Do we have any Apple alumni here to give feedback on how this process works, in practice?<p>It reads--and maybe just to me--as a work environment as miserable as it is decadent.<p>The amount of cross-pollination between good engineers doesn't seem that large, due to secrecy measures. The knowledge that your project could be killed off on a whim, and that you couldn't talk about it--this makes even some of the gaming sweatshops look downright friendly in comparison.<p>(EDIT: Don't just downvote, use your words. How is the environment of extreme secrecy and compartmentalization one in which you'd wish to work?)
I see two major problems being solved here:<p>1. "too many cooks in the kitchen" design-by-committee crap<p>2. "sunk cost" pressures to deliver on investments<p>What's interesting is how few people are involved in making decisions, given the size of the company.<p>As an engineer, I wonder if I would feel more or less significance over my own decisions, given the constant executive feedback, and what the relationships with "the EPM/GSM mafia" feels like. My sense is that it's probably fine, given the talent level of the design group.<p>I also wonder how many of these startups have been killed. I have to think that keeping things secret means that the execs can halt projects without reporting this to investors.
I worked for a company where lots of managers and executives wanted to have their say.
Product managers, purchasing department, sales, finance and of course the top-executives.
They got the product ready more or less on time.
When it was introduced on the market, demand exploded and in a positive way.
They made hundreds of millions of dollars.
Based on that, the endless meetings, the revisions, the compromises had all been worth it, right ?
Not really.
The writing had been on the wall from day one.
The product looked ok on the outside.
However, they had been using cheap and low quality electronic components that stopped working after xxx hours.
And they had problems with the grounding, due to a low-cost design decision.
That made matters worse because it damaged other components.
They ended up replacing the components of the circuit boards and rewriting the software.
They did up to 3 retakes. It was crazy expensive.
And don't think for a second that was the end of it.
The customers were leasing the product and they had a purchase option after 3 years.
Guess what they ended up doing ?
Some no longer wanted the product and some negotiated the price down.<p>The entire company took a huge loss, a restructuring took place, the division was shut down, people were fired, some were moved to another division, the CEO was replaced and yeah, fast forward : it's not done yet ...<p>Lesson learned:
Cross-team communication is necessary and productive, but you've got to know who to listen to.
Apples design secret is it's almost omnipotent vertical integration.<p>Not to take anything away from Ives who is an amazing designer.<p>But he would not be doing the things he's been doing in another company. It simply wouldn't be possible because other companies assemble components. And that is why no one is able to make better products than apple are when looked form a holistic point of view.
> Designers are treated like royalty at Apple, where the entire product conforms to their vision. This the polar opposite of the way it works at other companies. Instead of the design being beholden to the manufacturing, finance or manufacturing departments, these all conform to the will of the design department headed by Jony Ive.<p>Two ways to read this: 1) Designers are dictators who bend organizational BS to their will, or 2) Designers are experts who understand process and materials ridiculously well.
Very interesting to learn that they place so many barriers to cross-team communications (when they create the 'start-up').
I see this has benefits in regard to focus and secrecy but.. find it a bit counter-intuitive and possibly counter-productive: if Employee X is not in the team, he won't be able to know that he could contribute his awesome Skill Y to that team...
It should probably be noted that 'product' in this article only means physical products, eg the iPhone, iPad, MacBook etc.<p>It would be interesting to see how this relates to software. I might just have to buy the book.
I bought the "book" some time ago.<p>It's not really a book. It's a magazine article, maybe 20 pages worth of material. Basically: don't buy it. Everything of substance has already been revealed in articles like these.
The <reviews on Amazon for this book are not very positive:<p><a href="http://www.amazon.com/product-reviews/1455516074/ref=cm_cr_dp_syn_footer?showViewpoints=1&k=Inside%20Apple%3A%20How%20America%27s%20Most%20Admired%20and%20Secretive-company%20Really%20Works%3A%20How%20Amerika%27s%20Most%20Admired%20-%20and%20Secretive%20-%20Company%20Really%20Works" rel="nofollow">http://www.amazon.com/product-reviews/1455516074/ref=cm_cr_d...</a><p>Anyone read it and care to comment?
Interesting post. To develop a product in total secrecy for someone the size of apple, is really a remarkable feat. Also like their focus on design first. Thats what separate their products from others.