I would like to know how google compares with Apple rather than Microsoft. Apple is a different culture both from google and Microsoft yet it is a dynamic corporation that designs and markets new successful products efficiently and for profit. How does engineering culture in Apple differ from Google?
One of my coworkers has roommates that work at Apple. In his words (roughly, heard secondhand):
"The nice thing about Apple is that we actually have managers that know their shit telling us what to do."
Apple's culture seems much more command & control oriented. They find experienced managers who care passionately about design, then put them in positions where they have both the responsibility and the authority to see that through. Then the individual workers stop at nothing to get every little detail right about the product.
Google's culture is much more chaotic, "bubble-up". They find smart people, put them together, and say "Find something to work on." Then they do everything possible to support whatever ideas emerge from that. Google figures that eventually the market will separate the wheat from the chaff, the best ideas will win, and then they'll pour more resources into those.
I think those differing approaches to product design show very clearly in the products they end up designing. Google sometimes creates brilliantly executed, innovative products that no manager would've thought of. And it often creates pure and utter dreck. Apple's approach results in uniformly beautiful, well-designed products, but they often miss out on opportunities where an awesome product isn't immediately obvious from current consumer desires.
