As the founder and driving force behind Apple and many of the innovative products that pervade our society, the late Steve Jobs is known for finding significant advantages through product innovation. Consider a few of his ideas to help you get a competitive advantage.

Weigh the voice of the consumer

We often ask ourselves what the consumer wants—and I’m a proponent of this process. Yet Jobs was never the type to settle comfortably behind market research and answers that were easily defended in corporate boardrooms. He challenged his development teams to bring out the wow factor in their products. For example, there had been tablet computers before the iPad, but I bet you can’t name them or their creators. There were BlackBerrys and Palm Treos before the iPhone, but none inspired the “gotta have it” coolness of the iPhone. Why could Apple, under Jobs’ leadership, inspire such brand mastery? Because the culture was one that said “give the consumer what they don’t realize they need; give them what they want.” Jobs knew the secret of the want factor, going beyond what customers needed.