HBR's 10 Must Reads on Entrepreneurship and Startups (featuring Bonus Article “Why the Lean Startup Changes Everything” by Steve Blank)
by Harvard Business Review, Steve Blank, Marc Andreessen, Reid Hoffman, William A. Sahlman
The President of SRI Ventures on Bringing Siri to Life
by Norman Winarsky
IN THE LONG PROCESS OF DESIGNING and perfecting a product, there’s often a single moment when a potential customer’s reaction helps overcome the doubts that surround any creative endeavor. For Siri, the virtual personal assistant that’s now an integral part of Apple’s iPhone, that moment came on an airplane in 2009. I had just taken my seat on a delayed flight when a passenger asked what time we were expected to land. Since I was one of a few dozen people testing Siri, I took out my phone and said, “Siri, what time is United Flight 98 expected to arrive?” When Siri responded with the updated arrival time, the passenger looked stunned. He said, “I have only one question: ...