Author: M3 Sweatt

A recent thread made its way around the office this week with a great suggested holiday reading list. I’ve included a few of the selections here along with my own suggestions:

“Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies” by Jim Collins and Jerry Porras

“Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap… and Others Don’t” by Jim Collins

“The Innovator’s Solution: Creating and Sustaining Successful Growth” by Clayton M. Christensen and Michael E. Raynor

“The Service Profit Chain: How Leading Companies Link Profit and Growth to Loyalty, Satisfaction and Value” by James L. Heskett, W. Earl Sasser Jr. and Leonard A. Schlesinger, 1997.

“The Medici Effect: Breakthrough Insights at the Intersection of Ideas, Concepts, and Cultures” by Frans Johansson

“The Inovator’s Dilemma” by Clayton Christiansen

“Innovation and Entrepreneuship” (Drucker Series) by Peter F. Drucker

“Deep Simplicity: Bringing Order to Chaos and Complexity” by John R Gribbin

Now on line is the new Microsoft Connect, the new product development collaboration site at Microsoft for our products.

The goal is to enable a better connection with customers during the product development process and make the connection (no pun intended) to ensure our new products meet customer’s needs. Through Connect, people are able to communicate with our development teams and create a closer community.

Once you log on, you’ll see a list of available programs you can participate in along with more details about each program, and the ability to apply on-line to partcipate. You can also sign up to get more info on other upcoming Microsoft Beta programs.

For more info, check out the Connect FAQs.

I just returned speaking with friends at a local event tonite, many of them Microsoft customers. At one point, the discussion turned to the efforts Microsoft is making to improve the customer connection, through our establishined listening systems, cutsomer support calls, blogs, newsgroups and othger efforts that directly connect our product group emmployees with real customers (such as our Frontline effort… more on that later).

I recalled one of Michael Swanson’s blog entries from late last month on WSYP Project: “We Share Your Pain” highlighted a video that has made the rounds and hit quite a nerve, quite literally. It illustrating how through the WSYP Project we’re “increasing the connection between our customers and the product teams.” Ouch.

But in a sense, it’s representative of the way our product teams are truly developing better connections with our customers and partners (as well as a strong backside and a careful look at the chairs in their offices). When I was in Windows (working closely with our hardware partners) I was amazed to find out how much we also strive to improve the whole experience with Windows on the PC, bringing our partners into the mix through the WER and Microsoft Update efforts (more on this here https://winqual.microsoft.com/info/default.aspx). We’ve talked at past WinHECs of how Microsoft spends more than $40 million a year and a sizeable division on Windows Update.

So here’s the math: Based on our findings, we’ve found that fixing 20% of the top-reported bugs can solve 80% of customer issues across the issues we’ve found on affected Windows platforms. Further, working on 1% of the bugs should address 50% of the customer issues. (More on this at the top level http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/maintain/WERHelp.mspx)

(I say that tongue in cheek.) For all those who are awaiting the release of the new Xbox 360, take heart in knowing that you’re not alone and that there are many people in Redmond waiting along side you… or more likely, behind you in the queue. From an update notice I received today from my on-line retailer:

Dear Valued Customer:
 
Thank you for your recent Xbox 360 order.  Our supplier, who works directly with Microsoft, has informed us that the Xbox 360 will be in extremely short supply throughout the Holiday season and into the beginning of next year.

Unfortunately as a result of this short supply, many orders will not be fulfilled in time for the Holiday season. We apologize for the inconvenience and will notify you when the Xbox 360 becomes available.

Sincerely,

Customer Service

It may matter in some circles who you know, but I think that the people with the clout and real power this holiday season (or at least on Nov 22nd) are those in the shipping and fulfillment offices of the major retailers. [;)]

Plenty, especially when you see a broadcast in pure HD, or have watched some of the great programming in HD already available over the air (I’ve not been impressed by the compressed cable TV versions, ‘though it’s often superior to SD). A key reason why we’re happy to have a standing order for the new Xbox 360, as content looks incredible and very compelling when this system is paired with a good HDTV.

MSN Tech & Gadgets has a linked article today to the ten myths of HDTV where there is still a lot of confusion among consumers and technophiles.

Of course, this may be moot as we could easily see the date to switch over to digitial TV extended yet again from the latest DTV transition hard date of April 2009. From what I’ve seen in the press, the date may be extended again as the swtich over could be postponed until at least 85% of homes in an area are able to view DTV broadcasts.

There are plenty of benefits to make the move to HDTV. And with the way prices on premium sets seem to drop almost in lock step with Moore’s Law, I should soon be able to find a 50″ HDTV flat screen for the price of a 27″ LCD TV today.