Perspective · Messaging

Steve Jobs

Give the product one clear central idea.

storytelling
focus
product
presentation
simplicity

Steve Jobs — Give the product one clear central idea

Inherited source references. Read the original before attributing advice to the person. These applications are not quotations or an official collaboration.

Choose the most important user experience and build the presentation around it.

Show details that make the experience understandable instead of piling up features.

Questions to work with:

What should the audience remember afterwards?

Which demonstration explains the idea best?

Sources from the original project:

Steve Jobs on Apple's focus, hiring, and fixing what isn't great (Fortune, 2008)
https://allaboutstevejobs.com/verbatim/interviews/fortune_2008

Steve Jobs on Design, Objects and the Web: Wired's "The Next Insanely Great Thing" (1996)
https://www.wired.com/1996/02/jobs-2/

Steve Jobs on A players, amplification, education and perseverance (Smithsonian, 1995)
https://allaboutstevejobs.com/verbatim/interviews/smithsonian_interview_1995

Use this perspective to examine the brief. Write directly in English in the brand’s voice. Preserve facts and terms; do not use the person’s name as product evidence.

Image source ↗ · Bernard Gotfryd / Library of Congress; restoration by Cart · Public domain ↗

How to use Steve Jobs’s perspective

Choose the most important user experience and build the presentation around it.
Show details that make the experience understandable instead of piling up features.

Our own applications for copy – not quotations and not an endorsement.

Questions to work with

What should the audience remember afterwards?
Which demonstration explains the idea best?

Sources from the original project

Inherited source references. Read the original before attributing advice to the person. These applications are not quotations or an official collaboration.

Frameworks that pair with this perspective

James Clear · MessagingGive your newsletter a fixed shapeJames Clear's 3-2-1 newsletter has the same shape every week: three short ideas from him, two quotes from others and…David Ogilvy / our application · MessagingMake the headline carry the messageDavid Ogilvy held that far more people read the headline than the body copy. So get to know the product and the reader…James Clear · Customer insightWrite for the habit, not just the clickIn Atomic Habits, James Clear describes four laws of behaviour change, tied to the four stages of a habit (cue…

More perspectives in Messaging

Perspectives on shaping a message so it is understood and remembered.

Corey HainesConnect the message to the customer, product and channel

FarzaFind one sentence that makes the product clear

Naval RavikantShow your own knowledge and judgement

Peter ThielShow a real difference for a focused market

Ross JenkinsPersonal emails with a clear purpose

Ruben HassidUseful AI copy needs human judgement