From my own experience, I know that the design process is far more difficult than the reader would glean from the book. Designers, like artists, are high strung people who live for and in their work - if you criticise their work, you are criticising them personally and they react. Their egos are as big as their talents. Bitter fights result with engineers and the holders of the corporate largesse, the purse strings that make or break an experiment. THere are difficult compromises, often political, and plenty of ongoing acrimony. How should they be handled and nurtured? Does a separate group need to be insulated? Should they just grow up or would that kill part of the creative process? None of this is sufficiently covered in this book and they all represent key management issues. Moreover, there is not enough about the companies in the book - who they are, what they believe in terms of philosophy, how they calculate and market themselves.

Nonetheless, the stories are exciting and the photography is excellent. Certain common techniques also emerge, such as the importance of rapid prototyping and marketing shortcuts that don't ignore cumstomer needs but rather find way to tap into new ones. These too are fascinating issues that require deeper treatment.