Great product strategy begins with the outcome you want to create.

At Apple Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) 1997, Steve Jobs was confronted by a belligerent developer in a super-awkward moment that could have easily gone sideways.

What happened next, as they say, will amaze you.

The critique was pointed and public (worth a watch if you haven’t seen it), but Jobs chose NOT to argue the specifics or justify past decisions.

He didn’t defend at all.

Instead, he stepped back, took a couple beats, and entirely reframed the foundation of how products should be built, delivering a line that still holds strategic heft:

You have to start with the customer experience and work backward to the technology.

This is a central pattern behind the ideas in I Need That.

No one ever wakes up craving more technology, or another thing to pay for and store.

We got plenty!

IRL, modern folks are bothered by a gap, a friction point, or a frustration they would really like resolved.

The products that win are the ones that attach themselves directly to that moment … so tightly that the solution feels inevitable.

That’s what creates the feeling of “I need that,” because the experience solves something the customer already cares about.

It sounds SO straightforward, yet product teams default to the opposite sequence, because jumping right in and building The Thing is tangible and immediate.

A new feature, a novel material, or an engineering breakthrough gets emotional momentum, and the pressure becomes cooking up a reason for it to exist in the market.

That’s how technically impressive products end up solving problems no customer prioritized.

Jobs was pointing to a harder, more disciplined path: one that begins by defining the outcome the buyer needs to achieve or the feeling they are trying to resolve.

Only then does the technology earn its place, shaped by that requirement rather than leading it with something else.

This approach introduces friction earlier in the process, often forcing teams to abandon ideas that looked promising in isolation.

BUT it also anchors the product in something far more stable than innovation cycles.

Technology evolves in a heartbeat, while human need remains relatively constant.

Where in your current roadmap are you starting from perception instead of a legit validated need?

Validating isn’t easy, but I can help with that.

Want to make your product irresistible? That’s what we do as product marketing consultants at Graphos Product, helping innovators turn need-driven ideas into market-ready successes.