Steve Jobs described a product-development problem nearly 20 years ago that I continue to see with clients all the time.

In August 2007, CNET’s Molly Wood asked Steve Jobs whether Apple’s pricing and design meant it appealed mainly to an elite, and whether his goal was to overtake the PC market in share.

Jobs answered with a different objective.

Apple wanted to make the best computers it could, products its people would proudly recommend to family and friends, “at the lowest prices we can.”

Then came the line that gets remembered:

“We just can’t ship junk.”

He said there were thresholds Apple wouldn’t cross, even knowing cheaper, stripped-down products could expand the market.

I see a version of this constantly with product companies.

The folks creating something great are usually pushing in all kinds of directions at once.

Make it better… Get it launched sooner… Keep the price accessible… Add the feature customers will appreciate. And fix the detail that isn’t quite right!

Oddly enough, margin is often the thing I have to remind them about.

It isn’t that they’re bad businesspeople, but because the drive to give the customer everything can be incredibly powerful when you care deeply about the product.

Jobs’ answer contains the harder discipline: “the lowest prices we can” still has a can in it.

Great product development involves several conflicting thresholds.

Quality has one. Time has another. Cost has a major one.

AND the business needs thresholds too.

A product you’re proud to recommend has to generate enough margin to keep improving it, supporting it AND making the next one, hopefully even better.

The goal is almost never to squeeze every possible dollar from the customer.

You’re working so hard to give them as much as you responsibly can without driving the business sense out of the product.

That’s a way harder balance than “ship the best thing humanly possible.”

And probably a healthier one, too.

If you’d like help creating and marketing products people feel compelled to buy, the product marketing consultants at Graphos Product can help.