Obviously I am not commenting from experience with Microsoft's design process, just from the article. But what little the article says is deeply disturbing. It

Obviously I am not commenting from experience with Microsoft's design process, just from the article. But what little the article says is deeply disturbing. It says that Buxton told Ballmer they needed to fix the design process. There's your problem right there. If they want to turn their design around, the conversation should involve Ballmer telling the troops to get cracking. It needs to be Ballmer's passion, not the passion of some gadfly wandering around trying to evangelize the company while being bereft of authority or responsibility for any single product line. Design involves making painful decisions. It's not just pretty skins, it's an exercise in leaving things out. That's intensely political, and the only people with the authority to play that game are the people who have responsibility for shipping the products. Joel Spolsky (http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/TwoStories.html http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/TwoStories.html): At Microsoft, if you're the Program Manager working on the Excel macro strategy, even if you've been at the company for less than six months, it doesn't matter - you are the GOD of the Excel macro strategy, and nobody, not even employee number 6, is allowed to get in your way. Period. Does this sound like the kind of place where Buxton can wander around getting product managers to make trade-offs between their precious list of check-box features and good design? The goal is noble, but this is not the way to change Microsoft's behaviour.