GigaOM » Tony Fadell

The secret behind inspiring designers to make beloved gadgets

Katie Fehrenbacher — Thu, 17 Jan 2013 08:00:45 +0000

Successful design-driven companies have a clear point of view and a story to tell that extends to every single person in the company, according to Tony Fadell, the CEO of Nest and a former designer at Apple who led the development of the first 18 iterations of the iPhone. Fadell gave his advice about how to design beloved devices like the iPhone and the Nest thermostat at the Bloomberg Design conference this week, in response to a question about the difference between designing at places like Apple and Philips.

At Philips, and at conglomerates that are much more financially driven, Fadell said that the vast majority of products that the designers work on are not shipped. “Nine times out of ten, or 99 times out of 100, they would kill the project, either at the beginning, the middle or right before the product was supposed to be shipped,” said Fadell.

If the management changed over, and they didn’t understand what the product was, they would just cancel it, explained Fadell.

Such a culture means that designers don’t do their best work and just go through the motions of creating a product. Why put your best work into a project that is just going to be tossed in the dustbin?

In contrast, at Apple, 99 percent of projects that made it past certain milestones shipped, said Fadell. All of the workers at Apple — from the management to the designers to the marketers — had a point of view, a story to tell, and a specific customer envisioned for the product. If management changed, everyone is still on the same page. “When you’re in a culture that has a point of view, and drives to launch everything it does, you know you’re on the hook and you better bring your best game every time,” said Fadell.

Fadell spoke at our RoadMap conference in November 2012, which focused on design in the age of connectedness.

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What makers of the ‘learning thermostat’ learned to redesign Nest

Erica Ogg — Mon, 05 Nov 2012 20:32:50 +0000

The Nest thermostat debuted just over a year ago and was a blockbuster hit, selling out faster than Nest Labs could restock its supply several times. But that doesn’t mean the device was perfect. At GigaOM’s RoadMap event on Monday, the designer and founder of the internet-connected “learning” thermostat, Tony Fadell, talked about how after years of perfecting the initial product, the company totally redesigned the Nest in less than 11 months.

When you’re working with a small team of less than 20 people on a first-time hardware product, it’s tough to do things perfectly the first time, Fadell said. Tiny Nest Labs didn’t command the same respect among vendors and didn’t have the volume advantage in pricing that Fadell did in his days running Apple’s iPod division. And that impacted design decisions: the first Nest thermostat that went on sale didn’t have a stainless steel bezel, for example, because it was a little too expensive to source.

The new Nest, which started shipping a few weeks ago, is slimmer but also has a single stainless steel bezel. The difference this time around? “This time we can purchase parts in much higher quantities,” Fadell said. “The first time you make a hardware product it doesn’t usually go the way you think it does in terms of cost. You have to redesign it to get your costs in line.”

It wasn’t just visual stuff that they tweaked though. “We looked at everything we did wrong” the first time, Fadell said. That included software. The biggest complaint Nest got from the first-generation thermostat was lack of compatibility: it worked in about 70 to 75 percent of homes in the U.S. and Canada. The new device promises 95 percent compatibility. (Still that didn’t stop customers from all over the world from installing the Nest. Though it’s only sold in two countries, Nest Labs found through IP addresses on its network that shows its thermostat is being used in 63 other countries, Fadell said.)

The folks at Nest also learned a lot from their learning thermostat. The “auto away” feature knows, for example, when people are going to be away (example: when you generally leave in the morning and when you come back in the evening on weekdays). In the previous model, if a house emptied on a weekday morning, Nest’s algorithm would adjust the thermostat to conserve energy after about an hour and a half.

Based on looking at the data they’d collected over a year and a half, Nest changed auto away so it turns on after ~~an hour and~~ a half hour. Fadell says that can save 1.5 to 2 hours of energy, in someone’s home.

Check out the rest of our RoadMap 2012 live coverage here, and a video recording of the session follow below:

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RoadMap 2012 live coverage

Tom Krazit — Mon, 05 Nov 2012 14:00:56 +0000

When we first got our hands on computers, we weren’t concerned as much about how they looked as opposed to what they could do to make our lives better. Same goes for the early days of the web, when simply publishing something that anyone in the world could read was a treat. But now that computers and connectivity are ubiquitous, design is a vital part of how the best hardware, software, services, and systems are created: good design is the difference between products that make our lives better and those that make our lives more difficult.

We’ve brought together some of the best design-oriented minds we could find to share their insights at RoadMap 2012, starting a little later on Monday in San Francisco. It’s an impressive roster of speakers, including former Apple executive Tony Fadell, now reinventing the way we think about home automation with Nest; Perry Chen, co-founder and CEO of Kickstarter and a new way to find grass-roots support for new projects; John Maeda, who is currently teaching the next generation of talented minds how to think about design as president of the Rhode Island School of Design; and Evan Willams, one of the founders behind a simple idea — Twitter — that has changed the world with its intuitive design and the current CEO of Obvious Corp.

We’ll be updating this page with live coverage from the event written by GigaOM’s talented team of writers, and a live stream of the event can also be found here. It all gets started at 8:30am Monday with opening remarks from GigaOM founder Om Malik and Senior Writer Katie Fehrenbacher, who organized the event. Please join the conversation on Twitter by following @gigaom and using the #roadmapconf hashtag.

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Rewind: 5 must see videos from RoadMap 2011

Om Malik — Fri, 02 Nov 2012 23:34:18 +0000

We are hosting our second GigaOM RoadMap conference on Monday, November 5, 2012 in San Francisco. It has an all-star speaker line-up that includes Perry Chen, CEO and co-founder of KickStarter, Evan Williams of Twitter & Obvious Corp., Kevin Systrom of Instagram, David Karp of Tumblr, Dave Gilboa of Warby Parker, Katia Beauchamp of Birchbox, Ben Silbermann of Pinterest and many more. Our theme for 2012 edition: designing our connected future.

Last year we talked about how connectedness changes everything. We thought it would be a good idea for us to rewind and share some of the conversations from the 2011 event as we work on the 2012 edition.

Jack Dorsey, Square & Twitter

Tony Fadell, Nest

Drew Houston, Dropbox

Brian Chesky, AirBnB

Matt Mullenweg, Automattic/Wordpress

The complete archives from GigaOM RoadMap 2011.

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Meet RoadMap Book, exclusive for RoadMap attendees

Om Malik, Katie Fehrenbacher — Wed, 31 Oct 2012 12:00:58 +0000

Because GigaOM’s second annual RoadMap conference is focused on design in the age of connectivity, we decided to do something entirely not connected (go figure) for all our RoadMap attendees this year: we designed and printed an old-fashioned book, which we’re exclusively giving to everyone at RoadMap.

Our RoadMap book contains 10 interviews and essays with some of the leading thinkers in web, mobile, product and device design, including Mike McCue CEO of Flipboard, Nest CEO Tony Fadell, designer Christian Lindholm, and the head of design for Parlay Labs, Scott Jenson.

Here’s our TOC:

The reinvention of the store for a connected world, interview with George Blankenship, Tesla Motors
10 rules for designing the future, essay by Christian Lindholm, designer, entrepreneur
Attention to detail: designing for new frontiers, interview with Hosain Rahman, Jawbone
Marching backwards into the future, essay by Scott Jenson, Parlay Labs
The magic of good design, interview with Tony Fadell, Nest Labs
Find the story in your product, images & photos, Oren Jacob, Bobby Podesta, ToyTalk
The call of beauty over data, interview with Mike McCue, Flipboard
The qualified self: online identity finally comes of age, essay by Edward Aten, Swift.fm
Using data to design for your ears, interview with Tom Conrad, Pandora
The rise of augmented intelligence and data mapping, essay by Sean Gourley, Quid

Down the road you’ll be able to buy an ebook version of our book from GigaOM Books, but the printed and bound version will only be available to attendees at the RoadMap event. RoadMap will kick off bright and early this coming Monday morning (November 5)! Yes, it is rapidly approaching. See our awesome speaker list here, and buy the few tickets remaining here.

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Kickstarter’s Perry Chen to speak at our RoadMap conference

Om Malik — Tue, 09 Oct 2012 12:00:53 +0000

I have always maintained that Kickstarter is not just a startup. It is instead an agent of change that portends a big economic shift. It is part of a shift away from industrial-era economics to a maker economy that is now possible because of the constant state of connectedness.

That is why I am particularly excited to announce that Perry Chen, the co-founder and CEO of Kickstarter is going to join me and Katie Fehrenbacher on stage for our second annual RoadMap conference, scheduled to be held on November 5 in San Francisco.

Chen, in an interview earlier this year, told me that society is reaching a new “bursting point of creativity.” We will explore this and many other aspects onstage. The theme of the conference is how design and user experience are going to help us navigate the connected planet.

Chen is the latest to join an already stellar line-up of speakers for our event. Other speakers we have announced include Steve Case (co-founder AOL and Revolution) Evan Williams (Blogger, Twitter & Obvious Corp.), David Karp (CEO of Tumblr), Kevin Systrom (CEO of Instagram), Tony Fadell (co-founder and CEO of Nest), Ben Silberman (CEO of Pinterest), Katia Beauchamp (CEO of Birchbox) and Jennifer Pahlka (founder and Executive Director of Code for America). For a full line-up of speakers, visit the Roadmap website, and you can buy your tickets for the event here.

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The new era of startups focused on design

Katie Fehrenbacher — Tue, 02 Oct 2012 13:50:57 +0000

Startups that really make a commitment to design and user experience are emerging as the web and mobile’s most successful companies, like Instagram and Pinterest. Mike McCue, CEO and co-founder of social digital magazine Flipboard, explains to us in this video interview clip that he’s seen a resurgence of startups like Path that are putting design first and foremost and he thinks a strong commitment to design will separate the pioneers from the followers.

This clip is part of an interview we did with McCue for our RoadMap book, which we’ll be giving away to all attendees of RoadMap, our conference focused on design in the age of connectedness that will take place on November 5th in San Francisco. Speakers include the CEO’s of Instagram, Pinterest, and Tumblr, designers like Yves Behar, Scott Wilson and Tony Fadell, and many others (schedule and speakers here). We have a limited number of tickets, so reserve yours now here.

Watch this video for free on GigaOM

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Nest launches slimmer, smarter learning thermostat

Katie Fehrenbacher — Tue, 02 Oct 2012 13:00:51 +0000

Startup Nest Labs is ready to launch the next generation of its connected learning thermostat. The device, which you can pre-order now and which ships in mid-October, is 20 percent slimmer than the original thermostat, and has new features that make it compatible with 95 percent of heating and cooling systems in the U.S.

Nest launched its original learning thermostat back in October of 2011 to much fanfare and it was immediately sold out for months. The device was designed by Nest CEO Tony Fadell, who was head designer of the iPhone and iPod for Apple, and the connected thermostat has smart algorithms that learn your habits and help you shave off 20 to 30 percent off of your energy bill. Fadell will be talking about the power of design to disrupt industries at our RoadMap conference on November 5 in San Francisco.

The first thing you’ll notice about the new Nest is that it has one moveable ring on its circumference as the physical interface. The previous ring design only took up part of the real estate of the circumference, and the other part didn’t move (see below). Making the ring all one piece makes the device slimmer and more clean looking.

The new Nest:

The first generation Nest:

As you can see, Nest also did away with the grill on the bottom of the face of the thermostat. They needed the grill for the occupancy (motion) sensors that can detect when people are nearby. But for the new thermostat design, Nest was able to switch the grill out with transparent, black plastic that still enables the sensors to “see.”

In addition to the hardware on the front, the back of the Nest is completely redesigned. The team made the circuit design circular to add more space, and Nest used that extra space to add two important new connectors: a spot for a wire called the Y2, which controls a second stage of AC, and the star connector, which enables new wires to control options like emergency heating and a whole home humidifier.

With these new wires, version 2 of thermostat is compatible with most types of heating and cooling systems, including forced air systems, radiant systems and heat pumps. Nest has included all types of new software functions that enable owners of these systems to cut energy in different ways.

The new Nest contains version 3 of its software — version 2 of the software was upgraded in April of this year. The new mobile software also is compatible with Android tablets like the Nexus 7 and Kindle Fire (GigaOM’s Kevin Tofel will like that: His in-depth review here).

The new Nest will cost the same as the original Nest: $250. The original Nest will be on sale for another couple of weeks and is being discounted down to $229 until supplies last.

Nest also updated me on its lawsuit with Honeywell. Back in February Honeywell slapped Nest with a patent infringement lawsuit over seven aspects of Nest’s smart thermostat technology. Nest tells me that the case is currently on hold, and Nest requested, and was granted a stay in the case. Nest also requested a re-examination of the original Honeywell patents in question, and Nest says 5 of the 7 Honeywell patent claims were accepted for reexamination, and those 5 patent claims were rejected.

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“Hundreds of thousands” of Nest learning thermostats sold

Katie Fehrenbacher — Tue, 04 Sep 2012 22:25:29 +0000

Startup Nest only launched its learning thermostat last October but the company tells the New York Time’s Bits Blog that it has sold in the “mid-hundreds of thousands,” of units range. The company — which is the brainchild of Tony Fadell, who helped design the iPhone and iPod for Apple — immediately sold out of the thermostat shortly after launch, leading to long wait times for the product well into 2012.

But now, the company seems to have ramped up production, and at this point, the Nest thermostat is selling through a variety of places including Nest’s online site, the Apple store, big box retailers like Best Buys and Lowe’s and Amazon, among others. Fadell will be discussing what’s next for Nest at our annual RoadMap event, which will focus on design in the age of connectivity and will take place on November 5 in San Francisco (tickets went on sale today here).

Because the Nest device is connected and has smart algorithms, the company can push different software and services to it and see how Nest customers respond, points out the Bits writer. So called A/B testing is pretty common on the Internet, but not really widely used in the thermostat and utility worlds. Nest’s algorithms have also changed slightly as Nest has learned more about its customers.

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Apple starts selling the Nest smart thermostat

Katie Fehrenbacher — Wed, 30 May 2012 14:08:53 +0000

In a huge win for startup Nest, which makes a connected learning thermostat, Apple has now started selling the Nest thermostat through its online store (hat tip The Verge). If you recall, Nest founder Tony Fadell was the former chief architect at Apple where he led the development of the iPod and the first three versions of the iPhone. He left Apple three years ago to start Nest.

Not surprisingly Apple and Nest share a similar design sensibility, and the Nest thermostat can also be controlled via an iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch or Mac. When Nest first launched its thermostat, I called it “a thermostat Steve Jobs would love.”

The Nest thermostat (in cooling mode).

Not to be too dramatic, but I think this is the most important move ever for a next-generation digital thermostat. Most consumers don’t care a lick about their thermostat and most thermostats are not ever programmed, which leads to major inefficiencies and wasted home energy. If Nest can make its learning thermostat a cool and coveted item (like the iPhone), it could change consumers’ relationships with thermostats and home energy and could lead to significant reductions in home energy consumption.

If you’ve been following Nest, then you probably know that thermostat giant Honeywell slapped it with a lawsuit earlier this year, alleging patent infringement. Nest responded to the lawsuit by bringing on Apple’s former Chief Intellectual Property Officer Richard “Chip” Lutton as its new vice president and general counsel.

Apple started selling Nest’s thermostat after the lawsuit was filed. The thermostat is also being sold via Best Buy and via Nest’s online store.

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