Innovation of Steve Jobs #1
from Business2Community 05/12 enhanced by Peter/CXO Wiz4biz 05/13
These are the three reasons Steve had an incredible ability to innovate, according to the Adaptive Marketer:
1. Steve clearly understood Customer needs.
Apple is famous for not doing traditional customer research . A few days ago Author Guy Kawasaki came to Rackspace and told a group of us “The day you see Apple doing a focus group is the day you must sell your stock”. It is easy to come to the conclusion that Steve ignored customers creating customers on his own.
It is true Apple does not do Customer Focus groups, there is no feedback section on the Website and after 5 years there is only one iPhone form factor despite customers who have asked for a physical keyboard, larger screens or a smaller, lower-cost version.
But there is a difference between not accepting direct customer feedback and not understanding customer needs. Steve was frustrated with the user experience in the first iTunes-enabled phone, the ROKR. Steve understood customer’s frustration with Smart-phones in general. He understood customer needs, and used his technology & user experience genius to create products that served those needs.
In fact, Steve Jobs’ first press quote, published in Interface magazine in mid ‘70s read “If we can rap about their needs, feelings and motivations, we can respond appropriately by giving them what they want.” referring to his customers for the Apple I, hobbyists.
2. Steve understood Success – is not a result of having the best technology, but in offering the “best user experience”.
This ability is especially important in the technology industry where most product managers, marketers and executives are fixated on the virtues of the latest technologies that we often miss or mis-understand customer needs. Steve was a geek at heart, but he also deeply understood the importance of Business 2 Customer relationships.
Probably as important, he understood the power of Simplicity. If you look at his product launch keynotes (and if you are a marketer you must), the message was concrete and simple to understand.
[ #2 Continued in Premium Content ]