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The Rob Haitani Interview
Wed Jun 22, 2005 - 3:26 PM EDT - By Michael Ducker
Questions 11-14: Working at PalmOne

11) Bbonnn asks “As product folks, what has the transition from Palm to Handspring to PalmOne been like? Do you feel the philosophies the different companies have shaped your product design? How?” Sherifelabd asks “What things did you hope to do after merging with Palm that didn’t happen as you want?”

Haitani: This question makes me reflect on how lucky I have been to work with Jeff Hawkins all these years. The basic design philosophies have remained the same. Whenever corporate policies were being debated or changed, I could put my head down and focus on designing the next cool product.

In that context, the biggest changes between the companies related to control over the product design. When I went from Palm to Handspring, suddenly I was no longer in charge of designing the operating system. Fortunately though, due to the flexibility of the Palm OS, I was free to design my own navigation and command interface for keyboard products. This amounts to OS-level interface design.

Coming back to palmOne also was a bit of an adjustment, but for different reasons. Until then I had worked in small design teams, where I was in charge of the UI design. It was a bit of an adjustment to work on products that I had not been involved in, with applications that I had not designed.

Regarding the question about what things didn’t happen as I wanted after the merger, I would say not much. Perhaps the biggest issue I didn’t anticipate was that we at Handspring had developed a parallel set of applications (mail, browser, PIMS, even calculator). It hadn’t occurred to me that it would be necessary to go through all the apps and figure out how to merge them. That took some cycles that I would have preferred to invest in future product design.

12) Treo-mike asks “What has PalmOne learned since they started selling the Treo 600?”. Going back in time, what have you learned since selling the first Treo?

Haitani: My personal takeaway from the Treo 600 to 650 is the importance of remaining disciplined in product design. The 650 offers so much more than the 600, but it’s important for the usability to keep up with the features. When you design a new product, there are constant requests from customers, carriers, analysts, people in the company, friends and family (and of course Treo Central…!). Why not add this? Shouldn’t you continue to innovate? I bought your competitor because they do this and you don’t. And when you add these features, the same people provide positive reinforcement for those decisions. But it begins to feel like a growing metropolis at some point—growth is good, but is it too fast? I am convinced that you can have controlled growth if you are disciplined and focused. Sometimes you have to take a breath and fix things before moving on. But we are still extremely passionate about doing the right thing for the customer.

Going back to the first Treo, I think our biggest lessons have been in regards to working with carriers. First we used what I called the “high-five” strategy. This meant designing a product on our own, then showing it to a carrier for the first time and putting our hand up for a high-five (and awkwardly letting it hang there when they frowned about how it didn’t meet their requirements). The second stage was when we listened to their requirements, then fought tooth and nail to get out of them whenever we felt they interfered with our interpretation of usability of the product. I believe we are now entering a third “mature” stage. We understand that carrier requirements are driven by the fact that they have different priorities that, by the way, aren’t necessarily bad. (For example, if all the phones that their customers have ever used work in a certain way, it’s a fair concern that what we consider a “better” interface on a Treo will be confusing.) Moving forward, however, as Treo sales increase people will begin to learn the Treo ways of doing things. And if we focus on what problem the carriers are trying to solve, we can try to isolate a design that addresses both their goal and ours. It can be very difficult to do, but that just means it’s harder for our competitors to copy, and it’s that much more powerful when we find the solution.

13) Bmacfarland poses this question: “What do you think is the single most important reason someone should buy a Treo instead of another smartphone? What do you see as the Treo’s greatest weakness?”

Haitani: The Treo has the best overall integration between phone, PDA and data device. If you want the smallest phone or the least expensive PDA, then this is not the product for you. But if you want to carry one device, and mobile mail and messaging are important to you, then I think the Treo is generally recognized as the best of breed. This is from the perspective of form factor, interface efficiency, platform and flexibility.

Regarding weaknesses, every highly-optimized product has weaknesses by definition, due to the tradeoffs required for maximizing its strengths. A Porsche has no trunk space, and an SUV has lousy gas mileage. The Treo is no exception. In order to make the product as portable as possible, as I mentioned above, the keyboard and screen are simply too small to be used as extensively as a laptop. This isn’t a weakness relative to other smartphones, however, it is simply stating that the Treo is optimized for a handheld voice and data access.

14) PatrickS asks “What’s the funniest Treo user story you’ve ever heard?”, and similarly Bmacfarland questions “What’s the coolest thing you’ve ever done with your Treo?”

Haitani: I don’t know if I’ve heard any stories you’d call side splitting. There is a guy in our company who takes snapshots of his car when he parks in malls so he can remember where to find it (or pictures of his hotel room door when he’s on business trips). [Hey! I do that to! -Michael Ducker] I thought that was pretty clever, anyway.

As for the coolest thing I’ve done, well I guess I’m not that cool either. I did have the opportunity to meet Gene Roddenberry’s son Rod, who happened to be a big Treo fan. He called Mike Okuda (the lead designer of Star Trek sets and props) with his Treo, and I got to speak to him. If you’re a Star Trek fan, that’s pretty cool. I’m also in the company band, so making Treo ringtones has always been fun for me. I did “Treo Techno” (as a joke, but it got in the product somehow) and the blues ringtones (the “Blues 12 bar” ringtone” was actually recorded from my keyboards into my computer via a MIDI/USB cable).

Thank you Rob Haitani and Marlene Somsak! Discuss this interview here.



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