Steve Jobs Hides in the Bushes to Spy on Customers

Louis Corso, a former Stanford Apple Store employee in Palo Alto, CA talks to ZURB about how Steve Jobs would hide to observe store customers and employees.

"We would find him hiding behind the bushes or around the corner outside, peering inside to see what was going on. We would go, 'There's Steve! Everybody play cool.' We thought he was evaluating us. It was nerve-wracking."

ZURB notes that Steve likely wasn't just observing employees but everything about the Apple Store experience. How customers act around his products, how they moved about the store, how they interacted with employees. He was staying in touch, albeit from a slightly comic distance from Louis' description.


The New York Times writes, "Employees at Apple stores provide the company with a powerful window into user habits and needs, even if it is not conventional market research. 'Steve visits the Apple store in Palo Alto frequently,' said Mr. McKenna, a former consultant to Apple. The design decisions made by Mr. Jobs, Mr. McKenna said, are informed by his grasp of users' desires, technology trends and popular culture."

Read More [via CultofMac]