Launching the iTunes Music Store was the biggest challenge I’ve faced in my design career. When we started, our vision was clear — create a seamless digital music experience. But bringing the major record labels on board required true grit. Record executives are notoriously impossible to please, which dragged out negotiations for over a year of development. Steve Jobs cut through the red tape by personally presenting our design work to executives at every major label until they were satisfied.

I led the design team in iteration after iteration as we navigated complex negotiations. We relied heavily on paper prototyping, where you create full resolution paper versions of each screen in the flow. This lets you test concepts quickly and cheaply without coding. As the business needs rapidly shifted, we could explore more options by easily modifying the paper screens. Each high-fidelity prototype helped us refine the interaction flow and screen layouts. The low overhead meant we could try many variations before expensive development, resulting in huge cost savings for the company.

This disciplined design approach combining detailed paper prototypes and testing on our own team was key to finally crafting a solution that satisfied all stakeholders after 18 grueling months. The night the last label finally signed on, cheers erupted across the office. Though exhausted, I was proud our team persevered to make our ambitious vision a reality through relentless focus on the experience.