I have always been a tremendous believer of continuous improvement.  There is so much to learn, and the internet makes it exceptionally easy to fall-down new rabbit holes.  Between LinkedIn Learning, Cousera, the Kindle, podcasts, and the internet in general, the amount of acquirable knowledge is limitless.  For 2019, I have set the goal to read 40 books.  Creative Selection, by Ken Kocienda was my first pick for 2019, and I highly recommend it.

Creative Selection, Inside Apple’s Design Process During the Golden Age of Steve Jobs, by Ken Kocienda is well written and a thoroughly enjoyable read regarding Apple’s constant reiterative demo process, where Apple creates concrete and specific demos so peers can make judgements/comments/criticisms/improvements based off actual ‘physical’ samples.  Substantial work is put into each demo, similar to the way ideas are pitched at Amazon in detailed memo form, rather than simple power point presentations.  Unlike Amazon memos that are polished, complete plans, Apple demos are down and dirty focusing on the specific area/item being demoed, with the background staged (potentially a Hollywood-type façade) to engross to the viewer into experiencing the demo portion as if the viewer is using the complete product.  The comprehensive due diligence/research involved in creating the demo (or memo for Amazon), helps to continually refine the idea.  As a side note, this reminds me of writing detailed marketing and disposal plans years ago at MBI.  As a young associate, I was amazed by the hours necessary to perfect these plans and to summarize them into short one or two page memos.  The substantial efforts required to ‘meticulously craft’ these short memos forced me to truly understand the plan, as well as, the what if scenarios associated with it.  Proposals would have been far easier (and far less efficient) to put forward as rambling multi-page plans than the concise, productive versions which educated me and allowed my managers to efficiently critique (and improve) them.

Concrete, specific demos allow peers to discuss the item being created in explicit detail, and offer distinct criticisms and suggestions.  Ken Kocienda presents an interesting illustration of the importance of having a specific ‘physical’ item to discuss and critique.  He uses puppies as an example.  Think of a cute puppy in your mind and imagine as many details about your puppy as you can.  I’ll think of one as well, I bet my puppy is cuter than yours.  Under this scenario, we both have imagined cute puppies, but there is no way to distinguish which one is cuter.  We can argue as we each describe our puppy, but we cannot resolve which is cuter without concrete and specific examples.  However, if we have physical pictures of each puppy, we can easily discuss their actual merits.  This example is relatively silly, but it demonstrates the importance of concrete examples. Without them the theoretical argument is virtually impossible, with them the discussion is efficient and relatively simple.

The production of the demos at Apple forces the creator to get a true understanding of the underlying issues with his creation.  The comments/criticisms received from peers utilizing the physical demo (rather than discussing theoretical images) are integrated into the following demo version.  Each demo, building on all prior work.  The best ideas survive, while the weaker ideas go extinct.  From these constant, reiterative improvements, magical, one-of a kind generational products have been created.

#CreativeSelection #AppleMagic #AppleDemos #KenKocienda