When I was young, I worked at the production company Pixar Animation Studios for over 13 years. He joined the company as a technical manager and was in charge of simulation tools when he retired. After leaving Pixar, he has worked in a variety of jobs related to engineering and product development.
When I was working at Pixar, Steve Jobs was still CEO and already a Silicon Valley legend.
I had the opportunity to present a new technology (a technology still used at Pixar) to Jobs. This experience was similar to a graduate school class in that I was forced to think about business as if I were an entrepreneur, regardless of the size of the organization, role, or title.
At Pixar, a series of blockbuster hits
Pixar
At the time, Pixar’s latest animations included “Finding Nemo”, “The Incredibles”, and “Cars”. However, these works had many technical challenges, and in order to remain at the top of the industry, the animation platform developed 20 years ago had to be revisited.
At the time, I was leading a team with four other leaders that was developing a new animation platform from scratch.
If we had worked at an organization other than Pixar and under a leader other than Jobs, our project would have been greenlit without any problems. All you have to do is create a detailed proposal and have it signed by the top management.
But that didn’t happen at Pixar, where Jobs was at the top.
The presentation to Jobs was like an “entrepreneur’s pitch.”
The author, Tim Milliron, is currently Podium’s senior vice president of engineering. He has previously held product leadership positions at companies including Google and Twilio.
This process took several months, reviewing the product, team, and plan with Jobs, conducting repeated due diligence, and obtaining approval from Apple engineers.
Jobs, as portrayed in the film, and those who met him first-hand, describe him as a “nasty guy” and, if not that much, a “stubborn and difficult person.” Certainly, Jobs had no hesitation when listening to our presentation. Jobs is sharp and intelligent, and he responds with “moderately skeptical” feedback.
Jobs’ way of asking questions was to narrow down a vague proposal to its essentials..
For example, if you’re giving a presentation about software, people will ask you, “So what’s Pixar’s secret sauce?” If you’re talking about a system, you might ask, “How do we make it 10 times more powerful than traditional systems?” “Why is this important to the core of Pixar’s business, which is to make the best movies?”
If you ask me this question, the answer is obvious. We want to provide animators with the best tools to realize the director’s ideas. I want to systematize magical data accidentally discovered in old systems, and allow hundreds of artists to collaborate on film production at the same time.
It was thanks to Jobs that he was able to clearly explain the “why” in his projects. What Jobs wanted us to do as employees was to clarify our vision. Explain why this solution is the best fit for realizing your vision. And to explain how we are a team with the best leadership to build that solution.
Although I was honestly surprised by the rigor of this process, I learned three important lessons from this experience. Let’s introduce it below.
1. Stay humble and don’t take your company’s resources for granted.
Even if your project is worthwhile, your company has deep pockets, and you’re competent, don’t assume your idea will get the green light.
Pixar certainly has a lot of resources, and in many ways their value proposition is clear. Additionally, the company’s management team is made up of some of the best in the company, having led successful teams that have produced some of the company’s most profitable films.
But Jobs always asked us to explain in detail that what we were presenting was valuable and that our approach was correct.
We rigorously pursue not only what we make, but also how we make it.. When presenting to Jobs, much time was spent collaborating with Apple’s engineering leaders, whom Jobs trusted, to ensure that the technology was reasonable.
It wasn’t until many years later that I came to understand this as well as Jobs did. Jobs sent us to the technology team, like a venture capitalist doing due diligence.
When a company has a lot of resources, great leaders try to get people to understand the “why” and “how” deeply.. Jobs knew that even with someone with a proven track record, he could never stop asking difficult questions and demanding clear answers.
2. Be a co-owner of your business, not a lone hero.
Our project team consisted of five members, each with completely different perspectives and sensibilities. Although each person was a “boss” and each had the “right to make decisions” on specific topics, the emphasis was on understanding each other’s points of view and ultimately reaching a consensus as a team.
That passionate collaboration has become our greatest asset. It took a while for the best arguments to come to a conclusion, but once they did, everyone was able to explain in detail the reasoning behind nearly every strategic decision. When Jobs asked him a tough question, this unified thinking proved more important than anything else.
I cherished the spirit I learned here as I continued to build my career as a product and engineering department manager after leaving Pixar.
Build strong “co-ownership” of the business between product, design, and engineering.Only then can we create the best solutions.
And when things don’t go as planned and you need to pivot the product, you’ll make better decisions if everyone has a deep understanding of the strategy and the thinking behind it.
3. How you communicate isn’t everything, but it’s better to communicate well.
Pixar executives are filmmakers. So, after presenting to Jobs and getting approval from the company, they decided to create an anime-style storyboard to explain what they were trying to create.
How do animators use this tool? How do artists work simultaneously on a single scene? How will the new system change an employee’s day?
Although the format was a far cry from typical VC-style pitches, it was a huge hit with the Pixar team. We gave our executives plenty of time to figure out how best to receive and absorb the information we wanted to convey, and it paid off.
Even after I left Pixar, I still keep the lessons learned from that time in mind.To ensure that your ideas are accepted and that you receive the best “moderately skeptical” feedback you can think of, it’s important to present them in the way that others will most likely respond to them..
Entrepreneurial best practices can help companies of all sizes increase the value of the work they create.
It would have been easy for Jobs and other executives to just stamp our project and pass a budget.
However, Jobs’ way of working is different from such normal internal approval. It’s like a VC pitch, with a rigorous problem definition and technical due diligence. Jobs used this method to make sure that the foundation of his business was solid.
*This article was first published on June 29, 2021.
[Original text]
(Translated by Yukari Watanabe, edited by Ayuko Tokiwa)
Source: BusinessInsider
Emma Warren is a well-known author and market analyst who writes for 24 news breaker. She is an expert in her field and her articles provide readers with insightful and informative analysis on the latest market trends and developments. With a keen understanding of the economy and a talent for explaining complex issues in an easy-to-understand manner, Emma’s writing is a must-read for anyone interested in staying up-to-date on the latest market news.