January 15, 2012 at 15:12Guy Kawasaki: What I Learned from Steve Jobs
- Transfer
There are many publications explaining what you can learn from Steve Jobs, but few of the people who wrote them were “in the same boat” and learned from personal experience what it was like to work with him. I want no lesson I have learned to be lost or forgotten, so these are the 12 most important things I learned from Steve Jobs.
Experts - journalists, analysts, consultants, bankers and gurus are not able to do , so they advise . They may say what is wrong with your product, but they will never create the perfect product themselves. They can tell how to sell something, but they cannot sell it. They will tell you how to create an excellent team, but they themselves can only manage a secretary. For example, experts told us that the two biggest drawbacks of the Macintosh in 1980 were the lack of a driver for a chamomile printer (a printer that works similar to a typewriter, now such printers are almost never used, approx. Transl. ) And lotus-1-2-3 (the product has been displaced from the MS Excel market, approx.); Another great suggestion from experts was to buy Compaq. Listen to what the experts say, but don't always obey them.
Apple Market Research is an oxymoron. The only focus group Apple used was a conversation between Steve’s right brain and the left. If you ask customers what they need, they will say: “better, faster and cheaper” - and this is an improvement in the existing, not a revolution in the market. Customers can describe their desires only within the framework of existing products that they use: for example, at the time the Macintosh appeared, everyone said that they want faster and cheaper computers on MS-DOS. The bonanza for technical startups lies in creating a product that you yourself want to use, and this is exactly what Jobs and Wozniak did.
Big wins happen when you go beyond improving an existing one. The best companies that produced daisy printers offered new fonts and new character sizes, Apple proposed the next round - a laser printer. Think about ice-making (in the mid-19th century, ice-making was carried out on an industrial scale, then it was replaced by new technologies of artificial cooling, approx. Transl. ), Ice-making factories and refrigerators. Ice 1.0, 2.0, 3.0. Do you still make ice from the pond in winter?
I lived in fear that Steve would tell me that I or what I was doing was shit. In public. This fear was a very difficult task for me. Compete with IBM and, subsequently, with Microsoft was a very difficult task. Changing the world was a very difficult task. Apple employees and I worked to the fullest before and after me, because we had to give all our best to solve big problems.
Steve drove people crazy with his quibbles to design - for example, some shades of black were not black enough. Ordinary mortals think that black is black and that the trash can is the trash can. Steve was an Absolute, Beyond Perfectionist - and, lo and behold, he was right: for some people, good design is important, and many at least feel it. Maybe not all, but those on whom something depends - for sure.
Take a look at Steve's presentation slides. The font size is 60 units. Usually there is only one large screenshot or picture on a slide. Look at the slides of ordinary speakers, even those who saw Steve speak. Font - 8 units and no pictures. While a lot of people say that Steve made the best product presentations in the world ... isn't it strange that so few people copy his style?
When Apple first introduced the iPhone to the world, there was no concept of Apps. Steve decided that third-party applications are bad, because you cannot know for sure what they do with your phone. The only solution was web applications for Safari, until after six months Steve came to the conclusion (or someone convinced him) that applications are the right way. Of course! Ha! And Apple in a short time goes a long way from Safari web applications to “there is an iPhone application for everything in the world” (“there's an app for that” - the slogan of the iPhone advertising campaign in the USA, approx. Transl. ).
Woe to you, if you choose, focusing only on price. Even more woe to you if you compete only in price. Price is far from all that matters, what really matters is value, at least for many people. And value is formed from training, support and inner joy from using the best tool of all available. We can say with confidence that no one is buying Apple products because it has a low price.
In fact, Steve believed that class A players (the most professional and responsible employees, approx. Transl. ) Take class A players into the team - that is, the same as themselves. I tweaked this statement a little bit - in my theory, Class A players should hire people who are more professional than themselves. However, it is clear that class B players will recruit class C players, and so on. If you are starting to recruit Level B employees, expect what happens in your company for what Steve called the “idiographic explosion.” (bozo explosion - the rapid increase in the number of incompetent employees, approx. transl. ).
Steve Jobs could give presentations of iPods, iPads, iPhones or Macs to a multimillion-dollar audience two or three times a year, why do many CEOs ask their production directors to speak at product presentations? Maybe to show what the product does the team? May be. But most likely, the CEO does not understand what his company is doing well enough to explain it at the presentation. Agree, it looks pathetic?
Despite all his perfectionism, Steve created finished products. Maybe the product was not perfect every time, but almost always it was pretty cool. The lesson here is that Steve did not create for the sake of creation - he had a goal: achieving world domination in existing markets or creating new ones. Apple is a manufacturing company, not a research center. Who would you like to be - Apple or Xerox PARC (Xerox research center that developed many new technologies for Apple and other companies, in particular laser printing and graphical interface, laptop, ethernet and OOP, approx. Transl. )
Imagine a 2 x 2 matrix. The vertical axis shows the difference between your product and competitors. The horizontal axis measures the value of your product in the eyes of the consumer. Bottom right corner: valuable, but not unique - you compete in price. Top left: unique, but not valuable - you will conquer a market that does not exist. Lower left: not unique and not valuable - you are an idiot. Top right: unique value - this is where you make money and make history. For example, the unique value of an iPod in the USA was that it was the only way to legally, inexpensively and easily download music from the 6 largest record labels.
If you move to new rounds, argue with experts, set great tasks, are obsessed with design and focus on unique value, then in order for your work to bear fruit, you will have to make people believe in what you are doing. People had to believe in a Macintosh to create it. The same can be said for the iPod, iPhone and iPad. Not everyone will believe - this is normal. But a change in the world begins with a change in the views of several people. This is the most important lesson Steve Jobs gave me.
1. Experts do not know what to do
Experts - journalists, analysts, consultants, bankers and gurus are not able to do , so they advise . They may say what is wrong with your product, but they will never create the perfect product themselves. They can tell how to sell something, but they cannot sell it. They will tell you how to create an excellent team, but they themselves can only manage a secretary. For example, experts told us that the two biggest drawbacks of the Macintosh in 1980 were the lack of a driver for a chamomile printer (a printer that works similar to a typewriter, now such printers are almost never used, approx. Transl. ) And lotus-1-2-3 (the product has been displaced from the MS Excel market, approx.); Another great suggestion from experts was to buy Compaq. Listen to what the experts say, but don't always obey them.
2. Customers will not tell you what they need.
Apple Market Research is an oxymoron. The only focus group Apple used was a conversation between Steve’s right brain and the left. If you ask customers what they need, they will say: “better, faster and cheaper” - and this is an improvement in the existing, not a revolution in the market. Customers can describe their desires only within the framework of existing products that they use: for example, at the time the Macintosh appeared, everyone said that they want faster and cheaper computers on MS-DOS. The bonanza for technical startups lies in creating a product that you yourself want to use, and this is exactly what Jobs and Wozniak did.
3. Go to the next round
Big wins happen when you go beyond improving an existing one. The best companies that produced daisy printers offered new fonts and new character sizes, Apple proposed the next round - a laser printer. Think about ice-making (in the mid-19th century, ice-making was carried out on an industrial scale, then it was replaced by new technologies of artificial cooling, approx. Transl. ), Ice-making factories and refrigerators. Ice 1.0, 2.0, 3.0. Do you still make ice from the pond in winter?
4. Large and complex tasks produce the best results.
I lived in fear that Steve would tell me that I or what I was doing was shit. In public. This fear was a very difficult task for me. Compete with IBM and, subsequently, with Microsoft was a very difficult task. Changing the world was a very difficult task. Apple employees and I worked to the fullest before and after me, because we had to give all our best to solve big problems.
5. Design matters
Steve drove people crazy with his quibbles to design - for example, some shades of black were not black enough. Ordinary mortals think that black is black and that the trash can is the trash can. Steve was an Absolute, Beyond Perfectionist - and, lo and behold, he was right: for some people, good design is important, and many at least feel it. Maybe not all, but those on whom something depends - for sure.
6. Large pictures and fonts cannot be a mistake.
Take a look at Steve's presentation slides. The font size is 60 units. Usually there is only one large screenshot or picture on a slide. Look at the slides of ordinary speakers, even those who saw Steve speak. Font - 8 units and no pictures. While a lot of people say that Steve made the best product presentations in the world ... isn't it strange that so few people copy his style?
7. The ability to change one’s point of view is a sign of intelligence
When Apple first introduced the iPhone to the world, there was no concept of Apps. Steve decided that third-party applications are bad, because you cannot know for sure what they do with your phone. The only solution was web applications for Safari, until after six months Steve came to the conclusion (or someone convinced him) that applications are the right way. Of course! Ha! And Apple in a short time goes a long way from Safari web applications to “there is an iPhone application for everything in the world” (“there's an app for that” - the slogan of the iPhone advertising campaign in the USA, approx. Transl. ).
8. “Value” is not the same as “price”
Woe to you, if you choose, focusing only on price. Even more woe to you if you compete only in price. Price is far from all that matters, what really matters is value, at least for many people. And value is formed from training, support and inner joy from using the best tool of all available. We can say with confidence that no one is buying Apple products because it has a low price.
9. Class A Players Hire Class A + Players
In fact, Steve believed that class A players (the most professional and responsible employees, approx. Transl. ) Take class A players into the team - that is, the same as themselves. I tweaked this statement a little bit - in my theory, Class A players should hire people who are more professional than themselves. However, it is clear that class B players will recruit class C players, and so on. If you are starting to recruit Level B employees, expect what happens in your company for what Steve called the “idiographic explosion.” (bozo explosion - the rapid increase in the number of incompetent employees, approx. transl. ).
10. Real CEOs do demos
Steve Jobs could give presentations of iPods, iPads, iPhones or Macs to a multimillion-dollar audience two or three times a year, why do many CEOs ask their production directors to speak at product presentations? Maybe to show what the product does the team? May be. But most likely, the CEO does not understand what his company is doing well enough to explain it at the presentation. Agree, it looks pathetic?
11. Real CEOs release a product
Despite all his perfectionism, Steve created finished products. Maybe the product was not perfect every time, but almost always it was pretty cool. The lesson here is that Steve did not create for the sake of creation - he had a goal: achieving world domination in existing markets or creating new ones. Apple is a manufacturing company, not a research center. Who would you like to be - Apple or Xerox PARC (Xerox research center that developed many new technologies for Apple and other companies, in particular laser printing and graphical interface, laptop, ethernet and OOP, approx. Transl. )
12. The goal of marketing is to offer unique value.
Imagine a 2 x 2 matrix. The vertical axis shows the difference between your product and competitors. The horizontal axis measures the value of your product in the eyes of the consumer. Bottom right corner: valuable, but not unique - you compete in price. Top left: unique, but not valuable - you will conquer a market that does not exist. Lower left: not unique and not valuable - you are an idiot. Top right: unique value - this is where you make money and make history. For example, the unique value of an iPod in the USA was that it was the only way to legally, inexpensively and easily download music from the 6 largest record labels.
Bonus To see some things, you need to believe in them.
If you move to new rounds, argue with experts, set great tasks, are obsessed with design and focus on unique value, then in order for your work to bear fruit, you will have to make people believe in what you are doing. People had to believe in a Macintosh to create it. The same can be said for the iPod, iPhone and iPad. Not everyone will believe - this is normal. But a change in the world begins with a change in the views of several people. This is the most important lesson Steve Jobs gave me.