4 ms·
Do people within Microsoft really consider Microsoft Research to be a drain on company resources as implied by a couple of those comments?
by michaelhoffman 14y ago
Do people within Microsoft really consider Microsoft Research to be a drain on company resources as implied by a couple of those comments?
- kevin_morrill 14y agoI did when I worked there. The return on investment relative to what the product groups were creating was off the charts. I was all for taking the money and talent to think about long term issues, but it was just distasteful how poorly value was captured from it.
- CamperBob2 14y agoIt's no secret that the idea behind Microsoft Research is to keep the talent from working anywhere else. They don't have to ship a darned thing, as long as Google, Apple, or Sun don't either.
- meaty 14y agoI got that impression during an interview with them in Cambridge in 2005. They genuinely couldn't promise that anything that was done was going to end up in a product or would actually be used. Fortunately I was too crap to be considered a threat if I wasn't hired :)
- volandovengo 14y agoMicrosoft research produces some amazing gems. They are a case study for what good things can happen when you let 2 or 3 really smart geeks works on problems which have yet to be solved. Unfortunately, MS research is pretty disconnected from the product teams and as a result, they tend to innovate in a vacuum. As a result very rarely are their innovations integrated into the products. They therefore come off as a drain on the company.
- s_henry_paulson 14y agoOr some of the products are so advanced that the the product teams won't deal with the fruits of the research for many years. I remember being excited about Microsoft's SenseCam just a little under 10 years ago. 4-5 years later I thought the product would never be available to consumers, and lo and behold, it's finally become technology that is available to the public... but man did that take a long time.