Steve Jobs

The Master of Innovation

By Katherine Radeka
A personal note
Steve Jobs: The Master of Innovation
When I rst read Allen Wards description of the Toyota shusa or Chief Engineer, Steve Jobs was the person who came to mind. He
seemed to have a deep, intuitive understanding of customer needs, especially the needs of people whose brains were not naturally
suited to computerization. I had seen how Macs worked better for people like construction workers and artists. The user interface
was easier to gure out, and things just didnt go wrong as often. Even more than ease-of-use, Apples iMacs and iPods seemed
friendlier - more personal. Only geeks loved PCs, but anyone could love a Mac.
He also seemed to have a deep understanding of the possibilities of computer technology. I have read that Steve Jobs himself did
not invent much of the technology - but he knew what people would want to do with it. The iPod was someone elses idea, but Jobs
developed a business model for that product that went far beyond the original idea.
Jobs was no process expert. He left the details of manufacturing to trusted lieutenants, who outsourced most of it. But he kept the
critical design work in-house and famously retained veto power over the smallest of decisions.
He recognized that products have ecosystems - and built ground-breaking partnerships with music labels and other content providers
to create the ecosystems his products needed to thrive. At the same time, he put the customer rst and Apple second. These third
party providers were often frustrated with the rules that Apple established for these ecosystems, and the way that Apple would allow
third parties to ourish for awhile, and then take over part of the market for themselves.
During Apples struggles in the 1990s, many detractors said that Apple should not build integrated systems of hardware and
proprietary software. The Windows PC model, which split responsibility for hardware and software between different companies with
open interface standards, led to the creation of hundreds of PC manufacturers, all marketing Windows PCs. That model created a lot
of wealth for people like Michael Dell, in addition to Bill Gates and Andy Groves.
But it didnt lead to the iPod or the wave of innovation that followed. When Apple retained control over the entire user experience, it
gave Steve Jobs and his developers the raw materials to reinvent the way we work with computers. The iPod, the iPhone and the iPad
all emerged from an integrated view of the customer experience.
Further he clearly had the ability to develop and drive a decision for these products. People describe over and over about how Jobs
got involved in the details of the design decisions. He could recognize which details were important to fulll the vision - and which
ones should be left out. For me, that is the true mark of a Master: a person who knows what not to do. Too many products get
overloaded with too much stuff as they mature. Apples products seemed to get simpler and more intuitive rather than cluttered.
Of course, the results he got were phenomenal. When I wrote my MBA paper, Apple was being left for dead, with less than 7% market
share. In 1997, Michael Dell told the Gartner Symposium that hed shut it down and give the money back to the shareholders. This
year, Macs have 12.9%, growing 20% a year, while their rivals are declining. Meanwhile, the iPad captures 68% of the tablet market,
the iPhone has 30% of the smart phone market and Apple has overtaken Microsoft and Intel in market capitalization.
Steve Jobs
The Master of Innovation

2011 Whittier Consulting Group, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
A Personal Note

This Knowledge Brief reects the observations of a passionate outside observer. I never met Steve Jobs, and I only know one person
who works at Apple (distantly). But I have been following his work for over thirty years. The rst time I touched a computer,
it was an Apple IIe. I went to Reed College, the place Steve Jobs famously dropped out of after one semester - but hung around
long enough to get the importance of proportional fonts in a calligraphy class. Our labs were lled with Macs and even a few
NeXT workstations. I worked my way through college helping a local construction company computerize its operations - on
Macs. I then went to work for two companies in the PC camp, and learned to live with Windows. But I co-wrote a term paper for
a strategy class in my MBA program that outlined the reasons why Apple was not as dead as it seemed in 1996, right before Steve
Jobs rejoined the company. Eight years later, I bought a PowerBook - the week I decided to start my own company. I dont know
enough about how Apple develops its products to comment on how lean they are - but I experience the products themselves as
embodiments of the denition of lean: systematically solve problems to maximize (value - waste) across the entire system.
Steve Jobs Contribution to the Field of Innovation
I dont know enough about Apples development process to hold them up as a model. But I do know enough about Apples products
and peoples relationships to them to call out some of the things that I think they are doing right and that we can emulate.
Have Courage: it takes courage to stay in a business that people are telling you to exit. It takes courage to remove features
(telephone modems, DVD/CD players) that people expect to make a product better. So many companies play it safe with
their products, and stick themselves on a treadmill of increased performance / new features that lead to less differentiation from
competitors and ultimately commoditization. A Mac was many things to many people, but it was never a commodity.
Give Customers What They Need: Not what they tell you they want. Guy Kawasaki, a former Apple evangelist says, Dont
listen to your customers. This is too extreme, and if thats true at Apple, I would argue that it worked for them because their
developers, including Steve himself, were good proxies for their target customers. Thats not true for most product developers.
Instead, the lesson to take away is that customers know what they want - but not what they need. To nd out what they need,
product developers go to the Gemba, and put themselves into their customers environments. When they talk to customers,
they should never ask What do they want? - they should ask instead, What does the product do for them? How well does it
integrate with the rest of their lives? Where is the waste in the customers value stream?
Eliminate Waste in the Customers Value Stream: I never heard anyone at Apple mention lean or waste, while they have
relentlessly driven waste out of the customers value stream. Apple highlighted this in a set of Im a Mac / Im a PC commercials
that showed how the experience of setting up, using and maintaining a Mac was easier and faster, dramatizing the harried PC user
vs. the relaxed Mac user. iTunes eliminates the waste of shopping at a music store or waiting for an online CD purchase. Time
Machine (the back-up software included with a Mac) requires ve minutes to set up, and then completely eliminates worries about
lost or corrupted les.
Take Care of Users, Especially New Ones: For many years, Apple mice had only one button. Its research showed that new users
had difculty with 2 button mice: they often hit the wrong button, causing the computer to do something unexpected. When
something happens that a new user doesnt expect, he can get completely confused and lose condence in his ability to use the
computer. Apple saw that as a problem, and put a countermeasure in place to x it. Today, the iPad is easy enough for my sixty-
ve year old mother-in-law to use. Its opened up the world of the Internet to her for the rst time.
Pay Attention to the Details of Design: Features and benets appeal to the rational side of the mind. But thats not enough. As
my friend Alan Weiss says, logic makes people think but emotion makes them act. Apples products appeal to our emotions
through their design: their color, their texture, the layout of the screen, the way they feel in our hands.
Build Ecosystems, Not Just Products: The iPod was revolutionary not because of its physical form, but because it came with an
entire ecosystem. Through iTunes, a person could upload their entire existing music library, purchase new music, subscribe to
podcasts, and share with their friends. The iPhones App Store provides a home for thousands of third-party extensions. These
ecosystems have rules: apps must be tested and comply with guidelines. iTunes music comes with digital rights management.
Some people chafe against these restrictions, but the rules help make the ecosystem safe for music labels, artists, and end users
who dont have to worry about downloading dangerous Trojan Horses to their phones.
The Legacy of Steve Jobs: Inspiring Innovation Mastery
Steve Jobs was a uniquely masterful individual when it came to innovative product development. How can you incorporate a little
bit more of the spirit of innovation mastery into your own work?
Ask yourself how well you truly understand the customer experience, and the core value that people get from
your products. How can you deepen your ability to understand what customers need - not what they want?
Ask yourself how well you support new users. How easy is it to learn how to use your products well? What can
go wrong? What happens when they get confused? How can you mitigate the consequences?
Where is the waste in your customers value streams and how can you eliminate it?
Ask yourself if there are some simple things you can do to make your product more enjoyable to use. How
important is design to your customers? Where would a little more attention to look-and-feel make a difference?
What ecosystem(s) is your product a part of? What is its ecological niche? How can you make it t even
better into its niche? What could you add to the ecosystem? What ecosystems do you need to create?
Ask yourself where you can be more courageous about your approach to your products or your engineering
work. Could the spirit of Steve Jobs help you nd a little more courage?

www.whittierconsulting.com
e!erences. Poppehdieck, Mary. Leah So!Iware DevelopmehI: ah Agile 1oolkiI.
Addisoh-Wessley, 2003, pp.1-13
In our list of activities, a few items are always waste status meetinqs, siqnoffs, supplier neqotiations, sales materials The act of
preparinq the business case has some elements that create value (customer research, and others that dont (preparinq a snazzy pre
sentation for the board of directors, The activities that contribute directly to product delivery reouirements dennition, innova
tion, desiqn, toolinq add value to the extent that they either qenerate or utilize our best available lnowledqe about the customer,
the marlet, technoloqy and process capabilities
No one claims that all waste can or should be eliminated lven Chno recoqnized that some waste is necessary waste Im not suq
qestinq that a team eliminate the step of preparinq the business case entirely As a shareholder, that due diliqence has value to me
lowever, a lean orqanization aclnowledqes that the customer doesnt care about the sales forecast or how many siqnatures it tool
to qet the fundinq for a pilot release A lean orqanization streamlines those processes as much as possible
5ome WasIe is Necessary
Common IndicaIors o! WasIe in ProducI DeveIopmenI
I! you're goihg ouI Io look !or wasIe ih producI developmehI, here are some Ihihgs Io look !or:
The vasIe o! reinvenIion. Leah producI developmehI Ieams appreciaIe Ihe value o! khowledge, ahd ehsures IhaI iIs
khowledge is easy Io capIure, easy Io !hd ahd always used Io make decisiohs.
The vasIe o! excess requiremenIs. Leah producI developmehI Ieams recoghize IhaI every exIra !eaIure musI be desighed,
produced, maihIaihed ahd supporIed - ahd cusIomers pay Ihe price ih greaIer complexiIy ahd greaIer risk o! !ailure.
The vasIe o! overIoaded resources. Leah producI developmehI Ieams khow IhaI overloadihg resources makes Ihem slower
ahd less !exible, ahd IhaI Iask-swiIchihg cosIs ehgiheers valuable Iime.
The vasIe o! Ihrov-avay design. Leah producI developmehI Ieams sIrive Io uhdersIahd ahd Iheh mahage Iheir desighs
as ah ihIegraIed sysIem, so IhaI Ihey cah !ocus ihhovaIioh oh areas IhaI improve Ihe markeI per!ormahce o! Iheir ehIire
porI!olio o! producIs.
The vasIe o! ine!!ecIive risk managemenI. Leah producI developmehI Ieams ackhowledge Ihe uhcer-
IaihIy ih producI developmehI, ahd develop plahs Io mahage iI.
The vasIe o! vaIer!aII deveIopmenI. Leah producI developmehI Ieams do work wheh iI makes
Ihe mosI sehse Io do iI, raIher Ihah allowihg rigid processes or orgahizaIiohal bouhdaries Io
dicIaIe work!ow.
The vasIe o! unproducIive meeIings. Leah producI developmehI Ieams value Iheir Iime, ahd use good
meeIihg mahagemehI Io spehd Ihe Iime Ihey have IogeIher !or solvihg problems or makihg decisiohs.
WasIe mahi!esIs iIsel! ih oIher ways ih producI developmehI, buI Ihese Iehd Io be Ihe heavy-hiIIers,
ahd Ihey are a good place Io sIarI lookihg. Lveh small chahges here cah have a big impacI.
A NoIe o! CauIion
Its not always easy to lnow whether or not a qiven activity is value creatinq, necessary waste or unnecessary waste We cannot rely
upon descriptions of waste that we nnd in lean Manufacturinq quidebools
keworl is a qood example In manufacturinq, reworl is almost always an indicator of unnecessary waste lut the principle of continu
ous improvement assumes that a lean Manufacturinq qroup will constantly reworl their processes and toolinq to eliminate waste and
improve now The product desiqn has much more in common with the manufacturinq process than it does with the product itself
A few hours of reworl to incorporate new lnowledqe into a desiqn can create value Some reworl, such as correctinq calculation er
rors, is wasteful Sometimes reworl can have ripple effects that cancel out the potential value lean product development teams can see
the difference between reworl that creates value, and reworl that does not They lnow how to avoid the wasteful lind of reworl, and
how to use the valuable lind as a tool to deliver more value than a sinqle pass desiqn process can deliver
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