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> So how can you tell the difference between an Ice Cream Glove and a Snuggie? You can’t. Steve Jobs can. :-) I'm only half joking. I know of no name for what

by mrshoe 17y ago

> So how can you tell the difference between an Ice Cream Glove and a Snuggie? You can’t. Steve Jobs can. :-) I'm only half joking. I know of no name for whatever ethereal quality Jobs possesses, but it is often the difference between a successful entrepreneur and an unsuccessful one. Building every single product idea to the point that you can get it into customers hands just requires too many resources. You have to narrow down the playing field before you start prototyping, even. It's impossible to let your customers make all the decisions. Some people just have the innate crystal ball which tells them what customers want and what they don't.

joe_the_user 17y ago
I think read an interview with Jobs where said something akin to every product he produced, he produced because he and his team found it super-cool and really wanted to have it - and that they did very little other market research. IF you can create things like that, that have the wow factor, THEN you're there. But this not the Snuggie OR the Ice Cream Glove, this is the hover board, once you have a real, working copy. -- There you have a third point the article leaves out. It's not hard to think of Hover Boards, it's very hard to make them. I suspect that Jobs was in the right place at the right time to rise to the level where he could demand that every product be a Hover Board and get that demand often met. That's not always where entrepreneur wind-up and plenty of folks, more folks, make money with Snuggies than with Hover Boards BUT the conditions for Hover Board Success should not be overlooked.
- eries 17y ago
  For an alternate POV, see: http://startuplessonslearned.blogspot.com/2009/08/steve-jobs-method.html http://startuplessonslearned.blogspot.com/2009/08/steve-jobs... In particular, Jobs is quoted as saying "It’s not about pop culture, and it’s not about fooling people, and it’s not about convincing people that they want something they don’t. We figure out what we want. And I think we’re pretty good at having the right discipline to think through whether a lot of other people are going to want it, too. That’s what we get paid to do."
philwelch 17y ago
Jobs' unique ability is the ability to repeat this kind of insight. For many entrepreneurs, there's a large element of chance that aligns what they want with what the market wants.

by mrshoe 17y ago

joe_the_user 17y ago

I think read an interview with Jobs where said something akin to every product he produced, he produced because he and his team found it super-cool and really wanted to have it - and that they did very little other market research. IF you can create things like that, that have the wow factor, THEN you're there. But this not the Snuggie OR the Ice Cream Glove, this is the hover board, once you have a real, working copy. -- There you have a third point the article leaves out. It's not hard to think of Hover Boards, it's very hard to make them. I suspect that Jobs was in the right place at the right time to rise to the level where he could demand that every product be a Hover Board and get that demand often met. That's not always where entrepreneur wind-up and plenty of folks, more folks, make money with Snuggies than with Hover Boards BUT the conditions for Hover Board Success should not be overlooked.

eries 17y ago
For an alternate POV, see: http://startuplessonslearned.blogspot.com/2009/08/steve-jobs-method.html http://startuplessonslearned.blogspot.com/2009/08/steve-jobs... In particular, Jobs is quoted as saying "It’s not about pop culture, and it’s not about fooling people, and it’s not about convincing people that they want something they don’t. We figure out what we want. And I think we’re pretty good at having the right discipline to think through whether a lot of other people are going to want it, too. That’s what we get paid to do."

philwelch 17y ago

Jobs' unique ability is the ability to repeat this kind of insight. For many entrepreneurs, there's a large element of chance that aligns what they want with what the market wants.