Creative Selection: Inside Apple's Design Process During the Golden Age of Steve Jobs

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. 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.

Creative is a well-written book and affords interesting insights relative to software development for Apple, at least for us who are clueless about this process. It is pretty highly focused on how specific pieces of software were conceived and perfected, and reveals little about how strategic decisions were made at Apple, nor hardware design (Jony Ive, for example, was never mentioned). For those looking for a discussion of those sots of topics, there are far better books. other books that do a better job. I say self-absorbed in the title as the author pedantically and strongly made the point that design has to do with how something works-good design at Apple was design that the user found intuitive, easy, and efficient to use. True enough, but more broadly considered, especially as design is applied to physical objects such as toasters and cars, good design is also related to how something looks-- two objects may function, and interface with the user identically, but the more esthetically pleasing object is the better object. You get the sense that the author is trying to generalize the nature of good design more broadly than is warranted from the perspective of software development. Also, many words are devoted to the design-build-test-improve iterative scheme as though that is something new or unique to Apple. But mechanical (and other types of) engineers have been doing that for literally thousands of years.

I listened intently to this book from two perspectives: as a long-time user/fan of Apple products and as a leader of a school district's technology department. The book was was interesting, informative, and enjoyable though both lenses, personally and professionally. Kocienda provides a fascinating view into the process of design at Apple and gives a perspective from the inside rarely told. He effectively takes the reader/listener through the idea stages, into the design process, and to the shipped product, all while explaining intricate details and telling interesting stories along the way. In education, we often tell our students (and teachers) about the importance of using the "4 Cs"—creativity, collaboration, communication, and critical thinking—to prepare our students for the world. Kocienda gives concrete examples of how he used all the "Cs" throughout his illustrious career designing and developing products many of us use every day. While I purchased both the Kindle and Audible version of this book, I must recommend the Audible version since Kocienda provides his own voice as the reader. In addition to his talent as an author, he clearly has a talent as a voiceover artist as I feel his voiced account of his story added another important dimension.

I was excited about diving in this weekend into Creative Selection by Ken Kocienda, a new book providing a detailed look inside the design process at Apple. And Creative Selection did not disappoint. While much has been written about Steve Jobs and Apple, I found Creative Selection particularly insightful because it provided a vignette into the development of the first iPhone, and in particular, one of it's most critical features - the keyboard - from the perspective of Ken Kocienda, the software engineer ultimately responsible for developing it. Ken goes through the many challenges and subsequent iterations to address those challenges with building the first keyboard to be presented only on a glass display. And in doing so, it showcased how Apple's design and development process was different from traditional Silicon Valley companies in subtle yet incredibly important ways. Ken distills the Apple development approach that ultimately made them successful to seven elements: inspiration, collaboration, craft, diligence, decisiveness, taste, and empathy. And he walks through what each of these elements means to him with detailed stories exemplifying each. But I wanted to share some personal observations I took away from the book on how Apple built products in such a fundamentally different way. Ken describes the process by which they would prepare product demos for their own team and then for various leaders, use that demo as the primary avenue for feedback, and then continue to iterate to the next demo, followed by more rounds of demo feedback, and so on. He calls this process creative selection. While at the surface this may sound like a typical product review process that many companies have, there was so much that was different about it. First, demos were done early and often, even at the prototype stage. These were not just reviews at the end of the process to get final approval, but instead they were done to show early progress, determine viability of the project, and make fundamental design decisions. The goal was to produce an initial prototype to demo as quickly as possible and then continually refine the prototype through subsequent feedback sessions. These demo sessions with senior leaders happened on a weekly basis, not months apart. And in contrast to so many classic reviews where leaders are largely concerned with ensuring projects are on time, that there are no unaddressed bottlenecks, and that the team is executing on the right strategy, leaders at Apple in fact played the role of arbiters of taste. Ken defines taste as developing a refined sense of judgment and finding the balance that produces a pleasing and integrated whole. And in these reviews, leaders would often be making calls on the spot on design decisions for the product. Ken retells the story of many reviews with Scott Forstall, who was head of iPhone software, and Steve Jobs himself who would make critical decisions to remove UI elements, to pick amongst a few design directions that the team was presenting, and to cancel efforts entirely, all based on the context and feedback they got from the presenting team, their own first-hand experience with the demo, and their ultimate sense of taste. This feedback was highly respected by the team and didn't feel like classic executive swoop-ins because of how deeply involved the senior leaders were on a weekly basis with engaging in-depth with the product during these demos. The nature of these meetings also looked so different from traditional exec meeting topics with discussions around market opportunity, competitors, resourcing, etc. They were instead fundamentally about the design and user experience. And each leader would play with the product themselves just as a user would to really connect with the product experience. Equally important to their process was extreme product dogfooding, which they called living on the product. They understood that even after making initial product decisions in these demo reviews, they needed to continue to experience the product on a daily basis to ensure the experience was actually satisfying. And in doing so, they would continually come up with feedback from amongst the team who was living on the product, and incorporate that feedback into the product. Ken shares how each change he made to the keyboard auto-correction capabilities would be rolled out to the small team of iPhone software engineers and how the feedback directly from those individuals shaped his future iterations. I do regularly see a disconnect in product quality emerge when the product, design, and engineering teams aren't using their own product on a daily basis. And finally, the teams tasked with owning critical software components were very small empowered teams of individuals. Each component would have a DRI - a directly responsible individual - who was ultimately on the line for producing that component. And there was a fundamental belief that small teams did the best work, because they were empowered to do so. Ken was the DRI for the iPhone keyboard and worked directly and closely with an associated designer. Glaringly absent from these teams were in fact product managers. The responsibility instead was divided amongst the engineers, designers, a program manager for project management support, and the senior leader. By empowering these very small teams they had the ability and motivation to do their very best work. I would encourage you to check out the book for yourself as it was a fascinating glimpse into the design process of one of the world's most innovative product companies: Creative Selection by Ken Kocienda.

I bought this one when it was released a few years ago, not because I knew the author at the time (I didn't), but because a number of pundits that I respected spoke highly of Ken and his way of sharing a window in to Jobs-era Apple. In the time since then, I've following the author and his latest writings and work, so I decided to dive in this weekend, and I’m glad I did. I’m an Apple fan, and I've followed the author for 2 years as he's shared tidbits from his story on social media, so although there were more than a few stories that I was familiar with, his way of sharing context was still a lot of fun. What I didn't realize when I jumped in was that I'd also be given a systematized approach to understanding how Apple approached their new products. That was a nice surprise, and I'll definitely be taking a few ideas into my product work. All in all it was a solid read. Not groundbreaking insights, but a great window into a world that is so fascinating to me. If you're into tech, or Apple, or even Jobs, this is an easy one to dive into and I’m sure you'll enjoy it.

If you’re like me and you want an insider look at one of the best companies in the world… this book is a no brainer

Bought this book because it was one of the books Nipsey read. So far it’s in my book collection and library I’ve been building up.

Remember the popularity of the crackberry? You might remember being a bit fascinated and skeptical about typing on the new iPhone touchscreen keyboard. We take it all for granted now. But there was a time when no one knew if it would work. This story is told by Ken, the software developer who was at the heart of the unknown outcome and the steps he went through with his team to make the software into the pervasive Interface control we all know and use everyday. It’s easy to take for granted now, but success wasn’t assured. Apple had to overcome the risk of failing in the market like it did with the Newton. So the pressure was on and this team delivered, so how did they do it? Ken walks us through how he made it, what it was like to demo it to Steve Jobs. What it was like to work at Apple during the company’s highest moments and how his smart and humble team helped him get it done. This book is for... It’s an interesting read if your at all interested in the mystery of Apple’s top secret product creation process. I’m in the tech business myself, I imagine many of my peers in usability and product design enjoying this book.

In the book you learn way more than the history of some of Apple's defining products. You learn about why listening to employees matter, why self control and empathy are a leader's best friend. You also learn about the endless payoffs of being practical at every level of the organization. It's simply well written Ken

Si te interesa conocer el “behind the scenes” del desarrollo de iDevices, este libro es la opción. Ken nos lleva de la mano a Cupertino a la época de desarrollo de Safari, WebKit y el teclado del iPhone original. Hay mucho que aprender del ser y quehacer de la industria y muy entretenidas anécdotas del proceso creativo. En lo personal, me permitió conocer un poco más de Scott Forstall, el polémico antiguo VP de iOS. Lo recomiendo mucho.

I really enjoyed this book as someone who works in software development and is trying to build products that users love. Ken’s accounts of Apple’s principles and the creative selection process is not just fascinating to read about, but can also be applied to your own work. I also geeked out over the iterative journey to decide the iPhone autocorrect algorithm or to decide what the size of an icon should be. This book is a window into how Apple built and continues to build incredible products that seamlessly mould into people’s lives. I highly recommend it for anyone who is curious about Apple or about developing products for people to use.

Good book to get an insight on how some Apple magic was created in Jobs’s time

As I continued reading towards the end of the book, my iPhone's screen brightened and chimed a message - that was such a nostalgic moment as I saw Ken Kocienda and the Purple (the iPhone's project name) team in their lab working out the kinks on the software! The hard & smart work that had gone into the making of one of the most iconic technological products ever hit me hard - what we take for granted today with smartphones had an evolutionary history that Creative Selection details so well on many aspects Ken's writing evokes shades of highly technical, philosophical, and deeply spiritual reverence to the Design methodology at Apple under Steve Jobs. If you're interested to learn how Apple produced such stellar products like Safari web browser, iPhone & iPad, etc., then look no further than Ken's book. A first person account of the entire product and project journey interspersed with Ken's vulnerable and humble writing style bring it all out in glory Written primarily for the product development and programming crowd, there are certain chapters or sections that are highly technical, but for non-technical background readers, it's still easily digestible. In fact, some of us might even take a liking to understand more about the technical aspects of our browsing experience after reading this book (I did a little! :-)) Overall, if you would like to know more about that smartphone you hold in your hand, the autocorrection feature you use so frequently day-in and day-out or simply marvel at the glass screen into which you type and the characters stare back at you - then, this is THE book to grab and read. I promise, you'll enjoy every bit of this book as I did!