Thursday, March 11, 2004
Derek Brown: A Legacy of Creative Windows Mobile Marketing
Posted by Jason Dunn in "THOUGHT" @ 10:00 AM
A couple of months ago, a big change occurred in the world of Windows Mobile, although few outside Microsoft are aware of it. Derek Brown, Director of Marketing Communications for Microsoft’s Mobile Devices group, left to join the Small Business Server group as the Director of Product Management. Derek Brown has been a pivotal force in the world of Windows Mobile for years, and I didn’t want to let this change go unnoticed.
To understand what a tremendous impact Derek had on the Pocket PC world, and upon me personally, you need to understand some history (and this is all off the top of my head, so grant me some artistic license here). I should also add that while this might read like a eulogy, it's not – Derek is still very much alive and doing well, just working for a different product group. ;-)
The Roots: Windows CE
Back in 1997, I became a Windows CE MVP due to my enthusiasm for the platform and willingness to answer questions in the public newsgroup. MVPs were given an official point of contact with a Microsoft technical support person in order to give them a route for getting their questions answered. Unfortunately, my contact was in desktop support (Windows 95), and couldn’t answer many questions about Windows CE. It made for a frustrating time, but I enjoyed helping others in the newsgroup, so I didn't mind.
Things continued in that vein until 1999, when I heard from another Windows CE MVP (Chris de Herrera) that he had met someone from the Windows CE team at Microsoft while attending a trade show. This person from Microsoft was apparently quite interested in talking to the now five Windows CE MVPs. Someone from Microsoft, wanting to talk to us? 8O It was a shock to us all. That Microsoft employee was Derek Brown, and in that first conference call I had no idea what an impact that enthusiastic voice on the other end would have on my future.
Getting Connected
The monthly conference calls were a great source of both information and inspiration for us. Derek would tirelessly answer our questions, and if they got too technical, he’d always find out the answer we needed and get back to us. Derek encouraged our efforts to help others in the newsgroups, and listened to us rant about the things that needed improving. Derek knew that we dealt with Microsoft’s customers every day, and if we had to keep helping people with the same problem over and over, it was something that needed fixing.
Derek had always been a big believer in the value of community – putting enthusiastic users together and letting them explore every nuance of a product. He launched an online resource called Uplink, and offered the Windows CE MVPs the opportunity to write reviews, columns, and step-by-step tutorials. The opportunity to write product reviews, work with professional editors, and actually get paid for it was incredible – it was the start of my professional writing career, and I owe it to Derek. It also represented, I believe, the first time a non-Microsoft employee was published on Microsoft.com. Derek has always been a pioneer of communities in the Microsoft space.
[Side note: I should point out that we were getting paid for the writing work we were doing, not for being MVPs. There's sometimes confusion about this when someone who is a Microsoft MVP is also doing a project for Microsoft and getting paid for it. Microsoft has never paid MVPs for doing what made them MVPs in the first place - helping others.]
The monthly conference calls continued, and then Derek decided he wanted to connect us with the product managers who made the decisions that impacted our product use, and give us a sneak peek at something new that was coming out. In September of 1999, all five Windows CE MVPs came to Redmond for an MVP Summit: Craig Peacock, Frank McPherson, Todd Ogasawara, Chris de Herrera, and myself. We were invited to stay for a couple of extra days in order to have briefings with the product teams, which was an experience I'll never forget.
The original Windows CE MVPs in Redmond, Washington, September 1999.
In the Land of Oz
I can't overstate how thrilling it was to be in building 117, talking to people that actually worked on the software we were so passionate about. It was at that conference we were shown the new Pocket PC user interface – we brought our HP 420 Palm-Sized PCs with us, and they took them away to flash the ROM with the new OS. I can fondly remember us having mixed feelings about it – it sure was faster than the Palm-size PC OS, but it was almost TOO simple.
Why couldn't we have customized columns in contacts? Why didn't the "X" actually close the application? Why was there no way to switch from one running application to another? One by one, throughout two 12 hour days of meetings, we poked and prodded this new OS and the product managers who designed it. And through it all, Derek was right there with us, soaking up the feedback we had to offer. Despite our sometimes harsh criticisms of this new product, Derek's support for us never wavered.
Derek Brown, enthusiastic as always.
Derek has a story he's fond of telling around that first meeting. At the end of the second day of meetings, we were all weary, and somewhat frustrated because this new "Pocket PC" operating system had some problems, but it was too late for our input to make any difference – in the spring of 2000, new devices would be shipping. As we were leaving the main conference room, Harel Kodesh, Vice President of Consumer Appliances, happened to be in the hallway. Derek Brown enthusiastically introduced us to Harel, and Harel cheerily asked us what we thought of the new Pocket PC product his team had been working on.
Derek paled slightly as five MVPs proceeded to tell this senior executive that none of us would use this new product, because it was inferior to the powerful Palm-sized PCs in so many ways. Still, Derek stepped back and let us talk to Harel, and Harel accepted our feedback as valuable - he even argued back! You have to see Microsoft's corporate culture in action to understand how much they value healthy criticism of their products. Derek believed that product feedback was vital to improvement, and that belief guided everything he did.
To understand what a tremendous impact Derek had on the Pocket PC world, and upon me personally, you need to understand some history (and this is all off the top of my head, so grant me some artistic license here). I should also add that while this might read like a eulogy, it's not – Derek is still very much alive and doing well, just working for a different product group. ;-)
The Roots: Windows CE
Back in 1997, I became a Windows CE MVP due to my enthusiasm for the platform and willingness to answer questions in the public newsgroup. MVPs were given an official point of contact with a Microsoft technical support person in order to give them a route for getting their questions answered. Unfortunately, my contact was in desktop support (Windows 95), and couldn’t answer many questions about Windows CE. It made for a frustrating time, but I enjoyed helping others in the newsgroup, so I didn't mind.
Things continued in that vein until 1999, when I heard from another Windows CE MVP (Chris de Herrera) that he had met someone from the Windows CE team at Microsoft while attending a trade show. This person from Microsoft was apparently quite interested in talking to the now five Windows CE MVPs. Someone from Microsoft, wanting to talk to us? 8O It was a shock to us all. That Microsoft employee was Derek Brown, and in that first conference call I had no idea what an impact that enthusiastic voice on the other end would have on my future.
Getting Connected
The monthly conference calls were a great source of both information and inspiration for us. Derek would tirelessly answer our questions, and if they got too technical, he’d always find out the answer we needed and get back to us. Derek encouraged our efforts to help others in the newsgroups, and listened to us rant about the things that needed improving. Derek knew that we dealt with Microsoft’s customers every day, and if we had to keep helping people with the same problem over and over, it was something that needed fixing.
Derek had always been a big believer in the value of community – putting enthusiastic users together and letting them explore every nuance of a product. He launched an online resource called Uplink, and offered the Windows CE MVPs the opportunity to write reviews, columns, and step-by-step tutorials. The opportunity to write product reviews, work with professional editors, and actually get paid for it was incredible – it was the start of my professional writing career, and I owe it to Derek. It also represented, I believe, the first time a non-Microsoft employee was published on Microsoft.com. Derek has always been a pioneer of communities in the Microsoft space.
[Side note: I should point out that we were getting paid for the writing work we were doing, not for being MVPs. There's sometimes confusion about this when someone who is a Microsoft MVP is also doing a project for Microsoft and getting paid for it. Microsoft has never paid MVPs for doing what made them MVPs in the first place - helping others.]
The monthly conference calls continued, and then Derek decided he wanted to connect us with the product managers who made the decisions that impacted our product use, and give us a sneak peek at something new that was coming out. In September of 1999, all five Windows CE MVPs came to Redmond for an MVP Summit: Craig Peacock, Frank McPherson, Todd Ogasawara, Chris de Herrera, and myself. We were invited to stay for a couple of extra days in order to have briefings with the product teams, which was an experience I'll never forget.
The original Windows CE MVPs in Redmond, Washington, September 1999.
In the Land of Oz
I can't overstate how thrilling it was to be in building 117, talking to people that actually worked on the software we were so passionate about. It was at that conference we were shown the new Pocket PC user interface – we brought our HP 420 Palm-Sized PCs with us, and they took them away to flash the ROM with the new OS. I can fondly remember us having mixed feelings about it – it sure was faster than the Palm-size PC OS, but it was almost TOO simple.
Why couldn't we have customized columns in contacts? Why didn't the "X" actually close the application? Why was there no way to switch from one running application to another? One by one, throughout two 12 hour days of meetings, we poked and prodded this new OS and the product managers who designed it. And through it all, Derek was right there with us, soaking up the feedback we had to offer. Despite our sometimes harsh criticisms of this new product, Derek's support for us never wavered.
Derek Brown, enthusiastic as always.
Derek has a story he's fond of telling around that first meeting. At the end of the second day of meetings, we were all weary, and somewhat frustrated because this new "Pocket PC" operating system had some problems, but it was too late for our input to make any difference – in the spring of 2000, new devices would be shipping. As we were leaving the main conference room, Harel Kodesh, Vice President of Consumer Appliances, happened to be in the hallway. Derek Brown enthusiastically introduced us to Harel, and Harel cheerily asked us what we thought of the new Pocket PC product his team had been working on.
Derek paled slightly as five MVPs proceeded to tell this senior executive that none of us would use this new product, because it was inferior to the powerful Palm-sized PCs in so many ways. Still, Derek stepped back and let us talk to Harel, and Harel accepted our feedback as valuable - he even argued back! You have to see Microsoft's corporate culture in action to understand how much they value healthy criticism of their products. Derek believed that product feedback was vital to improvement, and that belief guided everything he did.
