Bethany Bongiorno (@bella-borgiorno) is a former software engineering director at Apple, a stint that included leading software project management efforts for iPad. Over the weekend she tweeted eight memories from creating the iPad, most of which I hadn’t heard before. Four of those memories were stark reminders of just how important Steve Jobs’s penchant for detail was to making Apple’s products great.
Here’s the Twitter thread in full, and I have some commentary below the fold:
Bethany Bongiorno Tweetstorm
i joined the iphone team in the fall of 2008, as an iphone software EPM, but was soon asked to lead the software project management efforts for a new device. which i later learned was a tablet…
— Bethany Bongiorno (@bella_bongiorno) January 27, 2018
(1) steve carefully chose the le corbusier chair that was used for the event. there was a sea of LC2 armchairs and each was carried out so he could inspect it in the stage lighting. did it have the right coloring? was there wear in the right places? did it have the right sit?
— Bethany Bongiorno (@bella_bongiorno) January 27, 2018
(2) when the third party developers were brought in a few weeks before the event, they were told they were only flying in for the day for a meeting. when they found out they would be stuck there for weeks, we had to take them to target to get more clothes and other necessities.
— Bethany Bongiorno (@bella_bongiorno) January 27, 2018
(3) the third party devs were escorted and monitored at all times. we all signed up for shifts, even on the weekends. they weren’t able to bring their phones into their workroom, or use wifi, and the ipads were hidden in stealth cases so they couldn’t see the ID before the event.
— Bethany Bongiorno (@bella_bongiorno) January 27, 2018
(4) at one point steve wanted to turn UIKit elements orange. not just any orange, he wanted a particular orange from the button on a certain old sony remote. we got a bunch of remotes from sony with orange buttons to try and find the right one. in the end, steve hated it.
— Bethany Bongiorno (@bella_bongiorno) January 27, 2018
(5) right before the holiday break in 2009, less than a month before the announcement, steve decided he wanted the ipad to have homescreen wallpaper. an engineer worked through the holidays so steve could see it when we got back. the feature came to the phone in iOS 4.
— Bethany Bongiorno (@bella_bongiorno) January 27, 2018
(6) angry birds was released in dec 2009. a few of us on the team had become addicted and i knew it was going to be pretty big. we wanted it to be shown on stage at the event to demonstrate compatibility mode, but not everyone agreed with us.
— Bethany Bongiorno (@bella_bongiorno) January 27, 2018
(7) steve felt the UI behind scroll views (safari, mail etc.) looked unfinished. he wanted the attention to detail to be carried all the way through, even to parts you wouldn’t always see (“back of the cabinet” argument). so the macOS dashboard linen texture was brought to ipad.
— Bethany Bongiorno (@bella_bongiorno) January 27, 2018
(8) when steve held up the ipad, a journalist behind me screamed “OH MY GOD! IT’S THE MOST BEAUTIFUL THING I’VE EVER SEEN!” i got a taste for what “insanely great” felt like. little did i know it would be the first of many moments like this, but it would always be my favorite. pic.twitter.com/Vx04ABWDY7
— Bethany Bongiorno (@bella_bongiorno) January 27, 2018
The Devil’s in the Details
I love all these anecdotes, and it’s wonderful that Ms. Bongiorno shared them with us. Anecdotes 1, 4, 5, and 7 are the ones that reminded me how important Steve Jobs was to making Apple products insanely great.
He focused on the little details most people simply don’t see, don’t care about, or don’t bother to do anything about even if we do see them. This was always a huge part of what set Apple products off from the competition. Even if we didn’t know why they seemed so much better, the fact that they were better was inescapable.
I’ve never been one to believe, think, or argue that Apple can’t succeed without Steve Jobs. Current CEO Tim Cook has done an amazing job of building on Steve Jobs’s own work ensuring Apple would continue on without him. I’ve gone so far as to argue that Mr. Cook may well be the better CEO to leverage Apple’s incredible success into new and bigger markets.
But in recent months, I’ve been feeling what I fear is Steve Jobs’s absence. From the worst security disaster in modern computing to ever-more frequent UI glitches, Apple seems to need that person who can obsess over the things the rest of us miss. Ms. Bongiorno’s stories were a sober reminder of that reality.
Apple’s products and mentality have been plenty enough of a sobering reminder over the past number of years all on their own. In my opinion, the iPhone was the last true innovation to emerge out of the Valley. The passing of Jobs was in a very real sense the end of an era, we will likely never have precisely that ever again. Doesn’t mean Apple can’t clean up its act, and I really hope they do.
Steve Jobs is gone. Get over it.
And no, there was nothing “special” or “different” about SJ’s attention to detail, than it is in Apple since his death. For example… read up on Jon Ive’s almost excruciating attention to detail, just regarding the Apple Park project. Everything from materials used, to methods of construction, even to choosing the ultimate chairs for the building, was painstakingly overseen by Ive.
And at the same time he was just as involved in the minutia of the development of all the great new Apple products that have been produced since Jobs’ death. These include: the amazing iPad Pro(s); the Apple Watch; AirPods; HomePod; and iMac Pro.
And that is just Jon Ive’s involvement. There are many other leaders at Apple, like Tim Cook, Angela Ahrendts, Eddy Cue, and Craig Federighi, who have been doing exemplary work in their respective areas of responsibility.
It’s time to stop pining for the “old days” when Steve Jobs was around, and to actually become aware and appreciative of how innovative Apple has been in his absence.
Not to mention, great new Apple products like the garbage can Mac Pro, wonderful Apple Maps, helpful iPhone throttling, the reliable IOS11, intelligent Siri! Yup, carrying on Steve’s legacy.
bother. forgot to check the notify button, so this is just to get me notified–please ignore. 🙂
You know, I thought Jonny Ive was supposed to be that person to obsess over the tiny details, etc. But he’s obviously been busy doing other things. Maybe he’ll now get back to these product matters that matter…
It does show Steve’s greatness and pedantic attention to detail. Yet I think it must have taken a different mindset to work for him. Seems like if his actions were taken the wrong way; it would seem like a dictatorial micromanaging boss. Of course I only observe from the outside so its great to hear people that actually lived it.