In this post I’ll wrap up my blog posts on lessons from Apple with three more general lessons and the final, fundamental lesson.

#11    Get a vision of the future. Because iSteve and Apple are intensely focused on user needs, they are able to discern current technologies’ failings and weaknesses in meeting those needs. Thus they can see how technology needs to change in order for users’ needs to be better met. By having a laser-beam focus on user goals, they gain a vision of the future. That’s why they’re never caught by surprise; instead of being the victims of “unpredictable” history, they make and shape the history of technology.

#12    Define the rules of the game; lead, don’t follow. Once you have a vision of the future, you can make it happen. Today, Apple is defining and moulding the shape of the computer industry. It’s calling the shots. It has gained control of the direction, which it can turn in whichever direction it pleases. Everyone else is just reacting. And as all the iPod killers have shown, reacting to a leading company that has a vision is a very unenviable position.

#13    Drive your niche/industry in to higher dimensions where your consumers’ goals are increasingly well-met. If you do this, people will take notice. You will be a big deal. And people will keep buying your products. And you will always be ahead. Your forward progress should not be more features, cooler graphics, or faster processors merely; instead, your progress forward should consist of your consumers meeting their goals better, faster, more easily, and with greater delight, satisfaction, and happiness.

#14    But the most fundamental lesson of Apple is: focus intensely on creating the best, most artistic, and delightful product to help consumers meet their goals. Don’t focus primarily on advertising or money. Those shouldn’t be your passion. Steve Jobs doesn’t live in a sprawling mansion with a gate around it. He lives in a neighborhood with no gate and has a nice but not sprawling house, living relatively modestly. This is because he doesn’t care so much about money as simply creating great products for human beings. Although Apple’s near demise in the ’80s at the hands of Microsoft seemed to indicate the triumph of Machiavellian business sense over creativity, today the pendulum has swung. The chess board has flipped around. The shoe’s on the other foot. So focus first on satisfying customers and second on the business side of things. Steve Ballmer says “developers, developers, developers.” Google says “users, users, users.” But you should say “goals, goals, goals.” Just to focus on the “user” is too general, vague, nebulous. Focus instead on the user’s goals.

— Josh

This entry was posted on Friday, July 16th, 2010 at 11:54 am and is filed under iPhone App Marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.