Since the second coming of Steve, Apple has transformed from a nearly bankrupt, despised underdog to the biggest digital technology company this side of the Milky Way Galaxy. On this occasion of Apple’s passing up Microsoft in market valuation, I would like to write a series of blog posts detailing some of the lessons we can learn from Apple’s success. I will detail 14 lessons grouped into 3 blog posts, organized by topic. Some cover marketing; some, design; others, dealing with competition. Together, they give a comprehensive picture of how to run a tech company.
My intention is not to focus on imitating Apple in the specifics: I won’t suggest you make all your products white, name your company after a fruit, or put a lowercase i in front of everything. Rather, I aim to distill the lessons of Apple’s success from the specifics of its history, to abstract the principals from what Apple has done so we all can benefit.
This first post focuses on Apple-tips on product design.
#1 Build a product that allows consumers to meet their goals. In his book, About Face, Allen Cooper exhorts designers to do goal-directed design, rather than task-directed or feature-directed design. Design a product that better facilitates users meeting their goals. Apple does this. Many times it left out features that were neat, or even “necessary,” arousing the wrath of the geeks; but they did it in order to better allow users to meet their goals. The designers and evangelists of Android are feature-focused, rather than life-focused or goal-focused. This gives Apple a design advantage.
#2 Create products that cater to “juicy” markets. First, use goal-oriented design. And then find goals that are as universal as possible. Certainly there is a place for “niche-products.” But part of Apple’s success has been in focusing on products usable by everybody. iPhones, iPods, and now iPads have made apple hundreds of millions. Why? Because whether you’re a highschool student, doctor, janitor, or secret agent you could use an iPhone. Apple focuses on meeting common goals (e.g. browsing the internet, sorting photos, email, reading books, listening to music) rather than specialized goals. The bigger and juicer the market is, the more money is to be made. Some PC-users complain that one flaw that Macs have is their non-customizability. But Apple doesn’t care, because most people don’t care about customizability. Better to please millions of average people than a small, crowd of computer engineers. It’s no mistake that Apple’s slogan at one point was “a computer for the rest of us.” You can be a successful niche company. But you might consider the wisdom in designing “for the rest of us” because “the rest of us” have most of the money.
#3 Say no, do less, do it better, and don’t make products that are a grab-bag of features. This goes along with the above two rules. In Rework, Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson of 37signals encourage us to “say no”—say no to neat ideas, neat features, or even features demanded by consumers. Say no when such features might bog down the product and make it more difficult for users to meet their goals. Apple products have often gained notoriety for their simplicity and lack of some “essential” features. Some balked at the original iPod because it lacked things other players had, such as an FM radio. But it didn’t matter. Be better by doing less.
#4 Be artistic. Steve Jobs has often stated that those working at Apple are artists. This doesn’t mean you should create products that are frilly. Rather, it means: create products that are elegant, delightful, that please the user on both the visceral, behavioral, and contemplative levels. Go beyond simply meeting utilitarian goals. This will make your product remarkable. It will make it a “purple cow” (more on this in a later post). It will make it stand out, above the competition. And this will allow you to build a strong brand.
#5 Be more concerned about being the best, than being the first. The MP3 player was patented in 1981 and first released to the public in 1996. The iPod was launched in 2001. But that hasn’t hurt the iPod’s success: to this date 260,000,000 iPods have sold; and the word “iPod” is to “MP3 player” as “Kleenex” is to “tissue.” The iPhone has surpassed all expectations, selling over 50,000,000 units. It was released in 2007 even though cellphones had been around since the ’80s. In the early 2000s Microsoft released its late and unlamented tablet PC line which failed. But today iPads, Apple’s take on the tablet, are selling literally as quickly as they can make them. So don’t be in a rush. Just get it done right.
