

In technology, simple beats complicated everytime, so "Saying No to 1,000 Things" has always been Steve's product design mantra.  The minimalist approach to product design is what excites Steve Jobs.  The message is clear:  simple is better and less is more.  

If you look at all of Apple's products they have few or no buttons, dials or toggle switches.  Steve is an "intiuitive" product designer.  He designs products that you can use intuitively right out of the box. The graphical interface of the Mac, the multi-touch screen of the iPhone and iPad, the multi-function wheel of the original iPod are all great examples.  Reducing the number of user actions or steps is tantamount to this minimalist product design philosophy. 

Steve Job doesn't like to emphasize design when it comes to new products, but how the products work.  Steve is always looking for ways to be better before finally calling a product great.  Here's a video that explains this philosophy:

  

Steve Jobs is great at articulating how he wants a product to work, but its Jonathan Ive, Apple's chief product designer, and acclaimed "King of Design" who is entrusted with the job of actually designing the finished product.  In this video, Mr. Ive explains his product design philosophy:

 

My fourth favorite innovation secret of Steve Jobs is "Master the Message."  Steve Jobs new product launch presentations are legendary.  He speaks in short sentences, carefully choosing his words, uses few words and preferring to use graphics and bullet points projected onto a background screen.  He always speaks in adjectives that stick with you, "beautiful", "wonderful", "re-invent", "powerful", "revolutionary", "breakthrough", "game-changing", "elegant", "beautiful", "sexy", "magical".   Anticipation is raised to a fever pitch.

As has been pointed out, the initial product, isn't perfect, as has been the case with the Mac, iPod, iPhone, and iPad.  But, Steve Jobs is a master salesman.  He always closes the sale.   He does such a splendid job of emphasizing what the product is great at, how it works and will enhance and improve your life, that you forget the shortcomings of the product.   After the presentation is done, the media rushes out to tell the world what a great product Steve Jobs just dreamed up.  

Let's look at Steve Jobs during the original iPhone product launch delivering The Message:

  

It's a given that Apple products will be simple, beautiful and elegant and completely intuitive, but Steve prefers not to sell the product, but to show you how the product works and can change and enrich your life, and while he is doing this create an insanely great experience.  And there is no more perfect setting to do this than the Apple Store.  

In a blog post dated August 28, 2011, I profiled the Apple Stores.  Apple Stores do not have any salespeople, but Apple Geniuses who smile and his whose main job is to answer your questions and cater to your every need.  The stores are monoliths of modern design, large, well lit, super sleek, contemporary, and Apple products are beautifully displayed in long wooden tables. Customers are allowed to play or try out any Apple product for as long as they wish.  This is all window dressing for creating insanely great experiences.  The feeling is pure joy and magical. Apple Geniuses are salaried, not paid on commission. There is no hard sell.  In the end, the customers sell themselves.       

Courtesy of an article dated October 4, 2011 appearing in Fast Company Design

 

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