Amaya Toman Interviews with former Apple employees are a rewarding topic. A person who is no longer tied to a job in the company can sometimes afford to reveal significantly more than a current employee. Last year, Scott Forstall, former vice president of software, talked about his work for Apple and Steve Jobs. The Creative Life episode of Philosophy Talk was filmed last October, but its full version only made its way to YouTube this week, revealing some behind-the-scenes insights into Apple's software development.
Steve Forstall worked at Apple until 2012, after his departure he focuses primarily on Broadway productions. Ken Taylor, who also took part in the interview, described Steve Jobs as a brutally honest person and asked Forstall how creativity could thrive in such an environment. Forstall said the idea was substantial for Apple. While working on a new project, the team carefully guarded the germ of the idea. If the idea was found to be unsatisfactory, there was no problem in abandoning it immediately, but in other cases everyone supported it one hundred percent. "It's really possible to create an environment for creativity," he emphasized.
Regarding creativity, Forstall mentioned an interesting process he practiced with the team responsible for the development of the Mac OS X operating system. Every time a new version of the operating system was released, team members were given a whole month to work exclusively on projects of their own discretion and taste. Forstall admits in the interview that it was an eccentric, expensive and demanding step, but it definitely paid off. After such a month, the employees in question came up with really great ideas, one of which was even responsible for the later birth of Apple TV.
Taking risks was another topic of conversation. In this context, Forstall cited as an example the moment when Apple decided to prioritize the iPod nano over the iPod mini. This decision could have had a rather devastating effect on the company, but Apple still decided to take the risk - and it paid off. The iPod sold very well in its day. The decision to cut an existing product line without even releasing a new product seemed incomprehensible at first glance, but according to Forstall, Apple believed him and decided to take the risk.
