Don't be satisfied with the status quo

In fact, Jobs's recipe for success was simple, and his success and stubbornness came from that. Creation is not the product of talent, subconscious, and opportunity, but the result of thinking, a series process of repetitive thinking about problems and solutions . The best solution is often the key to most of the problems, in the 1930 's, This conclusion has been recorded by psychologist Karl Duncker:

“... Action is a series of actions that have goals and are planned. This is a structure without ' definition ', the most basic and primitive experience that human beings have. Like these questions, ' Why doesn't ' t it work (why doesn't it work)? Or, ' What should I changes to make it work (what should be changed to solve it)? '

When he introduced Apple's new iphone in 2007, Jobs said:

"The most advanced mobile phone is called smart phone. They are really smarter than normal phones, but they are also more difficult to use. Whether or not this is necessary, these phones always carry a keyboard. How to solve this problem? 20 years ago we had the answer when we were making computers. All you have to do is replace the buttons with a huge screen. But you can't always run around with a mouse, right? So we use a stylus. But you don't need these. Put these tools away and forget about them, we need a few fingers. ”

Jobs's way of thinking follows the Duncker theory:

Problem: The smarter the phone is, the harder it is to use it because they always have a keyboard.

Solution: A large screen and an operating device.

Question: What kind of operating device?

Solution: Mouse.

Problem: It's inconvenient to walk around with the mouse.

Solution: Stylus

Problem: The stylus is too easy to lose

Solution: Finger-operated

Despite a high price tag, Apple sold 155 million handsets in its first five years of mobile phone sales, including 07 4 million, 08 14 million, 09 29 million, 10 40 million and 11 82 million. How did they do that?

I used to be a research advisor to a mobile phone manufacturer for a few years. Whenever the manufacturers bring the latest mobile phone, I and other consultants will invariably feel that the new type of mobile phone usage than its previous generation and more complex. At the time, it was not a secret that Apple might have made the phone, but nobody took it seriously because Apple had no experience in making a phone. A few months later, when the IPhone was on sale, the team and the manufacturer had a meeting. I asked them what they thought about the IPhone, and the chief engineer said, "This phone's microphone sucks."

This is a piece of the truth, it conveys the message that the company believes that smartphones in the end is a mobile phone, but a bit more functional. They started making mobile phones a long time ago, and they were very successful. For this company, a good call quality equals a good phone, and other features are just extras.

Apple is a computer manufacturer. In Mr Jobs's words, smartphones are not a mobile phone, but a computer that can be put into a pocket to make a phone call. Making computers was a problem Apple had "solved" 20 years ago. So Apple's lack of experience with mobile phones is not a problem, and it is a problem for handset makers not to build computers. The company I served had been a leader in the industry, but in 2007 saw a massive loss of market share and was sold at the end.

"Why doesn't ' t it work?" is a problem that is easily overlooked because it is too simple. The chief engineer refused to consider the problem. His logic is: As long as sales are growing, customers have no complaints, which means there is no problem.

Sales + consumer = No problem, this is a fatal prescription, many big companies die in this prescription. Complacency is a formidable enemy, and it is absurd to say that there is no need to solve the problem. No matter how good the sales score, but the customer is satisfied, there are always some things can be done better. To ask questions and to think about the answers is like breathing for innovation, as long as you repeat the process, innovation will not suffocate.

"Why doesn't ' t it work?" to create a direction. For jobs and Apple, the key question at the time was not to find the answer but to see the crux of the problem: the keyboard makes smartphones difficult to use. Everything else is the same.

Apple was not the only maker of the phone, and LG had previously launched a big-screen phone like the iPhone. LG Prada is a fully touchscreen mobile phone, won the design award and sold 1 million units. When Apple's design was revealed, other manufacturers made a number of similar phones in a few months. These manufacturers have the potential to design "IPhone", but none of them do. They don't have to ask their products, "Why doesn't ' t it work?"

As early as the PC emerged in 1983, Jobs had been dancing to a crowd of listeners at a design meeting in Aspen, Colorado, to deliver his visionary ideas: "Portable computers with Radios", "e-mail" and "electronic maps". Its Apple computer, like Dongdawe, competes with giants such as IBM, and sales are one of the most powerful weapons. Apple, 1981 and 1982, has a higher sales volume than anyone else and looks forward to 10 million sales by 1986. But Mr Jobs, who is optimistic, has his worries:

"Computers now look like rubbish. Good designers are in the car and construction industry, few are designing computers. In 1986, our sales will reach 10 million units. Whether good-looking or ugly, these things will be placed in the office, the school and everyone's home. We can either take the opportunity to design them better or add a few more rubbish to the rubbish heap. By 1986 or 1987, people spend more time on these machines than they spend on cars. Industrial design, software design and computers will receive a lot of attention, at least not less than in the automotive industry today. ”

28 Years later, the Wall Street Journal's tech columnist, Walt Mossberg, described a discussion shortly before he died:

"Last minute he was talking about some revolutionary ideas, and the next minute he started criticizing Apple's flaws, from color to curve to icon. ”

Steve Jobs can think about what others can't think, not because of talent, passion, or foresight, but because he's never content with the status quo, asking, "Why doesn't ' t it work?", "What should I change to make it work?"

VIA:medium.com