Steve Jobs (32 page)

unveiling the actual iPhone, and reviewing its key features.

Anyone who saw the entire presentation will most likely tell you

that the three-minute introduction described in the table was

the
most memorable part of the entire keynote.

Take note of how Jobs heightened anticipation to create the

experience. He could easily have said: “The next product we

would like to introduce is called iPhone. It’s Apple’s first entry

into the smartphone market. Here’s what it looks like. Now let

158
DELIVER THE EXPERIENCE

TABLE 13.1
EXCERPT FROM JOBS’S MACWORLD

2007 PRESENTATION

STEVE’S WORDS

STEVE’S SLIDES

“This is a day I’ve been looking

Image of Apple logo

forward to for two and a half

years. Every once in a while, a

revolutionary product comes

along that changes everything.

One is very fortunate if you get

to work on just one of these

in your career. Apple has been

very fortunate. It’s been able to

introduce a few of these into

the world.”

“In 1984, we introduced the

Full-screen photo of Macintosh; the

Macintosh. It didn’t just change

date “1984” appears at the upper

Apple; it changed the whole

left next to the image

computer industry.”

“In 2001, we introduced the first

Full-screen photo of the original

iPod. It didn’t just change the way

iPod; the date “2001” appears at the

we all listen to music; it changed

upper left

the entire music industry.”

“Well, today we are introducing

Back to image of Apple logo

three revolutionary products of this

class.”

“The first one is a wide-screen iPod

Only image on slide is an artistic

with touch controls.”

rendering of iPod; words beneath

the image: “Widescreen iPod with

touch controls”

“The second is a revolutionary

Single artistic rendering of a phone,

mobile phone.”

with the words “Revolutionary

mobile phone”

“And the third is a breakthrough

Single rendering of a compass, with

Internet communications device.”

the words “Breakthrough Internet

communicator”

REVEAL A “HOLY SHIT” MOMENT
159

STEVE’S WORDS

STEVE’S SLIDES

“So, three things: a wide-screen

The three images appear on the

iPod with touch controls, a

same slide, with the words “iPod,

revolutionary mobile phone,

Phone, Internet”

and a breakthrough Internet

communications device.”

“An iPod, a phone, and an Internet

Three images rotate

communicator. An iPod, a phone—

are you getting it? These are not

three separate devices.”

“This is one device, and we are

Text only, centered on slide:

calling it iPhone.”

“iPhone”

“Today Apple is going to reinvent

Text only: “Apple reinvents the

the phone!”

phone”

“And here it is.” [laughter]

A gag image appears: it’s a photo of

iPod, but instead of a scroll wheel,

an artist had put an old-fashioned

rotary dial on the MP3 player

me tell you more about it.” Not very memorable, is it? By con-

trast, the actual introduction whetted the audience’s appetite

with every sentence. After Jobs outlined the revolutionary prod-

ucts of the past, a listener could be thinking, “I wonder what

this third revolutionary product will be. Oh, I see: Jobs is going

to announce three new products of this class. Cool. Wait. Is it

three? Oh my gosh, he’s talking about one product! All of those

features in one product. This I’ve got to see!”

Every Steve Jobs presentation—major product announce-

ments and minor ones—is scripted to have one moment that

will leave everyone talking. The product takes center stage,

but Jobs plays the role of director. Jobs is the Steven Spielberg

of corporate presentations. What do you remember most from

Spielberg’s movies? Spielberg always has one scene that sticks in

your memory for years: Indiana Jones pulling a pistol to kill the

160
DELIVER THE EXPERIENCE

swordsman in
Raiders of the Lost Ark
, the opening scene of
Jaws
, or E.T. asking to phone home. In the same way, Jobs creates one

moment that will define the experience.

Jobs has changed many things about his presentation style

over the past thirty years, including his wardrobe, slides, and

style. Through it all, one thing has remained consistent—his

love of drama.

D IR EC TO R ’ S N OT E S

 Plan a “holy shit” moment. It need not be a break-

through announcement. Something as simple as telling

a personal story, revealing some new and unexpected

information, or delivering a demonstration can help

create a memorable moment for your audience. Movie

directors such as Steven Spielberg look for those emo-

tions that uplift people, make them laugh, or make them

think. People crave beautiful, memorable moments.

Build them into your presentation. The more unex-

pected, the better.

 Script the moment. Build up to the big moment before

laying it on your audience. Just as a great novel doesn’t

give away the entire plot on the first page, the drama

should build in your presentation. Did you see the movie

The Sixth Sense, with Bruce Willis? The key scene was at the

end of the movie—one twist that the majority of viewers

didn’t see coming. Think about ways to add the element

of surprise to your presentations. Create at least one

memorable moment that will amaze your audience and

have them talking well after your presentation is over.

 Rehearse the big moment. Do not make the mistake of

creating a memorable experience and having it bomb

because you failed to practice. It must come off crisp,

polished, and effortless. Make sure demos work and

slides appear when they’re supposed to.

IINTE

NTERRM

MIISSSSIIO

ONN 2

2

Schiller Learns

from the Best

Phil Schiller had some mighty big shoes to fill on January

6, 2009. Schiller, Apple’s vice president of worldwide

product marketing, replaced Steve Jobs as the keynote

presenter at Macworld. (Apple had earlier announced

that this would be the company’s last year of participation in

the event.) Schiller had the unfortunate role of being compared

with his boss, who had more than thirty years of experience

on the big stage. Schiller was smart, however, and delivered a

product launch that contained the best elements of a typical

Steve Jobs presentation. Following are seven of Schiller’s tech-

niques that Jobs himself would surely have used had he given

the keynote
:1


Create Twitter-like headlines.
Schiller set the theme of the day right up front. “Today is all about the Mac,” he told the

audience. This opening is reminiscent of how Jobs opened the

two preceding Macworld shows. Jobs told the 2008 audience

that something was in the air, foreshadowing the MacBook Air

announcement, and in 2007, Jobs said that Apple was going to

make history that day. It sure did when Jobs later introduced

the iPhone.


Draw a road map.
Schiller verbally outlined a simple agenda

at the beginning of his presentation and provided verbal

reminders along the way. Just as Jobs uses the rule of three

to describe products, Schiller also introduced the presenta-

tion as three separate categories. “I have three new things to

tell you about today,” he said (accompanying slide read: “3

New Things”). The first was a new version of iLife. The second

161

162
DELIVER THE EXPERIENCE

product he discussed was a new version of iWork. Finally,

the third was a new MacBook seventeen-inch Pro notebook

computer.


Dress up numbers.
As his boss does, Schiller added meaning

to numbers. He told the audience that 3.4 million customers

visit an Apple store every week. To give his audience a relevant

perspective, Schiller said, “That’s one hundred Macworlds each

and every week.”


Stage the presentation with props.
Demonstrations play a

prominent role in every Steve Jobs presentation. Schiller also

used the technique smoothly and effectively. As Jobs likely

would have done had he given the presentation, Schiller sat

down at a computer on the stage and demonstrated several

new features that come standard in ’09 versions of iLife and

iWork. My favorite demo was the new Keynote ’09, which

comes closer than ever to letting everyday users create Jobs-

like slides without an expertise in graphic design.


Share the stage.
Schiller did not hog the spotlight. He shared the stage with employees who had more experience in areas

that were relevant to the new products he introduced. For a

demo of iMovie ’09, a new version of the video-editing soft-

ware, Schiller deferred to an Apple engineer who actually

created the tool. When Schiller revealed the new seventeen-

inch MacBook Pro, he said the battery was the most innovative

feature of the notebook computer. To explain further, Schiller

showed a video that featured three Apple employees describ-

ing how they were able to build a battery that lasted eight

hours on a single charge without adding to the notebook’s

size, weight, or price.


Create visual slides.
There are very few words on a Steve Jobs slide, and there were few on Schiller’s slides as well. The first

few slides had no words at all, simply photographs. Schiller

started by giving the audience a tour of some of the new Apple

stores that had opened around the world the past year. There

were no bullet points on Schiller’s slides. When Schiller did

present a list of features, he used the fewest words possible

and often paired the words with an image. You can view the

SCHILLER LEARNS FROM THE BEST
163

slide set yourself by watching the actual keynote presentation

on the Apple website or visiting Slideshare.net
.2


Deliver a “holy shit” moment.
In true Steve Jobs fashion,

Schiller surprised the audience by announcing “just one more

thing” to close his presentation. He applied the rule of three as

he had done earlier, but this time to iTunes. He said there were

three new things for iTunes in 2009: a change to the pricing

structure, the ability of iPhone customers to download and

buy songs on their 3G cellular network, and the fact that all

iTunes songs would be DRM free (i.e., without copy protection).

Schiller received a big round of applause when he announced

that eight million songs would be DRM free “starting today”

and got an even bigger round of applause when he said that all

ten million songs on iTunes would be DRM free by the end of

the quarter. Schiller knew that DRM-free songs in iTunes would

be the big headline of the day, and he saved it for last. The

announcement did, indeed, dominate the news coverage that

followed.

This page intentionally left blank