Jan 27, 2021 • 52M

[LISTEN] 106. The Missing Start Menu

The hardest thing to do in a big company is to do something. —Old “Microspeak” saying

 
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Steven Sinofsky
Personal stories and lessons from inside the rise and fall of the PC revolution as narrated by the author.

This is the audio for 106. The Missing Start Menu for subscribers to the podcast via third-party apps. You can enjoy the audio along with images and artifacts by the link to the full text. Subscriber via RSS.

This section was the most difficult to write. At least people look back favorably on Clippy. The Windows 8 Start screen lacks any kitsch or sentimental value. It was the wrong design for the product at the wrong time and ultimately my responsibility. This is not the story of the design. There are better people to write about the specifics. This is not a story of ignoring feedback or failing to heed the market, but a story of just what happens when you’re out of degrees of freedom. This is the story of the constraints and the rationale for how we managed a situation that we saw as a quagmire. The good thing about the Start screen was everyone had an opinion. The bad thing was most of those opinions were not favorable.

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