Amaya Toman The apple product development process is one of the most successful processes ever applied in the world of technology. Perfectionism, attention to detail, highly thought-out procedures and high secrecy result in high-quality products. Come with us to take a closer look at how the development is going.
Apple is famous for its emphasis on maximum secrecy. In the days of Steve Jobs, it was practically impossible to find out details about internal company processes. Holding back on the details of the product design process has paid off for Apple countless times, so it's no wonder they're trying to stick to these ruts even today.
But Adam Lashinsky, author of the book Inside Apple: How America's most Admired and Secretive Company Really Works, had the opportunity to look into the mentioned process. Of course, Apple continues to keep a number of its aspects to itself, but thanks to Lashinsky, we can get a fairly clear idea of the product development process.
Design above all
How to give designers the freedom to design and at the same time be sure that the products they make will be in line with your vision? At Apple, design is always at the forefront. Jony Ive, the leading designer of the Cupertino company, leads his design team, which has a complete freedom in this area, starting with setting the budget and ending with an approach to common manufacturing practices.
During the course of designing a new product, the design team always works independently from the rest of the company—Apple even makes special checks to make sure the team doesn't interact with other employees during the day. At the same time, the design process also completely excludes the design team from the traditional hierarchy at Apple, thanks to which it can fully focus exclusively on the design process.
When the responsible team starts working on the development of a new product, they receive information labeled ANPP - Apple New Product Process, containing details about all stages of the process. The main idea of this step is to determine which stages the team will have to go through, who will be responsible for the final product, who will undertake which part of the whole process and how long it will take for the development to reach a successful end.
Key Monday
Mondays at Apple are dedicated to meetings with the design team and consultation of all products that are currently in the design process. Again, it is not as difficult as it might seem at first glance - one of the key aspects of the success of the apple company is the principle of not working on hundreds of different products at the same time. Instead, Apple prefers to focus on a handful of projects that it is confident will bear fruit.
A product that cannot be discussed at the current meeting for any reason is automatically assigned priority at the next Monday meeting. In short, each of the Apple devices must absolutely pass an inspection by the executive team at least once. Thanks to these regular analyses, Apple manages to minimize the delay of important decisions.
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David Hanak EPM and GSM
EPM stands for "Engineering Program Manager", GSM in this case stands for "Global Supply Manager". Together, the two have earned the nickname "EPM Mafia" and their job is to take control of the product as it moves from the design process to production. These people are usually based in China, as Apple currently does very little in-house manufacturing and instead relies on companies like Foxconn. For Apple, this means not only less worry, but also lower costs.
As scary as the term "EPM Mafia" may sound, these are simply people whose job description is to ensure that products get to market in the right way, at the right time, and at the right price. At all costs and under all circumstances, they must proceed in such a way that their actions are always in the interest of the given product.
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Repetition is the mother of wisdom
Once the manufacturing process begins, Apple is by no means out of the game. During production, the design process is essentially repeated – the product is assembled, tested and evaluated. Then the design team starts working on improvements and the product is reworked. The mentioned cycle takes four to six weeks and can be repeated several times.
After production is complete, EPM will take delivery of the finished product and deliver the test equipment back to the California headquarters. This expensive approach is one of the reasons why Apple is behind so many revolutionary products, and of course all iPods, iPhones and iPads have gone through this process.
Unboxing - top secret
The stage when new product prototypes are unwrapped is one of the most closely guarded moments ever. Apple is understandably trying to do its best to prevent unwelcome leaks. Even so, they do happen, but the leaked photos do not come from the company's headquarters in Cupertino, but from the production lines in China.
When the product goes out into the world
The final step of the development process is the release of the product itself. The moment a product is recognized as good enough to go out into the world, it goes through an action plan called "the Rules of the Road", which precedes the actual launch. Failure at this stage of the process could cost the responsible employee their job immediately.
The entire process of creating an apple product, starting with the idea and ending with the sale, is very complex, expensive and demanding. Compared to most mainstream business theories, it shouldn't even work, but in fact it has exceeded even the wildest expectations.
Source: Interaction Design
"one of the most accurate companies in the world" - that used to be true, but unfortunately not anymore. Anyway, Tim Cook, how about that?