Compare & Contrast: Lean UX vs. Apple Design Process Back in ‘08

LEAN (2012):
Good, business-savvy design has always been about systematically finding the core features that matter most to users – no more, no less – and finding them at the cheapest possible cost.
Design is almost always a process of trying to identify what is really valuable to users and what is less important. Doing it systematically is smart business and good design. Lean UX in this sense is good business..

APPLE:
(via Helen Walters+Michael Lopp in ‘08 / Businessweek http://buswk.co/PrNrqj):
“Apple designers come up with 10 entirely different mock ups of any new feature. Not, Lopp said, “seven in order to make three look good”, which seems to be a fairly standard practice elsewhere. They’ll take 10, and give themselves room to design without restriction. Later they whittle that number to 3, spend more months on those 3 and then finally end up with one strong decision.”

Pixel Perfect Mockups
This, Lopp admitted, causes a huge amount of work and takes an enormous amount of time. But, he added, “it removes all ambiguity.” That might add time up front, but it removes the need to correct mistakes later on.