I’m about midway through the Steve Jobs biography and this quote really stuck out to me. This is Jony Ive, Apple’s lead product designer, describing Steve Jobs’ frequent visits to the closely guarded design studio at Apple:
“This great room is the one place in the company where you can look around and see everything we have in the works… Steve will graze by the tables to see where all of the products are heading. He can get a sense of the sweep of the whole company, the iPhone and iPad, the iMac and laptop and everything we’re considering. That helps him see where the company is spending it’s energy and how things connect. And he can ask, ‘Does doing this make sense, because over here is where we are growing a lot?’ or questions like that. He gets to see things in relationship to each other which is pretty hard to do in a big company. Looking at the models on these tables, he can see the future for the next three years.”
This was a real eye-opener for me. I instantly realized how Apple is able to keep such a focused product line, with each product serving a specific market beautifully. And it’s how they achieve the same simplicity and feel, consistently across all products in their line.
But it also shows us how important product design — and the design of the product line as a whole — is in making big-picture decisions at Apple.
The fact that they craft all of their products in the same room shows us how fluid and integrated their design and internal review process is. And it shows how Steve Jobs was truly a designer in the way he approached business strategy. One thing that is central to any design process is to consider the relationships between different elements, their push and pull with one another, their hierarchy of importance. That applies when you’re designing a product, a web page, a TV commercial, and clearly in the case of Steve Jobs and Apple, the design of a corporate strategy.
Like many entrepreneurs, I consume content like it’s my job. I think because in many ways, it is my job.
Daily reading, watching, listening, and interacting is what keeps me going. I’m constantly on the lookout for something new to learn that might help me get ahead in some way. Or sometimes I just need to hear someone else’s story to get inspired to take action. It’s how we as entrepreneurs stay in tune with what’s next: where things are moving and what we can do to align our work with where everyone else is headed.
So I want to take a minute to thank and share some thoughts on a few of my favorite content creators I’ve been following during the past year. I honestly would not be where I am today without the work of these folks, who consistently put out interesting, insightful, useful, and valuable content on a regular basis.
Man, it’s a trip to go back and read my blog posts (here, here, here, & here) from the turn of the last few new years. It’s good to revisit my mindset and goals from years past.
This year, I’m going with the unordered-list format.
It was this time last year that I reached out to my friend, Dave Yankowiak, to see if he’d be interested in partnering to start up and co-host a new web show for freelance web designers. Luckily, he agreed and by early 2011, we had posted our first episode of Freelance Jam.
I’m thrilled that the show has continued on for 18 episodes during 2011, with many more to come in 2012. We’re having a blast planning and producing these shows. It takes a lot of hard work, time and some cash investment (at no profit) to keep this show going. So what makes it worth it?
Here’s a list of things that I get out of co-hosting Freelance Jam:
1. Staying Involved in Our Community
The web design industry, particularly those working independently, is extremely community oriented. Maybe more-so than any other industry. We thrive on sharing ideas, teaching each other, and inspiring great work from one another. The show has given me the opportunity to learn, teach, and get to know the folks that work alongside us (yet across the globe) every day. This is the single reason that keeps me motivated to keep doing the show and growing our audience.
I had an in-person meeting with a prospective new client yesterday in New York City.
These are few and far between for me, since I work from my home office and serve clients and customers all over the world. Almost all meetings are held over the phone, skype, and email. But every so often, I’ll hop on a train to NYC for a client meeting.
Almost all meetings that I do have would be considered sales meetings — an initial meeting prior to giving a proposal. Basically everything after this can be handled remotely, from signing contracts, to discussing progress, and site launch. So here is my approach to the rare sales meeting:
I’m super excited about the progress @jroes and I have been making on Skipper, a new Team Relationship Management system built for business owners who manage a growing team. The core functionality of the app nearly complete and we’re gearing up for our first beta release. Just a matter of weeks now…
Calling Business Owners!
Do you run a business that relies on building a team to scale and grow? We want you! We’re asking business owners to start using the app and share your feedback and ideas. We want to know how Skipper might fit your specific needs as a business owner/team-builder, and learn about areas where Skipper could become more useful for your organization.
Who exactly are we looking for?
Solo professional who is building a network of subcontractors to collaborate on projects.
Owner or manager of a distributed agency, managing a team of remote workers.
Manager at any type of organization where you’re in charge of finding, hiring, and collaborating with a team— in-person or remotely.
None of the above, but you still want to help us test Skipper
Get in Touch…
I’m extending this personal invitation to get in touch with me directly: brian@casjam.com.
If you are interested in taking part in the first beta, please reach out to me and give me a quick bit about yourself: Who are you, where do you work, etc. and we’ll take it from there.
Or if you know someone who might be into this kinda thing, please pass along the link to the blog post.
