Silicon Valley’s best kept product secret
Elan Miller
Today I’m going to let you in on the secret design philosophy behind product legends like Steve Jobs, Jeff Bezos, & Brain Chesky.
The other day I was listening to Tim Ferris interview Tony Faddell, the founder of Nest and lead designer on the original iPod. He’s famous for being one of the most successful innovators of our generation—and worked hand-in-hand with the 🐐 Steve Jobs.
His approach to designing products might surprise you; it goes against the grain of Silicon Valley’s “build measure learn” mantra.
“The story doesn’t exist to sell your product, it’s there to help you define it.”
That’s right, instead of building a product and then figuring out how to market it, he pushes his team to define the story first—specifically how it’s marketed. And then they use that story as a “North Star” to make critical product decisions that deliver on that story for customers.
From: Build a product and then figure out how to market it
To: Figure out your story and use it to design your product
Tony emphasized that Steve Jobs was such a prolific presenter because he nailed his story from the outset and practiced it everyday when guiding the team. By the time he got on stage to present it to the world, he didn’t need any notes—he knew it like the back of his hand—and the product was story-ready.
Bezos is a story-first proponent as well. Product leads at Amazon kick off new feature development by writing their launch press release including the headline, publication, dream metrics the journalist would cite, & quotes from happy customers. Tony talked about how he even used this “start with the press release” exercise to outline his new book.
Brian Chesky leads with narrative too. Airbnb is famous for storyboarding the “five star experience” before they move to prototypes. What’s even more interesting—he pushes his team to think about the six, seven, & even ten star experience—to dream big when it comes to delighting customers before working backwards to achieve what’s possible today.
Starting with the story helps your team clarify how your solution is differentiated & effective in your customers minds—while aligning the team on the best path forward. Most importantly, it helps you prioritize (and sometimes cut) features based on how integral they are to your narrative. Story is the ultimate decision making framework.
Next time you build a product, try leading with story and see where it takes you. It’s the best kept secret in Silicon Valley.
(Shoutout Alex & Zach for reading drafts.)
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