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Insanely Simple: The Obsession That Drives Apple's Success

Ken Segall

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Summary

Ken Segall describes the role of simplicity in Apple’s products, marketing and work with Steve Jobs. Drawing on his experience as an advertising creative director for Apple and NeXT, he recounts meetings and decisions behind the scenes. Segall argues that simplicity is a company value that needs active support across the organization.

  • SourceInsanely Simple — Penguin Random House · Book Description and author biography; exact ISBN 9781591846215
  • SourceInsanely Simple — author-hosted licensed introduction · Introduction: The Simple Stick, printed pages 1–2; packaging meeting

Why read it Our view

Read it to examine how a leader keeps work focused. Segall’s stories give you questions about whether a project needs its current complexity, how a decision removes extra work and who protects simplicity as the company grows.

Decisions from the book

Combining two packaging projects
  • Decision: Apple’s team was designing separate packaging for two versions of the same product.
  • Action: Jobs rejected the need for two packages and directed the team to combine them into one.
  • Outcome: Segall says the discussion ended in minutes, with the team wondering why it had not seen the simpler approach.
SourceInsanely Simple — author-hosted licensed introduction · Introduction: The Simple Stick, printed pages 1–2; packaging meeting

Written about

  • Steve JobsLeadership subject
    Segall describes working with Jobs at Apple and NeXT and examines his approach to simplicity, marketing and decisions.
    Source