BUCKING THE TREND IN TECHNOLOGY: EPIC LESSON!

It’s a funny thing about life and business. Sometimes, we get what we want by a circuitous, rather than a direct route. Sometimes, it requires the ability to see the importance of ‘not so important’ things we ‘don’t have time for’ and then make a conscious decision to focus on these first.?

It’s a contrarian way of thinking in our hustle culture, where we’re encouraged to move fast, be professional, focused, single-minded and relentless in our pursuit of success. Because, sometimes, our goals will lead us in the wrong direction. If we insist on pursuing what we think the most important goal is, we could miss our desired outcome entirely.

Here’s a perfect example of this in real life:?

In 1997, Steve Jobs was experiencing push back from those in the tech industry.?During the 1997 Apple WWDC presentation, he was challenged, rather adversarially, by a gentleman who was obviously not an Apple / Jobs fan.?He first told Jobs that it was clear he didn’t know what he was talking about and then challenged him rudely. You can watch the video here.?There’s an interesting discussion about this interaction?which will help put the gentleman’s attack in perspective.

He was so adversarial that Jobs, comically, picked up his stool and held it in front of him in a mock defense. Then he began speaking. He didn’t directly answer the questions thrown at him, but he addressed the idea behind the questions from a visionary perspective.

Now, when politicians attempt to do that kind of thing, we immediately feel that they’re obfuscating. But when Jobs spoke, it was obvious that he wasn’t obfuscating, but speaking from a desire to open the audience’s eyes to a different dimension, different perspective and a different path to how things ‘had always been done’ which was the context in which the questions had been phrased.

What’s really interesting about his response from a leadership point-of-view, is that he makes some significant points plus demonstrates true leadership qualities, specifically:

• He admits to making hard decisions which have upset many and which appear to them to be capricious.
• He explains the reasoning for making these decisions which resulted in wiping out a lot of hard work, and investment, in a direction he felt was incorrect.
• He apologizes for the fall-out and trauma resulting from these decisions.
• He explains why he feels that this new approach, i.e. a completely customer experience-based approach, is going to be not only right, but more successful than anything previously done.

At this point in time, it’s likely that this didn’t make those who were incensed against him any happier. In the long-term, however, Job’s decisions were vindicated by the huge success of Apple products and the almost cult-like following the company gained.

Here’s the thing I think is the biggest takeaway from this now 23-year-old speech. It’s not the courage Jobs showed in making decisions to buck the trend knowing he’d enrage people who’d worked for years on developing in a certain direction. Although that courage is a strong leadership demonstration. It’s not the calm with which he faced an audience and a critic who were angry with him. Although, once again, this is a strong leadership trait. No, it was something outside of the ‘moment’. Something that looked above and beyond the difficulties and challenges of what some might consider an idealistic, unrealistic goal.

The goal of making things that customers really want, will buy, will use, will enjoy and which will make their lives easier and better.

He explained it, as making customer experience the goal and then working backwards to create the technology to achieve this, rather than beginning with the technology and then trying to achieve the customer experience. At that time, that kind of view, especially in technology, was rare.?

I believe that it’s this approach that is responsible for Apple’s success. Yes, the products have to live up to expectations. Yes, the customer service, sales process etc. also have to be stellar. Jobs understood what people wanted - even though they may not have even realized it themselves at this time. He understood that making products people would find easy and enjoyable to use would ensure a market. Then, by making them ‘cool’ as well, he won the hearts of the public in a world where making technology ‘easy’ for ‘ordinary’ people flew in the somewhat elitist face of ‘serious’ technology as portrayed by the big technology developers of that time.?

Job’s approach to creating products is still applicable today. It’s still a recipe for success. It still is somewhat contrarian even though many may say they design products this way.?

It’s a perspective we, at Optevo, hold dear. We’ve taken great care to make this our foundation. “Ensuring that our work life doesn’t become our life’s work,” sums it up. Saving time, reducing stress, facilitating work, making more time for the other important aspects of our lives.

It’s often said that we learn by studying the biographies of successful, or famous people. In the field of technology, Steve Jobs’ example still holds many lessons for those of us who have a growth mindset and don’t mind challenging the status quo.

Who else can you recommend as a great example for us to study in these turbulent times? Please let me know in the comments.

#SteveJobs #CustomerExperience?