Why Steve Jobs Never Listened to His Customers
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Why Steve Jobs Never Listened to His Customers
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Re: Why Steve Jobs Never Listened to His Customers
#2I think the best way to work with customers (and I do believe you should) is not having theoretical discussions with them about the market or whether a new product can take off, but rather give them a number of tangible alternatives (can be mock ups) to play with and see how they react to them.
Re: Why Steve Jobs Never Listened to His Customers
#3I think the best way to work with customers (and I do believe you should) is not having theoretical discussions with them about the market or whether a new product can take off, but rather give them a number of tangible alternatives (can be mock ups) to play with and see how they react to them.
So mostly relying on reactive feedback rather than proactive suggestions? I agree.
Re: Why Steve Jobs Never Listened to His Customers
#4I think the best way to work with customers (and I do believe you should) is not having theoretical discussions with them about the market or whether a new product can take off, but rather give them a number of tangible alternatives (can be mock ups) to play with and see how they react to them.
If you are devising a new product concept, the very first telephone (or ipod or ipad) say, then what is gained by doing this? Your customers have no point of reference. In general, asking customers what they think is only useful if you are iterating on the known and familiar. Otherwise it is just harvesting random opinions, most of which will be variants of "make it more like what we already know".
Re: Why Steve Jobs Never Listened to His Customers
#5He was the #1 customer. I think he was building products that were good enough to use himself, because he knew that would impress others. He was a respectful narcissist.
Maybe I'm not using the correct words or my sight isn't accurate, but at least that's the legacy I got from his life.
Building something that makes you proud and you strongly believe it's the best. And convincing people to think about your product the way you do yourself.
Re: Why Steve Jobs Never Listened to His Customers
#6Steve Jobs did listen to customers--more than most business executives. He famously read his own email and would write back to customers directly. He made major strategic decisions based on customer feedback, for instance by reversing direction and releasing an SDK for native apps on the iPhone.
He just didn't let customers set the future direction of products. The reason for that is well explained in The Innovator's Dilemma.
Re: Why Steve Jobs Never Listened to His Customers
#7Steve Jobs did listen to customers--more than most business executives. He famously read his own email and would write back to customers directly. He made major strategic decisions based on customer feedback, for instance by reversing direction and releasing an SDK for native apps on the iPhone. He just didn't let customers set the future direction of products. The reason for that is well explained in The Innovator's…
>> The reason for that is well explained in The Innovator's Dilemma.
Side note/question: I know there's three books in that "series": Innovator's Dilemma, Innovator's Solution, and Seeing What's Next. For someone who has not read any of them, what's the correct order? Are all three required, or is there overlap between the contents?
Re: Why Steve Jobs Never Listened to His Customers
#8He was the #1 customer. I think he was building products that were good enough to use himself, because he knew that would impress others. He was a respectful narcissist. Maybe I'm not using the correct words or my sight isn't accurate, but at least that's the legacy I got from his life. Building something that makes you proud and you strongly believe it's the best. And convincing people to think about your product th…
I'll give you narcissist, but I don't think Jobs had any respect for anyone else or their opinions.
This may have been a good or bad thing, according to taste.
Re: Why Steve Jobs Never Listened to His Customers
#9Can we stop perpetuating this myth please?
From http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2012/07/apple-reveals-for-mon...
""Apple is famous for eschewing market research and focus groups during the creation of new products. However, it turns out the company does research consumer sentiment on existing products in order to optimize future designs.
Apple conducts detailed, quarterly iPhone buyer surveys, according to a joint motion regarding the sealing of trial exhibits. "The surveys reveal, country-by-country, the factors driving customers to buy Apple products versus competitive products such as Android," court documents state. The results break down which demographics are most satisfied with Apple’s products, and how different demographics respond to different features. The results also show how consumer preferences differ country to country.
Apple is asking the results of these surveys only be shown to the jury when proceedings begin next week. Language in the joint motion states, "Knowing what Apple thinks about its customer base preferences is extremely valuable to Apple competitors because it would allow them to infer what product features Apple is likely to offer next, when, and in what markets."
Re: Why Steve Jobs Never Listened to His Customers
#10Steve Jobs did listen to customers--more than most business executives. He famously read his own email and would write back to customers directly. He made major strategic decisions based on customer feedback, for instance by reversing direction and releasing an SDK for native apps on the iPhone. He just didn't let customers set the future direction of products. The reason for that is well explained in The Innovator's…
>> The reason for that is well explained in The Innovator's Dilemma. Side note/question: I know there's three books in that "series": Innovator's Dilemma, Innovator's Solution, and Seeing What's Next. For someone who has not read any of them, what's the correct order? Are all three required, or is there overlap between the contents?
you could go published order. But no matter what you must read Dilemma - its the seminal text.