Monday, November 03, 2008

Bob Sutton: Wisdom From Steve Jobs: The Importance of Killing Good Ideas:

The thing I remember best was that Jobs advised them that killing bad ideas isn’t that hard -- lots of companies, even bad companies, are good at that.  Jobs' argument went something like this:  What is really hard – and a hallmark of great companies – is that they kill at lot of good ideas.  Sure, this is tough on people who have come-up with the good ideas as they love them and don’t want to see them die.  But that for any single good idea to succeed, it needs a lot of resources, time, and attention, and so only a few ideas can be developed fully.  Successful companies are tough enough to kill a lot of good ideas so those few that survive have a chance of reaching their full potential and being implemented properly.  I would also add that this approach also applies to good product and experience design.  If every good idea is thrown into a product, then the result is a terrible and confusing experience. (This seems to be the problem with the latest version of Microsoft word, it does everything, so therefore is very annoying and confusing to use.)

4:25 AM