#Product Development Quotes

“That's what makes great products. It's not process-it's content.”

“We've gone through the operating system and looked at everything and asked how can we simplify this and make it more powerful at the same time.”

“One of the failures of technology companies is that they build technologies thinking everything else will work out.”

“The design of the Mac wasn't what it looked like, although that was part of it. Primarily, it was how it worked. To design something really well, you have to get it. You have to really grok what it's all about. It takes a passionate commitment to really thoroughly understand something, chew it up, not just quickly swallow it.”

“Every once in a while a revolutionary product comes along that changes everything. It's very fortunate if you can work on just one of these in your career. ... Apple's been very fortunate in that it's introduced a few of these.”

“I know you have 1000 great ideas for things that iTunes could do. And we have 1000 more. But innovation is not about saying "yes" to everything. It's about saying "no" to all but the most crucial features.”

“My passion has been to build an enduring company where people were motivated to make great products. Everything else was secondary. Sure, it was great to make a profit, because that was what allowed you to make great products. But the products, not the profits were the motivation.”

“We just wanted to build the best thing we could build”

“The people who are doing the work are the moving force behind the Macintosh. My job is to create a space for them, to clear out the rest of the organization and keep it at bay.”

“Many companies forget what it means to make great products. After initial success, sales and marketing people take over and the product people eventually make their way out.”

“We do not say anything about future products. We work on them in secret, then we announce them.”

“Focus is about saying, No. And the result of that focus is going to be some really great products where the total is much greater than the sum of the parts.”

“I wish developing great products was as easy as writing a check. If that was the case, Microsoft would have great products.”

“It's the disease of thinking that a having a great idea is really 90% of the work. And if you just tell people, 'here's this great idea,' then of course they can go off and make it happen. The problem with that is that there's a tremendous amount of craftsmanship between a having a great idea and having a great product.”

“I don't think I've ever worked so hard on something, but working on Macintosh was the neatest experience of my life. Almost everyone who worked on it will say that. None of us wanted to release it at the end. It was as though we knew that once it was out of our hands, it wouldn't be ours anymore.”

“Quality in a product or service is not what the supplier puts in. It is what the customer gets out and is willing to pay for. A product is not quality because it is hard to make and costs a lot of money, as manufacturers typically believe. This is incompetence. Customers pay only for what is of use to them and gives them value. Nothing else constitutes quality.”

“The aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well the product or service fits him and sells itself.”

“You can't put out projects that you don't use yourself.”

“Most of our competitors were one-product wonders... They would do their one product, but never get their engineering sorted out.”

“I'm never fully satisfied with any Microsoft product.”

“The close relationships we form between researchers and product groups have already shown we can move the great ideas as they come along, without a schedule, into the products.”

“The ability of a successful company to add functionality to its product has long been upheld.”