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July 27, 2004

CAC!

There is an unwritten rule at Microsoft: that which can be given an acronym (or, as my friend Bill Hays points out, an initialism), gets an acronym. This means that otherwise innocuous-sounding names for things are quickly compressed into three or four characters, which are then fed straight into the vocal chords for easy mangling.

In today's example, consider the Customer Advisory Council. This is an unarguably good thing: a forum for Microsoft to learn what its customers want, straight from the horse (as it were). However, this also means that Microsoft culture re-christens the event with the unfortunate-sounding name of "CAC". When pronounced, it sounds like someone just choked on a small bit of salami (e.g., "GAK!").

Stop the insanity!

But I digress.

The CAC is a group of customers who have agreed to come to Redmond and tell us what's on their minds. Some of their feedback is directly related to our products, and how much they love them. Other parts of their feedback consist of how our products aren't as good as they could be. And a third part consists of those same customers telling us that they're happy to kick us to the curb if we don't do what they want.

Sounds like fun, huh?

Actually, it was. The entire feedback process is structured in such a way so we capture as much data as possible, as accurately as possible, in as short a period of time as possible. As a Product Planner Intern, this represented one of my first glimpses of how market research works, Redmond-style. Many of these customers represent sizable companies with sizable IT budgets, sizable needs, and a sizable ability to make us happy - or un - if they see fit.

I've written before about my goal-setting process, and how Microsoft is big on transparency and accountability. Today was an example of that with customers, rather than internal folks. After some brief opening remarks from Bernardo (my team lead), Anoop got up and talked for a good 45 minutes about where the division is going, and how he sees Microsoft products evolving into that space. After painting the vision, he paused, surveyed the room, and said, "I'd like a show of hands. Who here thinks we're not listening as well as we could be?"

A few hands went up. Gingerly. It's hard to be a party pooper in a room full of people.

Reluctantly, a few more went up. And then one or two stragglers. Anoop surveyed each of them and said, "Thank you for your honesty. I stand here because I want to fix that."

As one who has had to wear the Asbestos Underpants with unhappy customers in the past, I must say that I was both impressed and refreshed by Anoop's forthright solicitation of this feedback. It would be really, really easy for him to stroll in to the room, say a few uplifting words ("We love our customers, technology is wonderful, children are our future, thank you for coming!") and walked out, leaving his direct reports to deal with complaints.

But he didn't. Very cool.

Posted by Gavin Shearer at July 27, 2004 9:09 PM. Posted to MSFT.

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