It's great to read that Gabe has had such a positive experience with a Microsoft product team - but it seems pretty obvious to me that it's because he's a somebody. His posts on penny-arcade reach an enormous audience, and so of course they're going to do their damn best to make sure he sings the product's praises.
My experience is very different. I've been working for an enormous organisation for the last 4 years, and we're a tier 1 client of Microsoft's. I've had numerous occasions where I've tried to get anyone on the product team for my specialisation at Microsoft, that my company literally drops millions of pounds on to pay any attention to our requirements. And every time I've had that conversation, with the same requirements, it's like this is the first time they've heard it. They make great promises that they'll go away and think about it, and then nothing happens. And that's because I'm a nobody. I don't have a blog with a massive audience, and so they really don't give a sh!t.
While I don't disagree, it's also potentially due to Microsoft being a gigantic corporation with dozens of internal fiefdoms, which can each have wildly varying cultures. It's possible that the people working on consumer tech (or specifically on Surface) are open to user feedback where the people working on enterprise products just aren't.
(Not that I'd say that's acceptable if it's the case, just saying it wouldn't surprise me -- especially given how terrible at these things enterprise-focused people at big companies are in general. Listening to end users and then rapidly responding to their needs is just not part of their culture.)
While I assume you've probably done this, you can try going up the chain, telling the higher-level managers just what a shitty experience you've had, and that you're considering looking elsewhere to fill (some of) your needs as a result. You don't have to say you're considering moving everything, just that you're going to start experimenting with other providers where appropriate, and start breaking the MS stranglehold on your business.
Make someone important start genuinely worrying about your account. Get them to assign a permanent engineering contact point, since it's clear your account manager isn't doing it for you. If you're not a manager-level staffer, get managerial support in doing this, so you have their backing and they don't undermine you later (even accidentally). And while you don't have a blog of your own, if you get stonewalled again, you could reach out to a tech blog with a decent amount of penetration and have an interview with them - either about the shitty experience, or the thought of moving vendors and implying that MS is no longer the only game in town for your -foo-. It doesn't have to be perfectly true, it just has to generate visible bad press - it's an underhanded tactic, but if you're consistently being treated poorly, I think it's an option to consider.
Or, even better, move off MS where possible, and spend that money on staff to massage the changeover :)
They are fixing the problem for every user, not just him, based on his input. I want a drawing tablet, I have been reading every PA post about the surface with bated breath waiting for the "it's now perfect" announcement. As far as I'm concerned, their model is working. Maybe they just need to expand it to other products too.
Sure, this problem is fixed for every user. That's great, we're all in favor of MS fixing problems.
What GodEater is pointing out is that Gabe is getting attention due to his celebrity. Much more attention than Microsoft gives to companies that pay them millions of pounds for their products. Gabe gets that attention precisely because his opinion closely watched by people like you.
Consider what kind of product development this philosophy gives rise to. What if you don't want what Gabe wants? Do you have any chance of getting it when MS has the sort of development priorities they're displaying here. What if they were listening to someone whose opinion you did not respect? How would that affect your view of the product & the company?
Interesting. In the enterprise I worked back then we had a problem that was not MS's fault rather the result of a specific implementation detail related to how we managed software on Windows-based PCs -- Microsoft basically extended the .Net framework because we needed it. (Extended means adding a few methods and events here and there, but they definitely listened -- this was many years ago, by the way.)
It really really depends on which product team you deal with at MS. I had experience with the silverlight/winphone teams and they were pretty on the ball. We had major carrier backing at my last job though... so they usually listened to us and we usually had early access hardware.
Sorry your experience with them wasn't as spot on. They've really been trying to be more responsive to feedback (at least with windows phone).
I've heard that one company screwed up the basic fundamental component of their mobile phone once - the antenna. It was basically short-circuiting when you were holding it during the call. Their answer to consumers? "You are holding it wrong".
> It's great to read that Gabe has had such a positive experience with a Microsoft product team - but it seems pretty obvious to me that it's because he's a somebody.
Yes, the article had a bit of a Chaos Manor feel to it.
My experience is very different. I've been working for an enormous organisation for the last 4 years, and we're a tier 1 client of Microsoft's. I've had numerous occasions where I've tried to get anyone on the product team for my specialisation at Microsoft, that my company literally drops millions of pounds on to pay any attention to our requirements. And every time I've had that conversation, with the same requirements, it's like this is the first time they've heard it. They make great promises that they'll go away and think about it, and then nothing happens. And that's because I'm a nobody. I don't have a blog with a massive audience, and so they really don't give a sh!t.