We all know a lot about Apple products, how well they are designed, how well they work together, how nice the stores are, etc.
I'm wondering, how much of that is corporate culture (sort of built-in, native talent) and how much of that is explicitly thought out. We don't get to see the inner workings of Apple but we see the results. Based on that, can we infer that they have a detailed game plan they follow or is this the result of a lot of smart people making good day to day decisions?
If it is an explicit game plan, then it seems another company could learn how to do this and adapt that plan for their own business and resources.
In the 90s Apple was chaotic. There were all sorts of models, some barely different from each other. Even after Steve first returned there was still a lot of individuality in the products. Somewhere along the line, maybe after the stores opened, Apple looks a lot more cohesive. I had a sense that all the parts were working together like Swiss watch.
Some small facts stick out. In one keynote Steve mentioned that some 85% of the population of the US lived within 5 miles of an Apple store (I may have the numbers wrong). Something like that doesn't happen by chance. They had a marketing group figure out how to get the maximum exposure for the stores.
When they think about a new product do they have some elaborate mind map worked out that they follow to figure out pricing, size, weight, etc.? Do they have anthropologists and psychologists on the design team to give them outlines about how people perceive the world so they know not to make something too big, too small, etc. or do they rely on the talent of Jonathan Ives and his team?
Most of the design teams I've worked with, except one, have been amazingly casual and pretty much left to their own devices. I'm kind of in awe how Apple (whether you like their products or not) seems to have worked out how to make a science of their whole business.
Thoughts?
I'm wondering, how much of that is corporate culture (sort of built-in, native talent) and how much of that is explicitly thought out. We don't get to see the inner workings of Apple but we see the results. Based on that, can we infer that they have a detailed game plan they follow or is this the result of a lot of smart people making good day to day decisions?
If it is an explicit game plan, then it seems another company could learn how to do this and adapt that plan for their own business and resources.
In the 90s Apple was chaotic. There were all sorts of models, some barely different from each other. Even after Steve first returned there was still a lot of individuality in the products. Somewhere along the line, maybe after the stores opened, Apple looks a lot more cohesive. I had a sense that all the parts were working together like Swiss watch.
Some small facts stick out. In one keynote Steve mentioned that some 85% of the population of the US lived within 5 miles of an Apple store (I may have the numbers wrong). Something like that doesn't happen by chance. They had a marketing group figure out how to get the maximum exposure for the stores.
When they think about a new product do they have some elaborate mind map worked out that they follow to figure out pricing, size, weight, etc.? Do they have anthropologists and psychologists on the design team to give them outlines about how people perceive the world so they know not to make something too big, too small, etc. or do they rely on the talent of Jonathan Ives and his team?
Most of the design teams I've worked with, except one, have been amazingly casual and pretty much left to their own devices. I'm kind of in awe how Apple (whether you like their products or not) seems to have worked out how to make a science of their whole business.
Thoughts?
