5 ms·

just wondering 1 thing.. is there anyone in microsoft that looks at the feedback hub or forum at least? They never seem to listen to ANY feedback..

userbinator 5y ago
They do look at it. Just not to do what you'd expect with what they see... https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29954266 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29954266
- thombles 5y ago
  I posted an update to that article just the other day - it's a (new?) policy that feedback will be retained for at most 15 months. FBH can be safely disregarded as a waste of time.
- icelancer 5y ago
  Ha, that's incredible. The MSFT employee (ralvis) cited in the article who complained about the "never combine" change in W11 is someone I know quite well, and he's not a developer. Normal users hate it just as much as us developers/nerds.
stg22 5y ago
Microsoft's OS business is a classic "cash cow". It's very big and very profitable, but has limited growth prospects and its revenue is currently growing at only single digit percentage points per year. Every MBA course teaches that the way to handle a cash cow is to milk as much profits from the users and spend as little money maintaining it as you can get away with. You do this to maximise the amount you have to invest in other, faster growing businesses that will be the future of the company, even if it causes long-term damage to the cash cow. MS have been milking their OS and Office businesses to fund their cloud and XBox businesses and, so far, it's a textbook example of the strategy succeeding; the cloud already brings in more revenue for MS than Windows and is still growing much faster than it. The OS features that are getting attention, such as VS Code and WSL are ones that have synergy with the more important businesses and help them sell. Things like fixing the safari park of UI conventions don't have that synergy, so the resources that could improve them go to the other businesses. The ads and forced sign-ins are also part of this; in the long-term, they'll drive some users away from Windows, but right now, they funnel money and users to places that should matter more to the company in the long-term. MS aren't listening to Windows feedback - and the internal feedback from people working on the product is usually part of it in these situations -, because what's good for Windows isn't what's good for MS.
ReaLNero 5y ago
(Not a Microsoft employee) Even if you do have the feedback, is it worth fixing issues if your boss doesn't prioritize them, and you won't get promoted for it?

userbinator 5y ago

They do look at it. Just not to do what you'd expect with what they see... https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29954266 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29954266

thombles 5y ago
I posted an update to that article just the other day - it's a (new?) policy that feedback will be retained for at most 15 months. FBH can be safely disregarded as a waste of time.
icelancer 5y ago
Ha, that's incredible. The MSFT employee (ralvis) cited in the article who complained about the "never combine" change in W11 is someone I know quite well, and he's not a developer. Normal users hate it just as much as us developers/nerds.

stg22 5y ago

Microsoft's OS business is a classic "cash cow". It's very big and very profitable, but has limited growth prospects and its revenue is currently growing at only single digit percentage points per year. Every MBA course teaches that the way to handle a cash cow is to milk as much profits from the users and spend as little money maintaining it as you can get away with. You do this to maximise the amount you have to invest in other, faster growing businesses that will be the future of the company, even if it causes long-term damage to the cash cow. MS have been milking their OS and Office businesses to fund their cloud and XBox businesses and, so far, it's a textbook example of the strategy succeeding; the cloud already brings in more revenue for MS than Windows and is still growing much faster than it. The OS features that are getting attention, such as VS Code and WSL are ones that have synergy with the more important businesses and help them sell. Things like fixing the safari park of UI conventions don't have that synergy, so the resources that could improve them go to the other businesses. The ads and forced sign-ins are also part of this; in the long-term, they'll drive some users away from Windows, but right now, they funnel money and users to places that should matter more to the company in the long-term. MS aren't listening to Windows feedback - and the internal feedback from people working on the product is usually part of it in these situations -, because what's good for Windows isn't what's good for MS.

ReaLNero 5y ago

(Not a Microsoft employee) Even if you do have the feedback, is it worth fixing issues if your boss doesn't prioritize them, and you won't get promoted for it?