Finding Focus

Fred Wilson, on reading the Steve Jobs biography and observing how Jobs brought product focus to Apple:

“(Jobs) brought focus to the product line, and thus everything else. There’s this great scene in the book where Jobs draws a classic four quadrant chart, consumer and pro on one axis, desktop and laptop on the other. And he says “we are going to make one computer for each quadrant and we are going to kill all of the other product lines”.

I am only half way through the book and I am certain that this book should be required reading for any and all entrepreneurs. Jobs is the quintessential entrepreneur and there is so much to be learned from him.

The power of focusing should be at the top of that list. When you focus, you can rid yourself of extraneous expenses, you can get your best people focused on the important projects, and you can bring clarity to your marketing and what you want the consumer/customer to think of you for.

That last bit is undervalued I think…the clarity that focus brings to your product marketing and how people think of you is hugely important. Think of it this way. Focused products means better products. Focused products means less for customers to think about. Focused products means that you can say more about each product you do have. Focused products means that you can give more time for the product experience of each one, to tell its story more fully, and to pay maniacal attention to each interaction point, from the marketing to the packaging to the unboxing to the gameplay to the support.