Creative Selection: Inside Apple's Design Process During the Golden Age of Steve Jobs Hardcover – September 4, 2018

Creative Selection, Inside Apple’s Design Process During the Golden Age of Steve Jobs, by Ken Kocienda is well written and a thoroughly enjoyable read regarding Apple’s constant reiterative demo process, where Apple creates concrete and specific demos so peers can make judgements/comments/criticisms/improvements based off actual ‘physical’ samples. Substantial work is put into each demo, similar to the way ideas are pitched at Amazon in detailed memo form, rather than simple power point presentations. Unlike Amazon memos that are polished, complete plans, Apple demos are down and dirty focusing on the specific area/item being demoed, with the background staged (potentially a Hollywood-type façade) to engross to the viewer into experiencing the demo portion as if the viewer is using the complete product. The comprehensive due diligence/research involved in creating the demo (or memo for Amazon), helps to continually refine the idea.Concrete, specific demos allow peers to discuss the item being created in explicit detail, and offer distinct criticisms and suggestions. Ken Kocienda presents an interesting illustration of the importance of having a specific ‘physical’ item to discuss and critique. He uses puppies as an example. Think of a cute puppy in your mind and imagine as many details about your puppy as you can. I’ll think of one as well, I bet my puppy is cuter than yours. Under this scenario, we both have imagined cute puppies, but there is no way to distinguish which one is cuter. We can argue as we each describe our puppy, but we cannot resolve which is cuter without concrete and specific examples. However, if we have physical pictures of each puppy, we can easily discuss their actual merits. This example is relatively silly, but it demonstrates the importance of concrete examples. Without them the theoretical argument is virtually impossible, with them the discussion is efficient and relatively simple.The production of the demos at Apple forces the creator to get a true understanding of the underlying issues with his creation. The comments/criticisms received from peers utilizing the physical demo (rather than discussing theoretical images) are integrated into the following demo version. Each demo, building on all prior work. The best ideas survive, while the weaker ideas go extinct. From these constant, reiterative improvements, magical, one-of a kind generational products have been created.

Creative is a well-written book and affords interesting insights relative to software development for Apple, at least for us who are clueless about this process. It is pretty highly focused on how specific pieces of software were conceived and perfected, and reveals little about how strategic decisions were made at Apple, nor hardware design (Jony Ive, for example, was never mentioned). For those looking for a discussion of those sots of topics, there are far better books. other books that do a better job.I say self-absorbed in the title as the author pedantically and strongly made the point that design has to do with how something works-good design at Apple was design that the user found intuitive, easy, and efficient to use. True enough, but more broadly considered, especially as design is applied to physical objects such as toasters and cars, good design is also related to how something looks-- two objects may function, and interface with the user identically, but the more esthetically pleasing object is the better object. You get the sense that the author is trying to generalize the nature of good design more broadly than is warranted from the perspective of software development. Also, many words are devoted to the design-build-test-improve iterative scheme as though that is something new or unique to Apple. But mechanical (and other types of) engineers have been doing that for literally thousands of years.

I enjoyed this book since it goes into Apple's history, but I think the author is reading way too much into the process. I don't think that this "creative selection" process is actually what made Apple products great. Apple was successful because Steve Jobs and Scott Forstall knew how to lead.Giving demos (aka "Creative Selection") seems like a simple trust building exercise. It could have been any number of things, I assume it just so happened to fit Steve's management style (after all he started off by giving demos at computer expos) so that's what he decided to do since that's what he knew best. I don't think you need to read into it more than that. Like, sure, it's a great way to give/receive feedback, demos are quite fun. But it also could have been like, I dunno, something else too. And that probably would have been fine as well.

In the book you learn way more than the history of some of Apple's defining products. You learn about why listening to employees matter, why self control and empathy are a leader's best friend. You also learn about the endless payoffs of being practical at every level of the organization. It's simply well written Ken

A veces profundiza en exceso en temas técnicos, pero en general aporta mucha información interesante y reveladora sobre cómo trabajaba el Apple de Steve Jobs y el proceso para crear grandes productos. Muy inspirador.

As I continued reading towards the end of the book, my iPhone's screen brightened and chimed a message - that was such a nostalgic moment as I saw Ken Kocienda and the Purple (the iPhone's project name) team in their lab working out the kinks on the software! The hard & smart work that had gone into the making of one of the most iconic technological products ever hit me hard - what we take for granted today with smartphones had an evolutionary history that Creative Selection details so well on many aspectsKen's writing evokes shades of highly technical, philosophical, and deeply spiritual reverence to the Design methodology at Apple under Steve Jobs. If you're interested to learn how Apple produced such stellar products like Safari web browser, iPhone & iPad, etc., then look no further than Ken's book. A first person account of the entire product and project journey interspersed with Ken's vulnerable and humble writing style bring it all out in gloryWritten primarily for the product development and programming crowd, there are certain chapters or sections that are highly technical, but for non-technical background readers, it's still easily digestible. In fact, some of us might even take a liking to understand more about the technical aspects of our browsing experience after reading this book (I did a little! :-))Overall, if you would like to know more about that smartphone you hold in your hand, the autocorrection feature you use so frequently day-in and day-out or simply marvel at the glass screen into which you type and the characters stare back at you - then, this is THE book to grab and read. I promise, you'll enjoy every bit of this book as I did!

Esse é um bom livro para quem busca a visão de dentro da apple, a visão de como as tomadas de decisão e reuniões semanais acontece. É contata sobre a perspectiva de um funcionário que compartilha a paixão pelos valores e produtos da empresa.Uma boa leitura

Si te interesa conocer el “behind the scenes” del desarrollo de iDevices, este libro es la opción. Ken nos lleva de la mano a Cupertino a la época de desarrollo de Safari, WebKit y el teclado del iPhone original.Hay mucho que aprender del ser y quehacer de la industria y muy entretenidas anécdotas del proceso creativo.En lo personal, me permitió conocer un poco más de Scott Forstall, el polémico antiguo VP de iOS.Lo recomiendo mucho.