Losing the podium one release at a time
I was thinking about Microsoft the other day and wondering why they don’t start another brand and build their products from scratch. With every subsequent release it becomes a bit more obvious that their problem is code. Deeply rooted old code. I can almost guarantee that every designer working there spends all their time trying to create mediocre designs with the tools they have. I commend them for giving it a shot. I can see the poor martyr saying “wait, wait, wait, the system currently works how?”. Followed by an explanation of an incredibly limiting system that was built 6+ years ago - which is much like dog years in the computer industry. So what gives? Too much MS koolaid in that place? I suspect so. My thinking is Microsoft should spawn a new brand to build new products and do the following with the seedling:
- Start from scratch. New code from the ground up. Go AWAL and don’t look back.
- New people. Most of the organizations I’ve come into contact with get bogged down by the folks that have hung out too long. Sure, they are loyal, smart, hard working, etc. But the fact is they want to work the same way they did yesterday and that’s not going to cut it. Find engineers who are passionate about writing beautiful code and not only trust designers to do great work but understand what designers do.
- Hire a designer to run this new business unit. Here is my theory; Steve Jobs is a design tyrant, but a designer nonetheless. He gets beautiful things made because at the end of the day that is what he cares about. That is what sells consumer goods and that is what drives people to become passionate about a brand. No one will ever…ever…say that they love Microsoft Word. Microsoft has a done a great job of building tools and when computers were new this was amazing, just like the Model T was in its day. But we’ve evolved and now we want something beautiful and usable. It’s now the era of design (in the computer industry).
- Do it all internally. Don’t outsource any part of this new venture. Get people to build the brand, design the brand, and most importantly buy into the brand themselves.
- Recruit talent under the new name. Most talented people don’t want to be trapped underneath the machine that is Microsoft. From the outside it’s seen as an unsurmountable constraint.
- Drive fast. Ship and iterate.
- Open up. Start off open, engage the developer community from the get go and most importantly build the system with this intent.