With the rumored iPhone 6 in development, now is a good time to take a look at the man who guided Apple to be a dominate player in the smartphone business. Many people say Jobs was a master innovator, famous for his “i” product families, that put the i in innovation!
Steve is considered to have been one of the top 12 innovators of all time, sharing the recognition with Thomas Edison, Leonardo Da Vinci, and Richard Feynman, among others. His leadership and management practices were controversial, but nobody can dispute the impact he had on the world of technology and entertainment.
He and his co-innovators gave us several products that became household names – Apple, Macintosh, Pixar (Toy Story, Cars, etc.), iPod (changed the music industry almost over night when iTunes was released), iPhone, and iPad.
Want to become a more skilled innovator? There are insights to be had by reading about and digesting Steve Jobs’ work. I have followed his career and even while it was happening did not realize the impact he was having on innovation and product development.
He was human, he made mistakes, he was controversial, but there is no doubt that he was a master innovator with a keen sense of design customers loved.
Yes, he surrounded himself with other innovators and he burned a few out, but in the end, he along with others, created and revolutionized several industries in front of our eyes: smart phone and mobile technology, animated films, music downloads, and way back in the beginning he took computers out of ugly command line interfaces and matured graphical user interfaces that caused people to think differently about what computers really did for us and how they could be used. His sense of design and artful spirit drove Apple to create more appealing user experiences.
The 7 Innovation Secrets
Carmine Gallo, Forbes contributor, says when Steve returned to Apple after a 12 year absence he made a bold statement that Apple will “innovate its way out of its current predicament.” Gallo also refers to a quote from New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman that “the day of average is over” and “Steve Jobs never thought average thoughts.” Gallo then presents what he callsThe 7 Innovation Secrets of Steve Jobs. Several great innovation lessons can be learned from the 7 Secrets:
- Do what you love – Passion and innovation are the secret sauce
- Put a dent in the universe – focus on the big picture
- Creativity – use experiences to connect ideas that may seem disparate
- Say no to 1000 things that don’t work – take a lesson from Edison
- Create “Experiences” – Apple was a master at creating the desktop experience and then the smart phone experience
- Master the message – Nobody did it better – watching him on stage (even at the end) was always inspiring
- Sell Dreams, not products – iPhone, iPad, iPod, iTunes, iWhatever!
The primary responsibilities for an organization are product management and innovation. They deliver value to customers. They're also exciting responsibilities for those properly equipped. That is my job - equipping product managers and innovators. 