085. The Memo (Part 1)

The state of affairs of the product development of Windows and Services is abysmal. —“Observations, Aspirations, and Directions for Windows and Windows Live” memo introduction

Everyone in their career should have one memo that they think of as the most consequential. For me, it is a memo I wrote after a about six weeks on the Windows team. Under intense time pressure to figure out what comes next with Vista rapidly approaching final release (not formally, but it was going to soon be all but impossible for code changes to make…