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July 26, 2007

Switching To The Mac(BU)

As of August 13, I'm starting a new job here at Microsoft. I'll be a Program Manager in the Macintosh Business Unit (MacBU - pronounced "Mac Boo"), working to help design and build the next generation of Microsoft Office for the Mac.

I can't even begin to express how thrilled I am.

When I've shared this news with people over the past few days, I've received one of two responses. They are:

1. It's about damn time. Pass the sugar.
2. Whaaaaaaaaaa? I thought you liked Product Planning!

I'll take each in order.

First, it's no great secret that I'm a longtime Apple fan. I won't bore you with the usual discussion of my bona-fides, like when I got my first Mac (1990) or what model it was (SE/30); suffice to say that I've been doing my Amateur Apple Pundit Thing on this blog for a good three years now, and the company is clearly a passion of mine. I like their products, like their focus on the customer experience and think they're producing some of the hottest stuff in the industry right now.

MacBU is the largest Mac development shop outside of Apple (the Seattle PI did an article on the team a few years ago, called, "The Mac Lovers Of Microsoft"), and our flagship product is Mac Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Entourage, and Messenger). So if you want to have an impact on the software that a lot of Mac users use (which, uh, I do), Microsoft is an excellent place to do it.

Second, I do like Planning. I've been "living the dream" in Office - doing an interesting job with great people - since I connected with the Product Planning team as an MBA intern in 2004. Planning has been nothing but nice to me, generous with their trust and their resources. I've learned a lot, met wonderful folks, and done some work that I'm very proud of (and which you all will be able to see when Office ships next).

So why change?

Well, I've seen Microsoft VP Robbie Bach speak on more than one occasion, and whenever he talks about career development he invariably talks about building your "portfolio of skills." Broadly, this means you should look at what you do and don't do well, what parts of the company you have or have not worked on, and so on. In Bach's view, it's smart to do a 360-degree analysis of your skills, identify your strengths and weaknesses, and plug the gaps by trying new stuff from time to time. He counsels you to go give yourself experiences that seem interesting (work abroad, do a stint in sales, dabble in operations, etc.), and that pull you out of your comfort zone.

I find this model compelling. One reason I went to business school was because I wanted to try working for a big company. Office Product Planning was my first taste of that, and the experience has been well worth having. But as time has gone on, I've found myself yearning to own more and more of the product, take things from idea to execution, bring new stuff to market. It's something I've done in a startup context, but never with, you know, serious budgets and millions of customers. And of course, if I'm going to build something, I'd like to be building something I'm emotionally invested in, that I really care about. In my world, that really boils down to Internet stuff and/or Mac stuff.

Hence, I've been sniffing around the MacBU for a good while now, doing informational interviews and generally making a pest of myself. I heard earlier this year that the Program Manager gig might be coming, and, when it got posted, I went for it - submitted the resume, did the interviews, the works.

And now, well, you're reading about it.

I'm jazzed. Just .... jazzed. Jazzed about the job, jazzed about the Mac, jazzed about learning new skills, jazzed about getting to work on products that I'll have in my Dock. Jazzed that I'm going to get paid to attend things like MacWorld and WWDC, jazzed that my primary work machine is a MacBook Pro, and jazzed that I'll need to partition it for the Leopard beta, cause, you know, I need to know about that stuff for work. But mostly, I'm jazzed that I get to work on crazy/cool new software ideas that will, undoubtedly, keep my brain running full-speed.

Drawbacks? Yeah, a few. Elaine and I just finished moving (Megaproject #1), and all of this happened a lot faster than I thought it might. In my mind, any kind of job transition was going to kick off after we got back from our honeymoon in September. This would let us use the summer to plan the wedding and get married (Megaproject #2), and then figure out what to do, career-wise (Megaproject #3). But life kind of has its own schedule. This came up early, I realized I wanted it, and the tumblers all clicked. So #3 happened second, and my summer is going to be even nuttier than expected.

One thing I've been particularly impressed by is how open the process has been, internally. My lead and I had our mid-year career discussion back in February, and I told her I was planning to make a play for a Mac job if one became available. We've kept in touch on the issue over the last few months; I let her know that the job was getting posted, let her know when I applied, and so on. Being transparent has helped both of us plan for a clean, clear transition. Planning has been nothing but great about all this - Microsoft's got a strong commitment toward keeping people in the business, and working on projects that make 'em want to get in to work every morning.

(Which, uh, this does.)

So I'm winding down my Planning activities, transitioning my work to others, and, as I understand it, my MacBook Pro is on order. And about two weeks from now, I'll be reporting to work in Building 115.

Watch this space for details.

(Jazzed.)

Posted by Gavin Shearer at July 26, 2007 9:16 AM. Posted to Apple | MSFT.

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