Credit: Gigaom
In an interview at Bloomberg Design conference , former Apple employee and current CEO of Nest Tony Fadell shared his experience of working as a designer for Philips and Apple.
In an article for Gigaom, Katie Fehrenbacher reports that Fadell believes that companies that design-driven, have a clear point of view and a story to tell that extends to every single person in the company.
Fadell recounted that at Philips, the organization is more financially driven. As a result, nine times out of ten, or 99 times out of 100, they would kill the project, either at the beginning, the middle or right before the product was supposed to be shipped, especially if there is a change in management.
On the other hand, 99 percent of projects that made it past certain milestones ship Apple. All of the workers at Apple — from the management to the designers to the marketers — had a point of view, a story to tell, and a specific customer envisioned for the product. If management changed, everyone is still on the same page, explained Fadell.
“When you’re in a culture that has a point of view, and drives to launch everything it does, you know you’re on the hook and you better bring your best game every time,” said Fadell. “Such a culture means that designers don’t do their best work and just go through the motions of creating a product. Why put your best work into a project that is just going to be tossed in the dustbin?”
