This is the probably the best writing on "Innovator's dilemma" from a lived experience I have ever read. The impossible tradeoffs, the challenges, and the gravity of the future implications couldn't be more higher for MSFT. Eagerly looking forward to read the next few chapters.
You probably would be touching these future chapters, but I am very curious on how you would you thought about the following: 1/ Best case scenario playing out looking back from 2022
& 2/ The risks you deemed to be dire which fizzled out.
Thank you so much for your very kind comments. It means a great deal to hear that the stories are bringing to life the challenges and emotions of the time.
As the next chapter starts you’ll see much more by way of this type of reflection.
Now we're firmly in my era, and I remember all this well. The memos were both inspirational and pragmatic. A question: Were you having fun during all this?
Interesting post Steven. This similar set of planning would have occurred for Windows 7 also correct? (perhaps less ‘future focused’). I do remember reading several of your Engineering 7 blog posts that likely filtered from the initial planning. Curious to know, and this might sound cynical, if the focus on the Windows 8 planning and discussion here on the Substack is to set the scene / cushion the fall regarding the eventual flop? Or it was a genuinely different ‘betting the company’ existential crisis scenario on doing something very different (although it didn’t really work out)? Something of a side note, but I remember Steve Ballmer in an interview at the time being asked a quick fire round of questions that included ‘riskiest product?’ to which he said ‘next version of Windows’ (being Windows 8).
Great question. In some previous posts I shared the full early planning memos for each of the major Office releases and also those for Windows 7. I know it is a lot to go through :-)
My intent is not to set any stage or to add drama where there isn't. I hope by sharing the contemporaneous documents and my own recollection there's enough for you to make an independent judgement of what we were up to. Reading the contemporaneous press coverage of leaks and public statements, I think it is clear we were making a big bet. Steve did indeed say that (and will cover it) at the Gartner Symposium in 2010 (which was just after the vision presentation which will be a post soon enough). For example: https://web.archive.org/web/20160308015513/https://www.zdnet.com/article/ballmer-riskiest-product-bet-by-microsoft-is-the-next-release-of-windows/
In the next few posts the full vision will also be covered.
There's an interesting book, "The Mind Is Flat: The Remarkable Shallowness of the Improvising Brain" by Nick Chater, which is about how memory works. One interesting observation (or research) is how much memory is your own brain making up a story to fit observations. This works for both the person experiencing and creating the story you read but also impacts how you read a story. The gist of this is enough to make you question everything about history. It's a fascinating book.
So stay up to date and let me know if what your brain comes up with matches what my brain came up with.
This is the probably the best writing on "Innovator's dilemma" from a lived experience I have ever read. The impossible tradeoffs, the challenges, and the gravity of the future implications couldn't be more higher for MSFT. Eagerly looking forward to read the next few chapters.
You probably would be touching these future chapters, but I am very curious on how you would you thought about the following: 1/ Best case scenario playing out looking back from 2022
& 2/ The risks you deemed to be dire which fizzled out.
Thank you so much for your very kind comments. It means a great deal to hear that the stories are bringing to life the challenges and emotions of the time.
As the next chapter starts you’ll see much more by way of this type of reflection.
Thank you 🙏
Now we're firmly in my era, and I remember all this well. The memos were both inspirational and pragmatic. A question: Were you having fun during all this?
Absolutely. June-Nov 2012 will be peak!
Interesting post Steven. This similar set of planning would have occurred for Windows 7 also correct? (perhaps less ‘future focused’). I do remember reading several of your Engineering 7 blog posts that likely filtered from the initial planning. Curious to know, and this might sound cynical, if the focus on the Windows 8 planning and discussion here on the Substack is to set the scene / cushion the fall regarding the eventual flop? Or it was a genuinely different ‘betting the company’ existential crisis scenario on doing something very different (although it didn’t really work out)? Something of a side note, but I remember Steve Ballmer in an interview at the time being asked a quick fire round of questions that included ‘riskiest product?’ to which he said ‘next version of Windows’ (being Windows 8).
Great question. In some previous posts I shared the full early planning memos for each of the major Office releases and also those for Windows 7. I know it is a lot to go through :-)
My intent is not to set any stage or to add drama where there isn't. I hope by sharing the contemporaneous documents and my own recollection there's enough for you to make an independent judgement of what we were up to. Reading the contemporaneous press coverage of leaks and public statements, I think it is clear we were making a big bet. Steve did indeed say that (and will cover it) at the Gartner Symposium in 2010 (which was just after the vision presentation which will be a post soon enough). For example: https://web.archive.org/web/20160308015513/https://www.zdnet.com/article/ballmer-riskiest-product-bet-by-microsoft-is-the-next-release-of-windows/
This post is from even earlier based on a leak from an employee outside the team on an MSDN blog. This is from the time period of this week's post (early early 2010, in this case after the iPad announcement but before availability). https://web.archive.org/web/20100212185853/http://www.dailytech.com/Report+Windows+8+Dubbed+WindowsNext+Internally+to+be+Revolutionary/article17668.htm
In the next few posts the full vision will also be covered.
There's an interesting book, "The Mind Is Flat: The Remarkable Shallowness of the Improvising Brain" by Nick Chater, which is about how memory works. One interesting observation (or research) is how much memory is your own brain making up a story to fit observations. This works for both the person experiencing and creating the story you read but also impacts how you read a story. The gist of this is enough to make you question everything about history. It's a fascinating book.
So stay up to date and let me know if what your brain comes up with matches what my brain came up with.