What Makes a Company Obsession-Worthy? How Tesla and Apple Got it Right, Part 2

Part II of My Blog on the Tesla/Apple Model of Top-tier Engineering Married to Exceptional Design. 

Read Part 1

Here are the three big things I see Apple and Tesla do that Achieve Internet is striving to emulate in order to become obsession-worthy:

1.  Focus on Usability and Design as Much as Engineering  

As with many Drupal development shops, my team is predominately engineers. We went to school, we got degrees, we learned the ins and outs of architecting applications from a software perspective. We didn't go to school to learn usability, and so we spend less time and energy worrying about how the end user interacts with the application. Moving forward, I want clients to walk away with the feeling that they didn't have to sacrifice on design to use Drupal or to get the functional solution they wanted. Clients want functionality and design, and I want us to make that happen for them.

2.  Stay Committed to Delivering Only When the Product is Ready

I know Tesla pushed back shipping dates for the Model S, and I've seen Apple push back (external) deadlines multiple times in the past. I'm certain Apple and Tesla don't push back deadlines for fun, they do it because they're committed to delivering a rock-solid product. Our deadlines are often wrapped around events that predicate we must deliver by a certain date, so I'm not actually advocating that we push deadlines, but - as much as it pains me to say it - there may be times in the future where a feature is not ready for production. When that's the case, we'll have to be strong and honest as a partner to ensure that we wait until functionality is ready before it's deployed. For the most part, though, we're not going to push deadlines, and that means we have to be dedicated to keeping up with our delivery schedule and working every day toward the end goal. I think our Agile processes already provide a framework to help us with this, but moving forward, the Agile process is going to be that much more important to ensure we can deliver a quality product on time. 

3.  Deliver More than is Expected

Oftentimes, it's hard enough to deliver on what a client has asked for, let alone predict what the client needs beyond what has been voiced. I think this behavior by Apple and Tesla sets them apart, and I believe we need to dedicate ourselves to it as well. I think this is probably the hardest to really nail down, but I think we can begin by continuing to improve the way that we conduct our architecture and planning phase of projects. We have to go beyond being developers and focus on being consultants that help clients know what they should be doing - which isn't always what they're asking us to do. We've built 100’s of Drupal sites over the years, so we have to share our expertise so that clients can get the product they need. At the same time, coupled with our focus on usability above, we need to provide user interfaces that don't just allow a function to be performed, but allow the function to be performed logically and fluidly.

Neither Apple nor Tesla got where they are overnight. Likewise, we're not going to transform ourselves overnight, either, but I think we can keep getting better every day. We have great engineering talent at Achieve, so now it's about putting the rest of the pieces together; it's about going above and beyond the expectation of a development company. Focusing on the 3 areas above - usability, quality, and over-delivery - should help us get 1 step closer to these companies that I obsess about. Three small items to make us more like Apple. Three small steps to get us closer to that gorgeous Tesla Model S.