As the founder and driving force behind Apple and many of the innovative products that pervade our society, the late Steve Jobs is known for finding significant advantages through product innovation. Consider a few of his ideas to help you get a competitive advantage.

Weigh the voice of the consumer

We often ask ourselves what the consumer wants—and I’m a proponent of this process. Yet Jobs was never the type to settle comfortably behind market research and answers that were easily defended in corporate boardrooms. He challenged his development teams to bring out the wow factor in their products. For example, there had been tablet computers before the iPad, but I bet you can’t name them or their creators. There were BlackBerrys and Palm Treos before the iPhone, but none inspired the “gotta have it” coolness of the iPhone. Why could Apple, under Jobs’ leadership, inspire such brand mastery? Because the culture was one that said “give the consumer what they don’t realize they need; give them what they want.” Jobs knew the secret of the want factor, going beyond what customers needed.

Be passionate and thorough

This principle came out in two distinct ways. One was in the product introductions Jobs was famous for. Look them up on YouTube and you will see a great set of presentation techniques—icons versus scripted words, a plot like a story rather than a set of facts, transitions with great timing—and yet what comes across most is the enthusiasm of a child with a new toy combined with the preparedness of a space shuttle engineer. The presentations were rehearsed time and again, but came off as spontaneous. The second example of Jobs’ thoroughness comes across in the design of the products themselves. This goes back to his vision in realizing the interface between a human and a computer could be more intuitive (pointing with a mouse-guided cursor) than the keyboard-and-file-list approach that was commonly used. Jobs didn’t just insist on creating tools to do a functional job; he wanted the experience of using the tools to be positive.

Think beyond your assumptions

George Lucas created Pixar in the 1980s, and it was going nowhere when Jobs took it over. It was a computer animation studio doing what animation studios did—creating the occasional neat graphics project, or a short cartoon. It was in a box labeled “clever cartoon studio, computer division (but not Disney).” But Jobs had the vision to look outside that box and asked why Pixar couldn’t make real movies. He turned over a budget to a perfectly selected team member, John Lasseter, and the result was “Toy Story.” The rest is history (and now Disney).

Surround yourself with committed and talented people

Mentioning John Lasseter brings up one final point, perhaps the most important. Jobs was phenomenal at surrounding himself with talented people and challenging them to stretch their boundaries to excel at product creation, marketing and sales. The Apple sales method is another differentiator. Just walk into an Apple store and look around. You’ll see sales team members excited about their products. You’ll feel a high-tech but personal and friendly vibe. You’ll think of it as a nice place to spend some time.

As with any great innovator and leader, Jobs not only recognized good ideas, he insisted on execution of those ideas at the highest level. He drove Apple to provide more than just product—they are product-based experiences for the purchaser. To prove the point, I have a PC and an iPad. I don’t have much to say about the PC. As for the iPad, contact me and I’ll talk for hours about it. The PC gives me what I need; the iPad gives me what I want.

Instant Insights /

Lessons from Steve Jobs

More From HR Executive

Related Stories

Recommended For You