MS Research is completely separate from the product teams. Researchers seem disdainful of product team folks, and vice-versa. One time over lunch I asked a te

MS Research is completely separate from the product teams. Researchers seem disdainful of product team folks, and vice-versa. One time over lunch I asked a technical manager about the role of theory in our work. His response: "Remember that time we had a guy with a phD in our group? We wasted so much time on theory and did nothing practical". Everyone laughed, and promptly changed the topic. Another time I had an interview with their search engine team. I ended up in a fairly heated argument with the interviewer about where innovation comes from. Her contention was that Research should do all the innovating, and throw the innovations over the wall to product teams, and product teams obediently implement. Which I said was... less than ideal. "No hire" =) Seems to me in Google, product people and theory people are tight, or even the same people. MS's schism approach will never touch that.