Thanks, Steve.
October 8th, 2011This is my little tribute to the mind behind the world’s most innovative, visionary technology company. We’ll miss you, Steve. You have inspired many of us to “think different”.
My journey led me to grad school in 2007 to scratch an itch that I could no longer ignore. I was compelled by questions like: How do you design products that positively impact people’s lives? How do you create amazing customer experiences? How are great ideas and innovations conceived? How do you get people to love your brand?
Apple has answered these questions time and again, and in the process has raised the bar on what customers expect when they put their hard-earned money on the line. Apple has done this not just in the realm of consumer electronics, but for product design and brand building across the board. And Steve showed us how this can be done in a cohesive framework like no one else.
Since graduating from CMU’s MPD program, I’ve advocated for better design, user experience, and strategy in product development. I came across a good interview with Steve Jobs from Fortune Magazine that sheds some light on the secret sauce that makes Apple products the objects of envy for millions.
Fortune: What has always distinguished the products of the companies you’ve led is the design aesthetic. Is your obsession with design an inborn instinct or what?
Steve: We don’t have good language to talk about this kind of thing. In most people’s vocabularies, design means veneer. It’s interior decorating. It’s the fabric of the curtains and the sofa. But to me, nothing could be further from the meaning of design. Design is the fundamental soul of a man-made creation that ends up expressing itself in successive outer layers of the product or service… This is what customers pay us for–to sweat all these details so it’s easy and pleasant for them to use our computers.
I agree with him and with Robert Fabricant’s insightful article describing how design is much more than mere aesthetics. It’s about having a deep understanding of your end user’s needs and wants and allowing these to manifest in a breakthrough product.
Not only that, but “design thinking” also begins to inform more innovative and strategic aspects of product development. Robert’s article is right on the money here as well, but I’d disagree that the culture of corporate America has adopted these perspectives. In major corporations, only Apple has truly elevated the status of designers in product development over the marketing and engineering disciplines that normally drive decision making. There is no doubt a greater appreciation overall for the value that design adds to products, but for most companies there is still opportunity to grow a more balanced approach. Apple has led the way, and its success can speak for itself.
In his wake, Steve’s leadership and deep understanding of design will be studied in classrooms across the globe. His call to “think different” will echo whenever someone enters an Apple store, opens up their new electronic goodie, and begin to use a product that feels like it was designed just for them. And while he’s laid to rest, his competitors are left scrambling to figure out how why his products sell like crazy and theirs collect dust on store shelves!
We may try to think like Steve thought. But we will eventually realize that he was truly an artist like no other.
Farewell and thank you, Steve.
