The most successful products — say, the iPhone, iPad, and Amazon Kindle — have three types of people working together seamlessly: executives with a vision of what the final consumer experience will feel like; engineers that can execute on that vision, and marketers who can alert and excite consumers.

Let’s talk about the executives today.

Both Apple and Amazon have chief executives who know exactly what kind of experience they want their products to create for consumers.

Steve Jobs and Jeff Bezos push their engineers to create perfect devices.

They specify the look, the layout and the feel of the product. By doing so, they are deeply involved in creating the feeling their products create. They know they are trying to create exceptional experiences for their customers, and they push and prod everyone in the company to make it so.

They are the company’s highest executives, and they are specifying the smallest features of their products.

You company’s leaders must know exactly what they want. They must be able to communicate it. And the vision must actually be excellent. There are more than a few executives who push their engineers to create products that are not considered exceptional by consumers.

Tomorrow, we’ll talk engineers. And before this series is over, I’ll put it all together in one, defining piece.