The end of the black turtleneck” via zurb.com

Interesting look at how, over time, the curtain has been pulled back on Apple’s magic. Some of this article is meh, but there are a few good pieces in here.

On how we took the wrong things away from Apple and Steve’s methods:

Designer’s took all the wrong ideas away from his presentations. Big reveals were marketing techniques, not methods to surprise our internal product teams. Sexy interfaces were inspirational, not things we blindly copy without consideration for users. Going against the grain was a way to inspire people, not an excuse to shun the ideas of our coworkers . Secrecy was a business technique, not a reason for us to hide and design solo in our computers. Spurring focus groups encouraged risk taking, not give us a reason to avoid learning from our customers.

But now the curtain has been pulled back. We know the truth. We’ve known it the whole time from our own experiences. We just didn’t want to admit it. It’s like when you see celebrity news and realize “oh, they put their pants on one leg at a time like the rest of us”. It’s time to reshape our own thinking and processes:

It’s time for designers to embrace what really drives amazing products and innovation, connection with other people. The impactful design leader is not a lone genius that locks themselves away only to come back with magic that even they themselves don't fully understand. That’s myth, storytelling. No, the impactful design leader is a facilitator. They bring people together from all parts of their organization, rally them around ideas, and extract the best thinking into small gains that lead to big wins. They are found with people, soliciting feedback from designer and non designer alike. They realize failure is both an inevitable and necessary part of the process. They understand it takes constant iteration and a volume of ideas to get to the right answers. And they don’t have to wear a black turtleneck.