It's only prudent to reduce risk and subject design ideas to a reality check by user testing them with actual customers.
In all the various disciplines that come together to create a successful interface design, you should hire the best staff you can get. Likewise, a good usability specialist is better than a bad usability specialist, a good programmer is better than a bad programmer, a good writer is better than a bad writer, and a good marketing manager is better than a bad marketing manager. Turning to actual designers, it's certainly true that you're better off hiring a good designer over a bad one. The willingness to delay or cancel a project because of bad UI is rare in the technology business, but it's necessary if a company wants to build a reputation for good products. Having top executives who understand interaction design and care about user experience quality is indeed a boon. In any case, Steve Jobs is a design manager, not a designer. (And, of course, the Mac's usability is more properly credited to Jef Raskin and Larry Tesler's user studies in the Lisa group than to Jobs himself.) Even the Macintosh was very nearly a failure, being saved in the nick of time by Adobe and the advent of desktop publishing.
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He's also produced many duds as well, the most famous being the NeXT machine and the Mac Cube. Granted, Jobs has been in charge of some great products. The most common example given is Steve Jobs. After all, a great designer will create a great design, and that's all you need. I often hear the following argument against usability: Just hire a great designer, and you don't have to worry about that pesky user testing.