Microsoftie Perk #2 - Exec Access

The is a post in a new blog series I’m writing called "Microsoftie Perks"

Over the years I have sent many emails to Microsoft Execs and I always get a response. Whether I’m looking for money for charity events, providing feedback on products within their org or providing feedback on the café food…they always take the time to respond. Earlier this year I sent a quick email to Lisa Brummel (Chief People Officer) asking why Microsoft cafés can’t be better. She responded very positively, CC’d some people to have a look and we saw immediate change. I also recently pinged Scott Guthrie (@scottgu) (VP of Azure) about some issues I saw with Azure and it looks like the team is already in the process of fixing those issues. I’ve actually pinged him many times since 2003 and he’s always very cool about…even when I wasn’t a Microsoftie! Brian Harry (@bharry) (Technical Fellow, TFS) hears from me a lot because I do so much with TFS. He always responds within an hour or so, always very helpful.

I have an idea what it is like to be an exec. They are busy. They are in meetings most of the day making important decisions. So, I wonder if getting an email from a dev lead like me is refreshing for them…maybe they respond right away because it brings them back to their tech roots, maybe they are love what they do and want to help see it succeed. Whatever it is I like it and it is one of my favorite Microsoftie perks. I get answers I need and see results from the people at the top.

And of course there are the folks that aren’t execs, but are also very responsive when they have no obligation to be. Scott Hanselman (Community Architect, @shanselman), Howard Dierking (NuGetPM, @howard_dierking), Nikhil Kothari (Architect, @nikhilk), Stephen Toub and many more…they are all very cool about responding to all my questions.

Having this type of communication chain with key decision makers and influencers in the company is an amazing thing. They don’t have to respond. They could just ignore. But they don’t. They listen to the people and make stuff happen.

Jon