...ah, but that's the whole point! The iPad could never have come out before the iPhone because it wasn't perfect yet.
In fact, were the iPad under development at a different company, it probably would have been released in '07. The logic and reasoning from the top execs would have been: "Well, we know we will sell some. We'll probably make back our investment and then some! Besides, working out all of the kinks will take another 3 years and billions of dollars. Who wants to do that?"
This is what annoys me about most people's understanding of MVP. I see too many companies whose approach is: "Here's our thing. It does these 10 things. Each feature works. SHIP IT!"
Instead, the Apple approach is:
ENGINEER: "Here's our thing. It does 10 things."
MANAGER: "Does thing 1 work 100% of the time?"
ENGINEER: "Um...more like 85%"
MANAGER: "Is thing 2 so intuitive that your Grandma could explain it to me?"
ENGINEER: "Well...there's still 5 panels of configuration required..."
(...time passes...)
MANAGER: "Make it do 1 thing."
ENGINEER: "But, but..."
MANAGER: "And it better do that 1 thing better than any damn product even GOD could create!"
Comments
...ah, but that's the whole point! The iPad could never have come out before the iPhone because it wasn't perfect yet.
In fact, were the iPad under development at a different company, it probably would have been released in '07. The logic and reasoning from the top execs would have been: "Well, we know we will sell some. We'll probably make back our investment and then some! Besides, working out all of the kinks will take another 3 years and billions of dollars. Who wants to do that?"
This is what annoys me about most people's understanding of MVP. I see too many companies whose approach is: "Here's our thing. It does these 10 things. Each feature works. SHIP IT!"
Instead, the Apple approach is:
ENGINEER: "Here's our thing. It does 10 things."
MANAGER: "Does thing 1 work 100% of the time?"
ENGINEER: "Um...more like 85%"
MANAGER: "Is thing 2 so intuitive that your Grandma could explain it to me?"
ENGINEER: "Well...there's still 5 panels of configuration required..."
(...time passes...)
MANAGER: "Make it do 1 thing."
ENGINEER: "But, but..."
MANAGER: "And it better do that 1 thing better than any damn product even GOD could create!"
ENGINEER: "Ok!"