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August 10, 2004

Unvarnished Feedback

I just finished giving a presentation about my project to my group manager and her leads. It was quite illuminating.

This was my first formal presentation (even though it was "informal" on paper) inside Microsoft. Here was a group that has no concrete idea of what I've been doing with my time (and their money), and they're hoping to get a glimpse of what value I am providing/have provided to the business. I had an hour (and about 24 PowerPoint slides) to walk them through what's been done, what I'm doing, and where I think things ought to go after I leave.

The experience was excellent.

First, let's get this out up-front: my presentation needs some work. It's not terrible, but I did do a few things with it that clearly rank as Rookie Central. Most of these revolve around a) gauging what my audiences are going to want and b) understanding how stories are told at Microsoft.

Second, feedback comes fast and furious (keep pen and paper handy so you can take notes). If people want to know something, they're gonna ask you. And if you give them an answer they don't like, they might ask you a different question ... or the same question in a different way. The questions come from a good place; it's all about boosting comprehension inside Planning and making sure that external stakeholders (in my case, the product and/or marketing teams) are going to get value from the information.

While it might sound brutal and in-your-face, it's kind of exhilarating. Indeed, if I had to choose between this and one of those typical, conflict-free, soul-killing "review sessions" where people just say, "it was fine" all the time ... I'd take challenge/response any day.

Posted by Gavin Shearer at August 10, 2004 2:35 PM. Posted to MSFT.

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