very exciting and thank you Sam uh for
having me Sam and I have known each
other for for a long time because we
were fellow Sequoia companies and we met
in the early days of when when he was on
his uh company Journey um and so it's
cool so what he asked me to talk about
um today was a little bit about sort of
the hardware journey of building
products and so what I wanted to do is
give you guys a little bit of an
overview of jawone what we do how we
think about the world um and that
informs how we build products and then
goes specifically into the process of
how we design how we develop and how
that all kind of comes together and sort
of what we do to to change categories so
first off I always like to start with
with sort of the broadest thinking and
and the way we look at the world um is
we think of ourselves at this
intersection of of really crafted
Innovation um in engineering that's
almost invisible to the user in terms of
its functionality and that's at the
intersection of even Beyond design we've
been doing design products for you know
well over a decade now we think of it as
going the conversation has shifted even
Beyond design into Beauty and it's that
section of engineering meets Beauty and
the whole point is to help people with a
better life with technology um and
largely speaking we we do play in this
world of what everyone's talking about
now is the Internet of Things We were
there much longer uh before there was
such a a moniker um and the way we think
about that is it's smart devices that
have computing power and connectivity
with sensors in them that are measuring
all kinds of things they're wirelessly
connected and they're all talking to you
and we started on this journey really
really early right actually out of
engineering school here uh and we were
developing core technology we decided to
build consumer products around that our
first consumer product was the headset
we we sort of created um a headset that
became a wearable computer it was the
first job on headset um that was when we
started thinking about wearable
Computing we then um invented the
wireless speaker space um around
Bluetooth audio and I'll talk a little
bit about that Journey uh and then most
recently we focused our attention on
sort of this whole wearable Health
Revolution and using a lot of the
sensors that we did in the in the first
generation of headsets and applying them
to other parts of the body to understand
more about users so our view of of this
world having been here for a long time
is that it's a little bit of a mess um
in the Internet of Things everything in
in the world is smart and connected and
everything has an app built to it that
doesn't mean that it's easy for users
right your microwave your refrigerator
your car your Xbox your Xfinity Comcast
everything has an app it doesn't talk to
each other it's really confusing for the
user so we think that there's a
desperate need for an organizing
principle around all of this and this is
sort of the core of when we start to
think about how we build an
opportunities to sort of create products
we think about where is the world going
and so if there is going to be such a
world that that everyone's talking about
around the internet of things which is
happening you do desperately need these
organizing principles so that it's
easier for users to understand how to
come in and interact with these services
so we think the thinking needs to shift
from being less about the actual things
to being about the individual ual user
and so ultimately when everyone's
talking about wearables and you have
things like Google Glass and you have
the stuff that we do and you know Apple
watch and all this stuff ultimately what
we believe is that when you have things
that are on your body
24/7 they become This Kind of Perfect
context engine for everything in the
world around you right so my phone is
not on me it's in my jacket or sometimes
on the charger but my Up is on me and it
it understands everything that's
happening with me it's tracking my heart
rate it's tracking my respiration it's
tracking all these different things and
when I when I say context engine I know
I can tell the smart thermostat my Nest
that I'm hot or cold that device doesn't
have that understanding I can tell it's
hot that device I'm hot because I'm sick
I went for a run it's hot outside I can
tell your car that you're falling asleep
that you're agitated or irritated so
this is ultimately where we think the
world is moving is that wearables are
going to be the center of this this
revolution around everything being
connected and smart and they're going to
drive what a lot of those interactions
are going to be and how they're going to
work right and so that's sort of the
first principle that we think about when
we start to think about okay where are
things going and what we should should
we build and how do we think about new
categories right so in order for the
vision of what we're talking about to
happen you actually need to be great at
almost everything we need to be great at
what we call the full stack we have to
be amazing at building Hardware um and
these are Hardware experiences that
people have to keep on all the time
right you have to wear them 24/7 because
if you don't then everything that I'm
talking about is sort of a castle in the
air right you can't actually create a
service that people engage with or get
lots of data off it to then go power all
these other things if it doesn't start
with great Hardware so that's where we
start we try to build you know these
magical experiences in Hardware they're
absolutely powered by software we have
developed um worldclass software
application expertise um we've got to be
as good there from an engagement
perspective as something like an
Instagram or WhatsApp and then on the
data side we've got to know what to do
with this this massive amount of
information and process it and push it
and and have it work for the user so we
really see ourselves as being at the
intersection for the first time of a
company that's doing Hardware software
and data as three kind of equal stools
that have to work together in order to
unlock that experience around something
that's on you knowing what's happening
and then talking to the rest of the
world around you so that's a pretty key
piece of what we do I think it's
different than what a lot of other
companies do and it allows us and
requires us to play at all levels of
Stack now this was a complicated thing
for us to put together because typically
you know people who are great at
Hardware understand mechanical
engineering electrical engineering how
those things interact how you build um
at scale how you build tools Etc um
they're not typically great at at
building software and services right
it's a very different discipline a very
different skill set so when we first put
those pieces together that created a lot
of really interesting friction in the
company our software and our application
team was so used to moving really really
fast and iterating whereas in the
hardware World you've got to take your
time because your iteration Cycles are
much more deliberate you have tooling
that takes 16 weeks you can't just tweak
stuff and you can't hack it in the same
way and so what was interesting to see
as we put all these pieces together the
hardware team learning to move faster
the software guys thinking more about
how do they resolve experiences before
you actually have to ship it versus just
throwing something out and AB testing it
and then the data science sort of
informs all of that with sort of more
information to make different kinds of
decisions so how do we think about how
do we go how do we build products how do
we change categories first of all
everything for us is a system right we
don't think about it discretly just as a
piece of Hardware discretly as an
application or discreetly as a as a
platform we think about it across the
whole thing and so this is an example
with up right where we have these
tracking sensors on the body algorithms
there it connects to the phone where you
have this engaging application and
service experience we use the sensors in
the phone that talks to a lot of stuff
that we're doing in the Cloud where
we're taking all that information
driving inside on it and then we have a
huge platform of thousands of developers
where they have thousands of apps that
then plug in and also create more
experiences and so we think about it
across the whole spectrum and I'll come
back to this system think in a in a
second so what does the actual process
of of creation look like and this is fun
for me because we don't actually talk
about this very often it's quite you
know sort of um we keep it confidential
and private and I know that we're
talking now that we we're on sort of a
live cast every so it's fun for me to
talk about this for the for the first
time because it's not it's it's quite a
deliberate process right uh and this is
a little bit of what it looks like and
and this is kind of a map where we are
very unbridled in our imagination in the
exploration phase we start to validate
some of our Concepts bring those ideas
Tighter and Tighter and Tighter and then
we actually start to build a product
launch it and then iterate right that's
the simplest way to look at I'll take
you through each of these steps so in
the exploration phase it is very wild
it's imaginative we think about the
vision of where the world's going what
our strategy is what does the brand
stand for U and we think of a lot of of
of what you guys do here you're dreaming
you're imagining it how do you disrupt
what's the future going to look like
right it is a little bit science
projecty sometimes and and and we talk
about it in that way right and we do
build from inspiration and insight and
that and it sort of raw creativity and
we want to create and we try to create a
form where that's okay cuz a lot of
times in companies that gets lost
and then when we start bringing it to
early validation I always say like look
everyone when you're doing this stuff
you have to now take those Concepts and
prove them a little bit like you do a
PhD thesis right where you have your
conclusions you've done your you know
empirical data collection and you start
to say look here's where we see it going
here's what it's going to do right and
you outline the story and then once
we've sort of signed off on that phase
that we think okay you know what there
there this theory is right we start to
go into a concepting phase where we
start to really think about what is the
the experience and what's possible and
this is this is another interesting
opportunity for Innovation at a more
specific level of how this thing will
come to life or what it is and how would
we sell that experience and how would we
tell that story and then it and then we
decide that it's a program and it goes
into a heavy planning phase where we
start to look at and say okay we're
doing this we've got to ship it there is
no turning back right what are the
tradeoffs between all the creativity and
all the ideas we want versus what does
the physics dictate what do you know
battery power or all the different
constraints that we have and start
making those tradeoffs and start to look
at you know how do we pull that together
and then we move into um a development
phase where it's a handoff between
various stages um and and really various
functional teams in the company and you
pull it together and you're solving
problems as you go implement this and
you launch it uh and you learn um and
you see what users think and then you
start to think about where does this
stand in that experience Continuum that
you've been imagining where the world's
going to go what have we achieved what
haven't what have we learned from our
users how does that change what we're
thinking and then we start right over
again right so that's the broadest way
to think about it um a little bit deeper
on the exploration phase right so it is
very much like a building and tinkering
process right and and a lot of it is
driven by what we call Demo Fridays
where people kind of have an opportunity
to go showcase their work because we
find that that's a great way to pull it
together pull it in a form that others
can consume it and give feedback right
and it's a it's a it's a really it is a
show and tell um obviously hackathons
are a big part of it there's lots of
data that that gets driven and it's led
by our our strategic development team
which is traditionally called sort of an
R&D team and there's participation from
product and Engineering both Hardware
software um but they're sort of taking a
backseat and they're looking at what
these Explorations are right and the
executives in the company at this phase
are more of a sounding board they're
there to poke and prod and tell people
hey think about this or did you thought
did you try that how does that work
right so and in this phase in order to
move to the next threshold we think
about it literally as hey would I give
this guy 50 Grand it's a little bit like
an angel investment right would I give
this guy 50 Grand to go explore this and
see if there's a there there is there
something to do and our CTO is the is a
sort of final decision maker he gets to
sort of pick those things internally and
say you know what I I like all the
feedback this is the one I want to go
chase down and see what happens right so
then we get into this validation phase
and this is where it starts to get
really still led by R&D but they're
really poking at it and they're saying
how does this work we have these
leadership meetings with the broad
across functional team I have to show
results I have to go through a
scientific process to outline you know
why this works why why is it going to
happen and and you'll hear this is
really when we start formulating a
really important tool that we use in the
company which is what we call Wise
defining the why are we doing this why
does this exist what problem does it
solve I'm going to come back to that in
deeper in in a minute right um and so at
this point it's still an R&D lead but
this is when a lot of our um industrial
design team you Bahar and few project
guys they come in they start to think
about okay how can I pull this concept
into something physical if it's hardware
and how's that going to interact with
the rest of the pieces of the system our
product experience team is still also
driving a lot of the core values and and
what the storyboarding is but it starts
to become a lot more real this is when
we start thinking about okay how would
we build this you know how expensive is
going to be what's the budget going to
be Etc right
um and at that point right we start to
really validate can we actually build it
or do we have to wait 3 years for
Batteries to be there or or do we have
to wait for this other Innovation to
happen or do we have to wait from a
budget perspective or whatever it is is
there a business viability and then we
start to really start to sketch kind of
um briefs and this is where I come in
and and make the final decision on okay
I think this is there's really a there
there and we can now take this to the
next level and get it into into a play
and then we go into the concept phase
right and this is now when the the
responsibility shifts from the R&D folks
to what we call a product experience
team and the way we think about product
experience at Jawbone is sort of what
everyone thinks of a sort of
conventional design so from industrial
design to you know software design to
audio design to you know anything in
that touches that experience we have
writers on that team storytellers we
have you know ID people like Eve or um
you know genius creatives we have
amazing you know app level designers
graphic designers everything it's all in
one team and we call that product
experience and their job is sort of from
bits to Adams and back and all the way
through to unify as as one organization
um and that's when they sort of take a
hold of this and they start to really
kind of work out what is what is and
this is what we call when you're
starting to really drive the wise right
thinking about what's possible there's a
lot of innovation and creativity now in
the actual implementation of how we're
going to build uh and create a product
and we start to say like what are the
most important things in that product
that what are the most important
problems we're going to solve we call
them hero experiences right what are we
going to do how what is the bar that
that will be acceptable Etc right um and
at this point we start to really resolve
what we call these wi which I'll show
you again in a minute um and why is that
different from what anyone else has done
from the competition from the category
and then what is where does it go right
it's we don't like to do just oneoff
things we have to see a broader vision
and this is part of that that creation
experience is we look at at where do we
think the world is moving and how is
this thing going to be a stepping stone
to that ultimate envion that's where the
road map starts to get fleshed out again
I have the ability here to come in and
sort of be the final decision maker with
my team and say yep we're going to move
this to this next phase and here is also
where we look at some of these things um
and and when I get into some of the
speciic examples we have FastTrack
programs right so we took for example
the jam boox when we were in this phase
and we said we're not going to go
through the other phases we're going to
go straight into the development process
right because we want to get this thing
out we want to test it in market and
move really quickly so we have the
ability to sort of circumvent our own
process now and say like okay let's go
let's go really rapid um and fast track
it and recalibrate kind of the go to
market possibilities right so this is
when we after this stage now it shifts
from that product experience team to our
product managers who are really defining
the business plan when's it going to
launch when's it going to get into the
retail calendar when what is it software
release cycle really prototyping you're
actually starting to feel it um and
you're starting to make as I call a lot
of those trade-offs we like okay we
wanted to build this we can't do that
but here's what we can do we wanted to
be this way we have to you know we want
these functional experiences but we're
going to sacrifice battery life whatever
it is that's where we start to really
kind of pull those decisions and start
looking at it and and it's really a big
juggling act uh frankly at that at that
point right and so the product guys are
are driving that and that's when again
you know we we sort of look at and
synthesize all of what we've put
together and we say okay does it
actually cross enough things off our
list does it meet that that minimum
viability right because we we always
start with a very as you can tell like
this very big wish list of what's
possible and what we can do and then we
start to whittle it down and say does
this cross enough of the value threshold
that we think that it's it's worth
pursuing um and now can actually move it
into the development phase where again
product management continues deleted but
now you're starting to really get um
deep and this is where engineering comes
in and really starting to sign off on
like we can build it here's a time
schedule and how we ship and then again
you know product team is looking at how
should we go deeper on this how can we
increase engagement what are the little
Innovations what are the tuning what are
all the things that we need to do to
sort of make that um you know one of the
things that that we've been fortunate to
have is a lot of wonderful response to
the products that we built and and and
we take a lot of care and time and
detail really in in sort of this
development and concepting phase around
little details that create these magical
experiences so for example when we turn
on a jam boox you know we have this
pretty cool sound design that goes w w
and you know that that took you know
months to come up with the right audio
tuning we work with a lot of different
you know choreographers to to create
that sound but every time someone turns
it on I see them smile and they laugh
the feel of the rubber prototyping you
know there's one manufacturer in the
world that was able to make rubber at
the Quality and durometer that we wanted
and the colors that we wanted for the
first Jam boox right so all those little
magical details how to resolve even in
software right when we had the first up
and when it plugged in and your sleep
graph showed up even just the animations
of how you know the bars would show up
and and the way the cards would would
flow in and out that was a detail that
we thought about how is this going to
interact how's the user going to
experience that how are they going to
feel it right so this a lot of that kind
of stuff happens even at this stage
where you sign off on a program it's
going but you're making those kinds of
decisions all the way through and you're
trading them off and you're doing it in
the context of of this bigger picture so
um and continued Innovation is an
opportunity to keep refining and keep
doing all that stuff so um so how do we
think about it now you know kind of at a
broader level the sort of what is the
framework for how we think about these
signature experiences well we do start
with these y's right which is that
articulation of the problem that we're
solving um and then the themes around
how these become actionable Concepts
right um and then there there's what we
do is we build these cross functional
pods that take a person from the product
experience team a person from Hardware
engineering a person from software
engineering a person from the data team
and we put them together and they're
kind of a person there's this is the Pod
that owns that theme or that track and
they continue to sort of build that out
against the hero features and inside
features um and how we put that together
so I'm going to go in now in into more
specifics around what we call these wise
because this is where I I spend a lot of
my time really asking the question and
what it does is it seres as a really
interesting framework for us to be able
to come back and say hey do we meet
those questions that we ask does this
thing actually do it and it serves also
as a really good um guidepost for a lot
of our creativity and a lot of our
Innovation so that's not unbridled right
so it really comes down to a very simple
question for us which is what is the
user problem that we solve through this
experience whether it's a hardware
software data platform whatever it is
that once once we solve it people can't
live without it right they may have a
absolutely burning need to go solve this
problem and they can't you know they're
looking for a solution or it's things
like you know that that once you have it
you never thought you needed it but now
you can't live without it right um and
again the jbox is a great example of
that we did you know we talked to some
people when we were thinking about
making that product and it was
interesting because little story for you
guys when we launched the jam boox in
the fall of 2010 the market for wireless
speakers as a percentage of the overall
speaker Market was
0% right 0% last Christmas which was you
know Christmas of 2013 it was 78% of the
market right and so in few years we able
to transform this entire industry that
had been around you know since the 50s
and 60s turn it on its head and if I had
gone out and asked a bunch of people I
said who want who wants a $199 speaker
for your mobile phone I guarantee you
that in that focus group 0% of those
people would have said that I want that
thing or I need or thatd be willing to
pay for it but yet when we did it it
transformed an industry right and so
what we and and this is where these wi's
become super important is just really
focusing in on what you're doing right
and I'll go through one example in the
audio space which is the Jambo example
in audio and then I'll take you through
a little bit of how we did it um in up
uh in particular up 24 but it starts
with what we call kind of our our
category strategy and this is the sort
of experience framework right and and
our view was look all of your content
and media experiences are now on your
phone right they're no longer on your
iPad iPod or your computer and so we
need a different way to interact with it
that needs to be as mobile as portable
as high quality right that was our our
fundamental thinking and then we said
that experience need to be seamless
across time and space you go anywhere
through it different your car you know
traveling in and out of your house
around the house that that was
fundamentally what we were doing and we
said that's the whole point of why this
category should exist right and that was
the human problem um and then we said
okay what's in it for JA right why why
should we do this and so if you think
about that broader macro context that I
was talking around the internet of
things for us this was our entry into
your home right and so while everybody
talks about all these new things in your
house from you know lights and and
thermostats and cable boxes and fridges
and and you know smoke alarms or
whatever being connected media is still
the killer app in your house it's where
we sell millions and millions and
millions of units right so we said well
speakers can be our entry into that
world that's around you and and it can
be the Hub of things that we want to do
from a software and service perspective
in your home so there's there's this
interesting strategy both at solving
user problem but then why does it matter
to job on so those two have to go
together because you know a we're not in
you know philanthropic not for-profit
industry but B this is if you do this
well it allows you to keep doing great
products and allows you to keep moving
forward and doing interesting things so
that's sort of how we put that together
um and then we built this sort of what
we think the experience what we call the
experience Continuum is where is it
today right and when we started it was a
Bluetooth speaker right that was the
core enabling technology allow us to
connect to stuff where do we think that
it's going to go tomorrow and then what
happens when we can dream in the future
right and we start to really try to live
in tomorrow in the future and then start
to think about what we build today as a
graduate as a stepping stone to graduate
users starting in one place continue to
move and continue to move through that
and that gives us a view of how we also
make these tradeoffs right because we
say you know what we're not going to put
this into this product but we got a
space for in the next one and we know
that we can move users to that and
they'll be ready for it right um and and
that's that's a lot of of of the way we
build stuff is we sort of Define that
experience contain right um and then and
then we we do talk about this a lot we
don't think of ourselves as a hardware
team or software team or data company or
whatever it is we think of ourselves as
an experiences company right it's not
just about that physical device or the
feature the object it's about the system
it's about how the Pieces come together
and so when we start to Define these y's
they become the problem statement and we
say okay how do we use a piece of
Hardware how do we use a service in the
cloud how do we use you know an
application a sound a button to solve
this user experience problem that we
have and what's the right distribution
across that system of where you should
attack the problem right and where do we
need to innovate and where do we need to
pull together so that's a big big big
part of the thinking that helps us do it
right and you know it's when we think
about these hero experiences right we we
say it's it's really around the context
of why it's magical to the user right
and then like I said the system is a
flagship and then it has to go to the
level of emotional connection right
where you feel without it you're lost
like I'm going to go back home and get
it if I don't have it right and so those
are the kind of principles that govern
all these things and we have to keep
asking ourselves those questions is it
doing that so we pull this all together
in experience framework this becomes
essentially a brief for your engineering
team and your design team and all the
people that work on this in the company
that they can go back to and say what
are we doing and why are we doing it and
how does that work and then how do we
create against that right um and then we
have a a sort of whole process blueberry
is one of the internal code names um but
the user experience process starts with
a bit of research so we do actually
listen to users and talk to them but we
talk to them in a very specific Way
start looking for those key insights we
concept it and then we start to build
right and this is why we go Define those
lists of consumer problems the
principles how do we think about
approaching that what are the solutions
and then what's required in the product
to make that happen Sam could could you
talk about how you balance fact that the
user would never have told you they
wanted to pay $200 for a wireless
speaker with user research at the front
of this process yeah well there's two
different there's two different there's
a lot of layers to to use a research
right so what we look at that's a great
question so there's there's you know you
guys probably aren't familiar enough
with this yet but there are sort of
standard tools for what people do in
Focus grouping where they say you know
would you try this would you do would
you pay this do you want this feature do
you not want that feature what do you
care about that's one way to do it and
what you don't usually get there is
really great answers we ask different
kinds of questions we say you know how
much music do you listen to when you are
with other
people how do you play that music do you
listen to it on headphones or you listen
off the speakers on on your on your
phone okay how often are you with other
people how often do you want a
personalize experience how often do you
want to share how so we ask like we ask
a lot of questions we just ask different
ones and we don't ask them specific
things about do you want this or do you
want that we ask them how do they behave
how do they live and you say to them hey
if you had something that allowed you to
take you know a great example is iPod if
you said to somebody you know if you
could put a th songs in your pocket and
take them anywhere that's cool not do
you want a digital portable music player
that you know so again it's it's at a
price that was you know more than your
phone right so you know you got to you
sort of have to separate what are
questions that you can ask that are
going to help make you smarter about
your thesis versus trying to get
somebody to validate it for you right
and I think that's the real separation
is it it's that no one's going to tell
you what to build if they do then they
should do do it right and not you um and
so you're you're the one who's making
that decision you've got the thesis
you've got the creative idea you've got
the Innovation you got to use these
people to help you make it better and to
refine your thinking that's the
difference make sense got okay so I'm
going to switch over to some up 24 which
is the product that we've had in the
market um our our wireless product um
for health tracking um and the wise of
up 24 are really simple right well first
of all let me start with the wise for up
the idea there was there's so much that
we know about the world today through
Twitter Facebook social media access to
the internet Google Etc but we know
nothing about ourselves we have no idea
why days I sleep8 hours I feel terrible
sometimes I sleep three I feel awesome
like I I just have no idea right and so
I our thought was could we take a lot of
this sensor
technology help people understand more
about themselves and start to then make
better decisions about how they live
better and so this that was the first
product this was the second product we
said okay great now that we have
wireless connectivity it's not just
about Bluetooth or Wireless it's about
the fact that I can use that real time
flow of
information to understand what's
happening with me and and and go and
take action on it right I can get the
data in a more meaningful relevant
contextually important way at the moment
that it matters I can also get back
guidance in a structured way that can
help me go do things and I want that on
guring encouragement because everybody
you know knows that they want to be
better but they fall down or do whatever
um and they want a fluid way to interact
with it so this is what we were sort of
building in up 24 right we had this very
Cris set of five things that were the
wise of why we're building this product
and why we're doing it and our point of
view was that it was going to we had
this sort of fundamental narrative going
going back to the experience framework
where we said everything we do in up is
about you know helping people and
understand them track themselves it was
understand which is taking all that data
and converting it into knowledge and
then the third part was act so track
understand and act that is our narrative
for everything we do in the in the kind
of wearable Health space fundamentally
and it will be for for the entirety of
what we do it sort of help people get
more information about themselves data
is great understanding is better convert
that into things that they can have
create real knowledge that they can then
take action on so anything that we can
do to keep the device on get more
information help them be engaged and
then find ways of of um guiding that
behavior was was really really
interesting and this is the sort of
framework for the system um and you can
start to think about well that designs
how you build your data infrastructure
your Insight system how you process it
how you build the application experience
that surfaces it um and this is a little
bit more of a blowout around track
understand and act right so we got to
and and this is the the tracking part is
really fundamentally about the hardware
too it's sort of how do you design the
batter batteries how do you design the
embedded systems the materials the way
it latches on you how easy is it so that
you keep create the habit of keeping it
on your body right then you got to take
all that data and it's not just
visualization of
information like you know if I told you
your guys's heart rate was 75 is that
good or bad who knows the answer to that
question I don't it depends right on
what you're doing and who you are and
what's happening so just the data
surfacing is not enough you got to
contextualize why that matters turn it
into action that's the third part right
is action is key so let me understand
the data let me understand that when I
work out at 4:00 I get four more hours
of deep sleep at night that's awesome so
let me let get Ry minder at 4:00 to go
work out or do whatever right and that's
what we built and that's a lot of
infrastructure to sort of create that
experience but that's how we build
software that's how we build Hardware
that's how we build sort of the whole
system um and then often we we will talk
about different kinds of users and what
they care about um and what we think our
user base is made of um and you know
who's more into weight loss who wants
the sort of social acceptance who um are
people who are vain that just want to
look better um and and want it's it's
true so um you know there's lots of
different things and we and there are
people who have sort of medical reasons
for they use our product and we design
different kinds of experiences right we
think about using the platforms like the
phones and and ways to push
notifications and as part of the system
think right we think of notifications as
a tool for Behavior change right um and
then we actually start to go map out
these things what is a Smart Action
right is it real time does it feel
customizable does it feel Progressive
does it help me is it really tailored to
me right and then for this particular
type of user we go out and storyboard
and then these storyboards go to our our
design engineering teams who work
together and they actually start to
build off of this and what this does for
us is it creates a nice set of
constraints um you know my experience
has been constraints are really great
because they serve as opportunities to
resolve to refine to
simplify and push you to find the right
answer that is that it will solve a user
problem in the simplest way right and so
we we create a lot of those constraints
around what we're doing this is this is
uh the the sort of storyboarding for you
know getting someone to the goal and and
how they do it and what we use in in
real time so um and then then and then
we put in sort of the secondary
experiences right which is if we can do
this and we can fit it in it's not too
clutter or confusing we'll put it in so
that's a little bit of a snapshot in and
how we build and we have a few minutes
left so I'd love to answer any questions
or yeah questions would be great yeah
you got about a 15
minutes go ahead so let's say you have
this product right you have all these
features that you want to do all these
things yeah to satisfy um and you're
about to enter the design process right
how do you approach the the whole
problem right how do you break it down
so that okay solve this and to satisfy
you know it's going to fix this problem
this way right but
then because each design feature is not
usually exclusive so how do you like
approach it holistically while solving
problems can you repeat the question
tother Qui yeah I mean so that I think
the question was um when you have a
number of different features and
functions that you're trying to build
how do you look at it at a system level
to understand not within that one Silo
what the trade-offs are but what the
trade-offs are across the entire system
I think that's the answer to your
question you do exactly that you don't
think about it in one Silo you have to
force a lot of you know when it's a
small team it's really easy because you
guys are all sitting around a table
you're looking at each other you're
making those decisions in real time as
you get bigger and a larger company you
have to force a lot of communication
where everyone's in a room and that that
person says you know what if you build
if I if you were construing me in this
way um then I can't get the quality spec
that you need me to make and this guy's
going to say well if you do that and you
give me that much space then I can't fit
all the algorithms in at the battery
performance that you want and so when
you start to look across the system you
start to see everyone has to share what
their pains are and they have understand
if I make this trade-off it's going to
affect me over here and so you have to
put them all together in a room and
start hashing that but what's on the
board and on the walls and on everywhere
is what are we trying to do and does
that does that trade-off still meet it
right across all those all those
different silos because everyone's
thinking about the trade-offs in their
bit and they know what they need to
accomplish right but again is how does
that affect the whole the whole thing we
just went through this with up three
which is a product we're shipping in a
couple weeks that sort of Define the
next wave of what's happening in the
wearable space on the health tracking
side we we invented a totally new
sensing system right there was raw
science that had been developed that we
productize really fast and even just
trade-offs on like what the electrode
materials were had effects on
reliability
sourcing you know signal performance and
it just these guys weren't talking to
way had to get in a room do daily calls
for three hours where they're going
through each of their things it's
tedious but we're figuring out we knock
it down so it's a when you when you're
small it's really easy because you just
s all look at it but you have to always
have that definition of what you're
trying to do across the system and
that's why a lot of what I was talking
about was much higher level what problem
are we solving where does over time and
how all these pieces inform it go ahead
if a startup wants to build a system
eventually should it start focusing on
one small thing or should it start
looking at the systems itself and how to
build it all together I think I think
system think is is it's a way it's a
mindset right it's not a it's not
actually a system right there are simple
systems there are complex ones um you
know uh there you know a plane is a very
complex system a car is a very complex
system system there's other products we
make that are much simpler phone is a
complex system an application you should
think of as a system right and how all
the pieces work together you storage you
know the front-end experience what
you're doing the connectivity that's all
a system right and so that's more what
we mean about system yes for us system
is Hardware software and data but I
think within even anything there's
always system think and so it's more
just thinking about how the trade-offs
work across all the different pieces as
they come together does that make sense
yeah yeah go ahead
I have a question
um what's the decision-making process
between creating like uh related
products and same space so like for
Fitness tracking there's different
versions of up or for Jam Box there's
different versions J box you know what
goes into that um we do have a grand
unified theory um at some point around
how these experiences come together and
what happens and it touches a little bit
that point that I was making to you
around a context engine when you have
things on your body that can make
everything in the world around you
smarter like if I know the emotional
state of a user I can tell Spotify what
song it should play you on the jam boox
right I can tell the TV that you didn't
like that commercial they should fast
forward the next one or I can tell you
not to watch Game of Thrones on a Sunday
night because you don't sleep well right
so you start to see how I'm serious
right and so these pieces start to to go
together and so we do think at that
level and then we start to say what are
the building blocks that get there and
how do we establish credibility how do
we establish a distribution system how
do we establish manufacturing scale how
do these pieces start to come together
so there is a grand unified Vision um
for us and and we look at different
categories and different categories have
different Dynamics they move at
different Paces they have different
replacement Cycles a great example of
this right now is what's going on with
iPad and iPhone we're all very used to
replacing our phones every single year
iPads are not following that same
trajectory right so the replacement
cycle is different the use case is
different the problem solving is
different so you got to adapt to that
right you don't replace your nest every
year it's a 15-year install so how do
they build in that kind of a world how
do they think about so it's just you got
to think about your category the
replacement cycle the usage how these
things come together and and the
Dynamics are different right good so uh
first of all how you can with this a
unique pattern of the jaw B I mean the
PB background in the first place and you
think it's a it's a better design you
have this idea or you think the
functionality is more important which P
are you talking about you're talking
about the texture yeah the texture yeah
so texture of it's like signature of
every job and product yeah and a lot of
that was developed by by Eve and or a
design team and and sort of you know
coming up with a branded look so that
you know you saw the icon and you knew
what it was right whether it's here or
or anything so that was part of sort of
our our mission we wanted to convey a
certain emotional quality Etc some
people like it some people don't that's
sort of the nature of design but that
was all part of the same process right
go ahead remind on question sorry no
problem uh yeah so I guess it's kind of
building up one of the other questions
but when you iterate on a certain
product how does your process
necessarily change and how do you take
into account like information you might
have learned from let's say like4 when
like how does the framework process um
that's that's a great question I'm
actually going to go back to that the
question was is sort of not on the
initial product but as you've launched
the initial product what happens to your
thinking and how does that evolve the
process right so I'm going to I'm going
to um take it back to that that slide
that shows the um kind of the how we
create and the the process flow right
here
so sorry I got to go through these
builds
um so it's actually a great question so
this is you know say this is you
starting something totally new from from
scratch and you come out here and you do
all this stuff and you get it to here
and then you learn a lot and in the
first iteration of up you know in 2011
it broke it didn't work so we had to
actually go back to the drawing board
and so what that did here is we actually
ended up telling these guys a bunch of
things that they should be thinking
about and sort of unlocking a lot of
problems we had to solve that they then
started working on at a different pace
because sometimes this will take years
to come to fruition we can dream a lot
faster than what's possible right and so
even at core technology levels at sensor
batteries I mean chips right you know
processing what we can do with storage
like all that kind of stuff we'll say
well you know what if we have th those
are the problems that we're facing what
if we start running different parallel
threads to go fix that and so we'll
we'll start doing some work here they'll
look at it in different parts of the
process so there's room for Innovation
and all these different things but we
may see something here that we say let's
go straight into Planning and
Development we don't need to go all the
way back right so we have the
flexibility to sort of jump through and
say we don't need to do these things we
know that like it wasn't a big struggle
for us to know to go from a solution
that plugged in to go to wireless like I
wasn't concerned that we had to do a lot
of concepting invalidating I knew that
was going to work right so we can kind
of skip through those steps if you know
how to make those decisions what this is
more for us in a lot of ways is a way of
kind of taking a lot of innovative
spirit and creativity and giving it a
very focused way to actually get out
right um and so that that's the way we
think about it we have the ability to
sort of go back and forth and skip over
steps as necessary go ahead um I'm just
curious how large is job burn now in
terms of the number of employees and
then as you've added more employees what
were some of the ks that you encountered
of having you know not just a group of
five but more people working on one
project and then everybody getting H or
some of the like organizational tools to
to facilitate that smooth that's a great
question so the question is how big are
we and then as We Grew From You Know few
to many how did it change our our
thinking around process and tools and
how we kind of work together right so um
we're about 500 people um and we have a
a very remote setup we've been an office
in sunville headquarters in San
Francisco office in Seattle Shanghai um
Pittsburgh London and so we have a very
um you know distributed team that poses
a lot of interesting um communication
challenges but also allows us to get
where the talent is and and where they
are interesting people and specific
areas that we're doing I would say the
single biggest thing that that we
continue to always try to get better at
is that communication between all these
different people working in different
ways and forcing them to sit at the
table and say Here's what I'm working on
here's where my trade-offs are this is
what I think it should affect you
listening to other people and sort of
understanding it and then remembering
that we are building this system and
here's what happens when all the pieces
come together and then how do we we
solve problems but it's a lot of that
forcing that communication and doing
things like I I literally on up three
have a daily call that's 2 and 1/2 hours
with the
entire um Team from materials sourcing
manufacturing
design um sensor you know firmware
mechanical engineering all together and
they all have to sit through each
other's updates and but then understand
what those tradeoffs are and I sort of
force that communication so uh go ahead
um what at what point did you decide to
expand and how did you decide where to
expand to first you're talking about
geog so the question is how do we decide
to expand and when is that geographical
is that our team is that
markets how do you how did you find the
connection the other I mean I think a
lot of it um some of it's deliberate you
know we we we sort of say Obviously we
we build a lot of things in China so we
need to have a presence there and and
manage things so at some point we got
big enough that we wanted our own team
on the ground um you know we've expanded
sales I think we're in 56 countries
globally 100,000 points of sale so that
was we started in North America we went
to Europe we went to Asia now we think a
little bit differently about when we
launch what geographies we go to so it's
it's some of it's deliberate and plan
some of it takes time and again it's
part of that you know we want to be here
here's how we want to grow we want to
migrate our business this way um and
then a lot of it is also opportunistic
right there are markets that we've
entered where um you know we had a
really good partner we had a really you
know strong proposition or the the
culture was really well suited to what
we were doing you know we we for op
China's a huge market for us um we went
in with apple in in Apple Stores and
that was a great stamp of credibility
and we sort of rode that wave so you
know again it's it's it but we knew we
wanted to be in China and that was a
great entry point for us so I think it
depends on what you're doing
specifically and in and you know what's
appropriate for that situation go ahead
why haven't you made any
headphones I mean you know for us like
any category I get ask a lot of
different things you headphones is sort
of one um
for us it's like you know when we come
into a space we want to blow it wide
open and make sure we have a proposition
that makes it better for the user than
what's there today and make it better in
sort of order magnitude or two order
magnitudes and and do stuff so sometimes
the Market's not ready sometimes the
technology base isn't ready sometimes
we're not ready we don't have the right
capabilities to synthesize and pull
those pieces together so it's a
combination of factors whatever the
whatever the product or the category is
right all right one more question uh go
ahead in the red s yeah hi uh for
hardware company or assistant company
the product cycle is always a headache
uh Sam mentioned one early capacity we
tried to run a hardware company like a
software company I was wondering if for
any you can share there are you trying
to run job more like as much as close to
a software company to uh get user
feedback along along the way in your
development process uhhuh so I think the
question was Hardware companies are sort
of hard um to run they're different from
software companies how are we trying to
run jaw on right
um I I would say there's no model for
what we're trying to do it's never been
done before so we feel like we're at the
tip of the arrow we're putting together
disciplines that have never had to work
side by side to create experiences it's
very painful sometimes it's very fun we
try to take the best of everything try
to take the best practices of what make
you know rapid software iteration
testing and development deployment try
to apply that to Hardware we try to take
the resolution that you require in
hardware and apply that to software
design because web software is very
different than mobile software it turned
out that building mobile software was
actually a lot more like building
Hardware where you actually had one shot
and you had to get it right right out of
the Gat so we try to take the lessons
from each place and make ourselves
really good um and that's my job and
that's job of some of the other senior
leadership is to look at those
opportunities of how kind of take the
best of everything and put it together
but I don't think there's ever been um a
company that's been great at equally
great at Hardware software and data and
that's what we're trying to be
so all right thank you guys
[Applause]