Apple's Design Rule-Breaking Strategy

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Apple keeps crushing it because their design team breaks every product design rule: • 3-5 year development cycles (5x industry standard) • ~20-member teams • Daily prototype reviews Once you see why they do it, you can't unsee everything wrong with traditional designs🧵

Apple’s first board chair Mike Markkula circulated a memo reminding the staff, “People DO judge a book by its cover.” Since then, Apple follows the design philosophy Steve Jobs created in the 1980s

Steve had always been obsessed with product design: "It doesn't cost any money to make products look great. These objects will be at everyone's working and educational environment and we have a shot at putting a great object there."

1. Saying "No" During Steve Jobs’ first visit to Jony Ive’s design studio, he looked around, and said, “Fuck, you’ve not been very effective, have you?” Jobs knew Ive was full of ideas and potential. “You can achieve so much by how often you say no." He said and went away.

The result? Jony Ive was the man behind these products' design: 2016: AirPods 2015: Apple Watch 2010: iPad 2008: MacBook Air 2007: iPhone 2004: iPod Mini 2002: iMac G4 2001: iPod 2000: G4 Cube 1999: iBook G3 1998: iMac 1993: Newton MessagePad

2. Stripping off management. Ken Kocienda (principal engineer of iPhone software) said Apple didn't even have product managers when they built their first iPhone. x.com/kocienda/status/1563917075189358593

Steve believed the greatest people are self-managing. They don’t need to be managed. Once they know what to do, they’ll go figure out how to do it. That's why Apple's design teams, who built the iPhone, iPad, and Mac, only had 20-member teams

Steve was clear about setting the expectations and letting the team control things. A perfect example of level 5 delegation. Something which most founders struggle today. They fear losing control over the company if they delegate.

3. Pure passion. Apple's design would not stand out if it wasn't for Steve's passion for design. His obsession over building insanely great products has made Apple what it is today

You can just see the difference: (Inside of Apple Watch vs Pixel Watch)

And the way he also designed his presentations. You could just see how he made it super easy for consumers to understand what the device was and how to use it.

Luckily for us, Carmine Gallo studied how he did it in her book, "The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs."

One of the biggest reasons why some of the companies struggle even after building great products, is because their founder doesn't learn to give up control. This the cardinal sign of delegation Something which Steve knew!

Steve built an incredible culture of trust and hired the most talented people in the world and then stepped aside. He knew when and how to delegate. In fact, he was able to simultaneously delegate across all 5 levels of delegation 👇