Virus of Doubt

Steve Jobs’ as great a salesman as he is a craftsman. The famous iPhone introduction launch is prime example of that.

Tony Fadell, the lead engineer behind the iPhone, discusses what made Steve Jobs such a great storyteller:

He used a technique I later came to call the virus of doubt. It’s a way to get into people’s heads, remind them about a daily frustration, get them annoyed about it all over again. If you can infect them with the virus of doubt—”Maybe my experience isn’t as good as I thought, maybe it could be better”—then you prime them for your solution. You get them angry about how it works now so they can get excited about a new way of doing things.

Steve was a master of this. Before he told you what a product did, he always took the time to explain why you needed it. And he made it all look so natural, so easy.