The Time I “Interviewed” At Apple
hunterwalk.com
The Time I “Interviewed” At Apple
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Re: The Time I “Interviewed” At Apple
#2> And how they’ll need to change the questions they ask of potential senior execs in order to bring in some of the mentality required to iterate towards excellence in public as opposed to behind closed doors.
I feel like, with possibly the exception of the iPhone, Apple's magic sauce has been to let others launch first and learn from their mistakes, iterate in private until they have their product as close to perfection as they can, then release it.
They weren't the first computer. They weren't the first MP3 player. They weren't the first place to buy songs online. They weren't the first to make a smartphone. They weren't the first to make a tablet.
Granted these weren't software services for the most part, they were hardware. But in the same sense, Apple does a lot of development in the background almost by design, so they can storm the set and have a polished product ready to go (with some exceptions, notably Mobile Me).
This "iterating on the fly" web thing is a software mentality. I'd argue that Apple is first & foremost a hardware company. Once you release the hardware, you're stuck with it for better or worse. There's no such "ship it before it's ready and fix it later" mindset in hardware.
Re: The Time I “Interviewed” At Apple
#3I really can't see Apple adopting a more iterative approach to product development. "Perfect the first time" is so deeply engrained in their corporate identity that the CEO feels the need to personally apologize when they don't achieve it (see: Apple Maps). Compare that to the new Google Maps, which was pretty shitty when it went to open beta but has been getting progressively less so.
Google's users cut Google the necessary slack to allow them to release imperfect products and improve on them. Apple's do not.
Re: The Time I “Interviewed” At Apple
#4I really can't see Apple adopting a more iterative approach to product development. "Perfect the first time" is so deeply engrained in their corporate identity that the CEO feels the need to personally apologize when they don't achieve it (see: Apple Maps). Compare that to the new Google Maps, which was pretty shitty when it went to open beta but has been getting progressively less so. Google's users cut Google the n…
> Google's users cut Google the necessary slack to allow them to release imperfect products and improve on them. Apple's do not.
Also an excellent point. The reason people line up for many hours for the privilege of spending $500 is because they expect perfection. These are the consumers that Apple has courted, and so far they have reaped the rewards from it by earning the trust of their users. To change that would damage their brand in a huge way.
Re: The Time I “Interviewed” At Apple
#5I really can't see Apple adopting a more iterative approach to product development. "Perfect the first time" is so deeply engrained in their corporate identity that the CEO feels the need to personally apologize when they don't achieve it (see: Apple Maps). Compare that to the new Google Maps, which was pretty shitty when it went to open beta but has been getting progressively less so. Google's users cut Google the n…
I think the Apple Maps situation is a little different since they actually took away the product people were previously using.
Re: The Time I “Interviewed” At Apple
#6While I have three Apple products within arm's reach of me, including the one I'm using to type this post, none of them is "perfect!"
Re: The Time I “Interviewed” At Apple
#7I wonder if this notion that Apple needs to "get" web services to survive will really matter in the long run? It's the conventional wisdom, just like that they "lost" the PC wars even though they've been the most profitable PC maker for a decade now. There haven't been many web services that have lasted for a decade or more in a dominant position.
Might Apple's best long term strategy to...
1. Support/innovate the heck out of browser/web connectivity software
2. Push the boundaries of input devices and make the best hardware
3. Secure content deals with popular artists
4. Continue to expand their retail/service footprint
5. Let the various waves of social networks rise and fall, but make money on every device sold?
Even the Android hegemon, which supposedly poses an existential threat, could easily fracture if Samsung decides to go their own way.
Apple's position would be better with a firm control of key web services, but I'm not sure it's a requirement.
Re: The Time I “Interviewed” At Apple
#8> And how they’ll need to change the questions they ask of potential senior execs in order to bring in some of the mentality required to iterate towards excellence in public as opposed to behind closed doors. I feel like, with possibly the exception of the iPhone, Apple's magic sauce has been to let others launch first and learn from their mistakes, iterate in private until they have their product as close to perfect…
>I'd argue that Apple is first & foremost a hardware company
I would argue that Apple is primarily a software company. Sure, they do offer nice, polished hardware touches like Retina display, TouchID, unibody aluminum enclosures, but the actual components are the same as commodity PC hardware. Further, companies like Samsung are making phone with bigger screens and (ostensibly) faster processors. What people are paying a premium for is the Experience (well, and the Brand) - in OS X, things "just work," and the OS is generally more stable and user friendly than Windows. Similarly with iOS, at least before iOS7, the design choices that were made by Ive and Co allowed the mass market to intuitively use a smartphone.
Re: The Time I “Interviewed” At Apple
#9I really can't see Apple adopting a more iterative approach to product development. "Perfect the first time" is so deeply engrained in their corporate identity that the CEO feels the need to personally apologize when they don't achieve it (see: Apple Maps). Compare that to the new Google Maps, which was pretty shitty when it went to open beta but has been getting progressively less so. Google's users cut Google the n…
> "Perfect the first time" is so deeply engrained in their corporate identity that the CEO feels the need to personally apologize when they don't achieve it (see: Apple Maps).
Apple Maps wasn't a failure of "perfect the first time", it was a failure of iteration: it was an existing Apple app using Google data that, as part of an OS update, Apple "upgraded" with a new version using non-Google data that performed, in many users opinion, less well than the previous version.
> Compare that to the new Google Maps, which was pretty shitty when it went to open beta but has been getting progressively less so.
When Google maps was released to "open beta", it wasn't a new version of base app delivered as part of the OS bundled into a premium-priced hardware device that was widely seen as a downgrade in functionality from the prior version. It was a free web application that added to, rather than replacing, the existing options in the space.
> Google's users cut Google the necessary slack to allow them to release imperfect products and improve on them. Apple's do not.
Google's users get mad when they perceive Google to make products worse in subsequent versions just as much as Apple users do. Google tends not to put premium price tags on its first public release of products, while Apple does, and people paying premium prices for products are less inclined to grant the maker slack.
Re: The Time I “Interviewed” At Apple
#10I really can't see Apple adopting a more iterative approach to product development. "Perfect the first time" is so deeply engrained in their corporate identity that the CEO feels the need to personally apologize when they don't achieve it (see: Apple Maps). Compare that to the new Google Maps, which was pretty shitty when it went to open beta but has been getting progressively less so. Google's users cut Google the n…
Apple does plenty of iteration, just in a different way. Think about copy and paste on iPhone, MMS messaging, multitasking, etc. They work depth-first rather than breadth, so instead of dozens of half-working features, you get one or two complete features. I think it opens Apple up to more criticism, especially combined with their secrecy, but the criticism and even trolls only help contribute to more buzz.