Forbes interviewed Horace Luke, the Chief Innovation Officer at HTC. He joined the company in 2007, and has a history with Microsoft, where he worked on the XBOX and Windows Mobile, Nike, where he designed exhibition spaces, and has also designed furniture, jewelry, and even dabbled in architecture. A modern renaissance man.
When Forbes National Editor Quentin Hardy asked Luke what he was working on right now, he said:
“What we deliver now is 10% to 20% of what we want.”
Meaning HTC has a hell of a lot of dreams, now they just need to hire the right talent to make it happen, and make it happen fast. Another choice quote from the article: “Hardware is what attracts them–it’s the first date. Software, the usability, is how they fall in love.” And we couldn’t agree more. Glass, metal, plastic, no matter how pretty you can mold them into the shapes and forms you desire, they’re useless if you can’t enjoy the experience of using said products.
Here’s how Luke benchmarks his ideas, and whether or not they’re successful:
“I tell my teams to measure a storytelling of 10s. In the first 10 seconds they have the phone, do they understand what they are getting? Then the first 10 minutes: Is it easy to engage with the product, do a simple task? At 10 days, are they frustrated with the product or telling their friends about it? What are they starting to discover? At 10 weeks, what are the powerful features they didn’t use before? Are they putting folders and widgets for their own stuff in the phone? At 10 months, they may be ready for a change. Did your brand fulfill its promise, so they stay with you?”
It’s a short interview, and he goes on to talk about hype and clones. Recommended.
For what it’s worth: I’ve never had an HTC customized phone. I’ve only had one HTC device actually, the Google Nexus One.