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In 2001, I joined Microsoft, lured to the shiny object that was previously known as the Entertainment and Devices division in Mountain View, CA. I then moved to Redmond in 2003 to join the Windows group, and in 2010 moved to the Office division. In 2015, I worked full-time on customer experience and understanding, taking on the worldwide corporate responsibility in 2019. Until my retirement in 2023, I led the worldwide Customer and Partner Experience effort at the company, working with our sales, support, operations, product engineering and marketing groups across the company to improve the overall customer and partner experience and satisfaction. More information is available on my LinkedIn profile.
The title of my original blog at Microsoft was a play on the late Morgan Spurlock’s film, Super Size Me, which chronicled the month he spent eating only McDonald’s food, documenting the impact of the lifestyle on his health. My intent was to transparently share some of what I learn on the job at Microsoft in product engineering as we conceptualized, developed, and released products and services with a focus on the customer impact. I’ve included many of those earlier posts here, with more on LinkedIn and on social media feeds.
Prior to joining Microsoft, I spent nearly 20 years in Silicon Valley in executive and senior management roles across product management, technology development and business operations roles at media and entertainment technology companies. This included executive and senior management roles at Digidesign/Avid, 3DO, Autodesk, and Pinnacle Systems/Avid, and Replay TV. Somehow along the way, I managed to collect a number of patents in this space.
After the primary importance of my family, I believe strongly in personal relationships, the benefits of mentoring, innovative technology and helping to grow people, companies, and non-profit organizations that provide much needed support. An avid maker and writer, I enjoy spending time with my wife (thank heavens she tolerates our messes) and our kids, particularly important as our boys now have moved far beyond riding bikes with training wheels.
And yes, on the name… it’s really my name. Truly you didn’t think that I would make up such a thing, did you? (My grandfather and father are Millard Sr. and Jr. repectively, and my father named me “MIII” — I took a creative license with the Arabic ‘3’.