Key Takeaways
- In a newly released letter, Apple’s former chief design officer Jony Ive reflected on his 15 years of working with the late Steve Jobs.
- Ive said that he never felt micromanaged by Jobs, instead reframing the relationship as a partnership.
- Jobs created a culture where leaders were expected to evolve their views, debate vigorously and admit when they were wrong.
The late Steve Jobs showed that he could build a trillion-dollar company by being “insatiably curious” about the world — even if he didn’t always have all the answers.
That’s what Jony Ive, Apple’s former chief design officer, learned after working closely with the Apple co-founder for nearly 15 years. The two designed legendary products, like the iPod, iPhone, iPad and iMac. Ive opened up about his time with Jobs in his 2024 “Letters to a Young Creator” submission, recently published by The Steve Jobs Archive. Jobs was Apple’s CEO from 1997 until he resigned in August 2011. He died in October 2011, at the age of 56, following an eight-year battle with pancreatic cancer.
“Being curious and exploring tentative ideas were far more important to Steve than being socially acceptable,” Ive wrote in his letter. “For Steve, wanting to learn was far more important than wanting to be right.”
They ate lunch together most days, then spent afternoons in the design studio. Jobs’ “insatiable curiosity” meant he never acted like his experience gave him all the answers, even after Apple became a giant, Ive explained.
That mindset helped make Apple one of a handful of companies with a market cap above $4 trillion and more than three billion iPhones sold worldwide, according to Ive.
Curiosity as a creative engine
Ive described Jobs as “ferocious, energetic and restless” in how he tried to learn new things, right up until the end of his life.
“I loved how he saw the world,” Ive wrote in his letter. “The way he thought was profoundly beautiful. He was without doubt the most inquisitive human being I have ever met.”
For both men, curiosity was the basis of their “joyful and productive collaboration,” and it helped reduce the fear of “doing something terrifyingly new.” That culture, where questions outrank ego, shaped the products they built together, Ive said.
Partnership, not micromanagement
Jobs’ intense involvement is often labeled micromanagement, but Ive’s account reframes it as a partnership.
Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky told CNBC earlier this year that he asked Ive whether Jobs’ presence in “every detail” felt suffocating. Was there ever a point where Ive felt micromanaged, or like Jobs wanted to control every aspect of his activity?
Ive told him he never felt micromanaged because he and Jobs worked “on problems together” and Jobs used his focus on detail to make Ive better rather than smaller. Jobs stood shoulder-to-shoulder with Ive instead of hovering over him.
Apple CEO Tim Cook also learned from Jobs. He told The Wall Street Journal in 2024 that Jobs prized leaders who could evolve their views and admit when they were wrong. Jobs encouraged spirited debates, played devil’s advocate and enjoyed being challenged because it surfaced stronger ideas.
“He loved to debate, and he loved someone to debate him,” Cook told WSJ. “We changed each other’s minds, that’s the reason it worked so well.”
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Key Takeaways
- In a newly released letter, Apple’s former chief design officer Jony Ive reflected on his 15 years of working with the late Steve Jobs.
- Ive said that he never felt micromanaged by Jobs, instead reframing the relationship as a partnership.
- Jobs created a culture where leaders were expected to evolve their views, debate vigorously and admit when they were wrong.
The late Steve Jobs showed that he could build a trillion-dollar company by being “insatiably curious” about the world — even if he didn’t always have all the answers.
That’s what Jony Ive, Apple’s former chief design officer, learned after working closely with the Apple co-founder for nearly 15 years. The two designed legendary products, like the iPod, iPhone, iPad and iMac. Ive opened up about his time with Jobs in his 2024 “Letters to a Young Creator” submission, recently published by The Steve Jobs Archive. Jobs was Apple’s CEO from 1997 until he resigned in August 2011. He died in October 2011, at the age of 56, following an eight-year battle with pancreatic cancer.
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