Microsoft Needs the Community’s Help

First of all, if you find this interesting, please digg it:
Digg it Here
In order for things to change, Microsoft needs to hear our voice.

Read on. I promise I’ll get your attention.

I’m a nobody. Microsoft has probably never heard of me in any capacity. I’m not popular in the online community. I’m not an executive and I have no business experience. My opinion counts for very little and my voice is rarely heard.

I’m a user. But I’m more than that. I’m a user advocate, or at least I try to be.

I’m a geek. Or, at least, that’s what my family and friends call me. I’m the person my peers turn to when they need help with technology.

I educate. Not only do I help solve their problems, but I also educate them how to better go about using their product in the future.

I AM a user. Regardless of how much I know about technology (and I know a lot), I’m frustrated with all of it.

Microsoft isn’t all about Windows. Microsoft isn’t all about competing with other companies. Microsoft should be about me. This bold statement requires one to ask why I am so important. The answer is not all that simple given Microsoft’s current ideals surrounding their software products. Businesses and people want Microsoft products. OEM vendors pay countless sums of money in order to license Windows and other Microsoft software products to provide to customers. Microsoft owns the market and this isn’t going to change anytime soon. Why am I so important in Microsoft’s world?

I’m important because I start my computer every day and use Microsoft’s products. I’m important because my entire life in the year 2008 relies on software that Microsoft has engineered and produced with millions of working man-hours, whether it be Windows, Office, Media Center, Sync, the Zune, Windows Mobile, or Live Services. My entertainment revolves around Microsoft products. My communication revolves around Microsoft products. To restate: My life revolves around Microsoft products.

Have I gotten your attention? Probably not. Microsoft, after all, has an overwhelming reputation that they make horrible products. Bill Gates has a reputation of being a money-hording and self-righteous person. When people think about Microsoft, they think about power, control, and quite possibly, hopelessness. Let me be the first to say that I utterly loathe such statements as these for their downright ignorance to the truth.

I see it every day. I deal with it every day. “Microsoft is horrible.” “Microsoft can’t produce a good product.” “I can’t stand this new ‘Vista’”. I sit here using Windows Vista Ultimate x64 on 4 custom-built computers surrounding me, never had one single issue with Windows Vista since the public Beta, wouldn’t dare touch any other operating system, and yet I am somehow frustrated to my very core with Windows Vista.

It’s not about what’s wrong with Vista. It’s about what’s not right with Vista. It’s about overpromising and under delivering. It’s about why my voice and the voice of countless others has been all but silenced in the ears of Microsoft’s decision-makers. I’m not frustrated with the product. I’m frustrated with the ideology that Microsoft has adopted over the last decade.

What happened to Microsoft’s original idea of technology in the hands of the average person?

The average person has been removed from the map in Microsoft’s mind. The end user has been allowed to be trampled on by not only the products that Microsoft releases, but also the ways in which they are released to the customer. Microsoft has allowed OEMs to not only frustrate, agitate, and torment end users with technology, but also cause the horrible reputation that Microsoft has in the software community at this very point. Microsoft has lost all quality control outside of the development labs and the end user, the very people that matter the most to the success of Microsoft, are suffering because of it.

The frustrating thing from my perspective is that the end user typically is too ignorant to know what to do about it. They don’t know what hardware to buy or which software to run. They don’t know how important updates are. They don’t know the difference between Allow and Cancel in UAC. They come to us, people like me, the geeks, the user advocates, pleading for a solution. We try our absolute best to not only provide this solution but educate them in the meantime.

And we, the community of user advocates, have been begging Microsoft to listen to us for over a decade. We, the community of user advocates, are the most user-facing people Microsoft has to tell them what people want in Microsoft’s products. We, the community of user advocates, have been utterly ignored for over a decade. And yet, we, the community of user advocates, have not stopped our relentless plea for Microsoft to hear our voices as customers, as loyal customers, who want nothing other than a quality product for us to advocate to our peers; for us to evangelize to everyone around us; for us to be able to say “This product is AWESOME.”

That’s us. Who is Microsoft and what can they do?

Microsoft is a company with potential like no other software company in the world. Microsoft is a company which houses some of the most brilliant minds in technology. Microsoft is a company which contributes more to technology as a whole through things which stem out of Microsoft Research. Microsoft is a pioneer in the gaming industry. Microsoft is one of the greatest success stories this world has ever seen.

There are areas of Microsoft, including those I have just mentioned, which have done so much for the end user. Microsoft Research listens to what users want to see in products. Where are these amazing technologies in primetime Microsoft products? The Xbox Live community is virtually flawless. Why isn’t this development strategy used when developing other Microsoft software? I saw dozens of tips submitted to Microsoft about how the Zune 1.0 could be improved: all of them made it into Zune 2.0 and it’s a fantastic product, better than anything else out there. What happened to Windows?

Microsoft needs to stop thinking about how their operating system software and office productivity software will benefit corporate environments. Microsoft needs to dedicate entire teams to finding out what the community has to say about their products and how they can be improved in the way that users want, not the way that Microsoft executives want. Not only do these teams need to be created, but these teams need to have direct influence as to where, how, and when these ideas make it into core Microsoft products.

Microsoft has long had conferences where they get feedback from users. Why haven’t any of these major ideas made it into Microsoft products? What happened to the lines of communication? Which Microsoft executive decided our ideas weren’t good enough for the product?

Microsoft has to stop thinking about its business partners and start thinking about itself for once. While Microsoft benefits financially by partnering with, say, Hewlett-Packard, HP is one of the prime examples of an OEM which is utterly trashing Microsoft’s reputation by bundling software which is not only completely pointless, but ultimately hurts the user’s experience with the Windows operating system. HP has turned a Microsoft product into an HP branded product, complete with trial software from companies which no one has ever heard of or services which will never be used just so HP can make money.

Microsoft needs to threaten OEMs concerning such behavior which tarnish their reputation. Microsoft needs place strict limits as to which hardware and which software is allowed to be installed on these machines which are sold to consumers in order for Microsoft to provide OEMs with the licenses in the first place. And Microsoft needs to put their money where their mouth is and actually follow through with pulling OEMs licensing for those who do not completely and fully comply. This would and does require a virtual reconstruction of Microsoft’s business ideals.

OEMs are controlling Microsoft at this point and it’s hurting us. Advertisers and software which have little use for the consumer are controlling OEMs and they’re hurting us even more. It’s Microsoft’s duty to step in on behalf of the end user and provide them with the experience they deserve. Not only is it the end user’s experience that’s on the line, it’s clearly Microsoft’s reputation and future support from the community.

Have I gotten your attention? I most certainly hope so.

I’d like to think that all of my dedication (and not only mine but the tens of thousands of people in the community), will have paid off in the end by Microsoft undergoing major changes in order to better involve the community as a core part of the company, as advisors and consultants, to improve the quality of Microsoft’s products, Microsoft’s reputation, Microsoft’s stance within the technology and software world, and Microsoft’s future as a great company who actually listens to their users.

You can’t know how long we wait for the day that people can actually say they respect Microsoft. And believe me, we won’t be giving up anytime soon should our efforts at this point in time be ignored just like the rest. The reason we never give up is because we care about the end user; ultimately we are just end users ourselves who happen to know about the technology behind product.

We want quality. We want a voice. We want to be embraced by a company who could give us such amazing products. We want Microsoft to succeed.

Please help us.

On behalf of the entire Windows and technology user community,

Adam Reyher