Steve may not design the product, but he is the hard-grain sandpaper that gets a design from prototype to best in market.
Ars says it best:
"On his own, Jobs could not create much of anything. But that's not his superpower . .. He is Apple's übercritic: one man to pare a torrent of creativity and expertise down to a handful of truly great products by picking apart every prototype, challenging every idea, and finding the flaws that no one else can see."
Ars says it best:
"On his own, Jobs could not create much of anything. But that's not his superpower . .. He is Apple's übercritic: one man to pare a torrent of creativity and expertise down to a handful of truly great products by picking apart every prototype, challenging every idea, and finding the flaws that no one else can see."
http://arstechnica.com/staff/fatbits/2009/05/hypercritical.a...
Further reading on this process in action - Steve's take on the Segway design:
http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2008/07/07/behind-the-scenes-ste...