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What Makes a Quality Product?

By Burkey Belser
February 21, 2012

In a New York Times article, "The Apple of his Eye", Steve Jobs is quoted as saying: “Great products, are triumphs of 'taste.'" The article goes on: "taste, he explains, is a by-product of study, observation and being steeped in the culture of the past and present of 'trying to expose yourself to the best things humans have done and then bring those things into what you are doing.'”

This has been my personal lifetime curriculum.

"Truly outstanding designers, engineers and managers, Jobs says, are not just 10 percent, 20 percent or 30 percent better than merely very good ones, but 10 times better. Their contributions, he adds, are the raw material of “aha” products, which make users rethink their notions, of say, a music player or cellphone." (NY Times, Sunday, January 31, 2010)

Yes, talent, intelligence, drive and the ability to focus are central to excellence, but I agree with Jobs—the wide exposure to excellence that has gone before sets the baseline for the breakthrough "aha!"

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