Counter Notions has an interesting write-up on Why Apple doesn’t do “Concept Products”
It turns out that when capable designers are given real constraints for real products they can end up creating great results. In Apple’s case, groundbreaking products like the iMac, the iPod and the iPhone. Constraints have a wonderful way of focusing the mind on the fundamentals, whereas concept products can often have the opposite affect.
Concept products are like essays, musings in 3D. They are incomplete promises. Shipping products, by contrast, are brutally honest deliveries. You get what’s delivered. They live and die by their own design constraints. To the extent they are successful, they do advance the art and science of design and manufacturing by exposing the balance between fantasy and capability.
I wonder if the same could be said for pilot projects. Is it better to release a product to your customers (internal or otherwise) in a partially complete state, or keep your cool and release nothing until it is ready to ship?
Another option (more available for software development and less risky with your customers) is the Agile approach. Instead of bundling many perfect enhancements for a knock-their-socks-off release, regularly release small and not-quite-perfect functioning enhancements. If it isn’t quite what they wanted on this upgrade, no worries – the next upgrade is only a week or two away.
Tags: agile, apple, software development
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