In the event you acquire into Microsoft Chief Software program Architect Ray Ozzie;s logic, customer — not enterprise — is where the action is, these days. The cool tech innovations are coming from the customer world and being adopted by business, not vice versa.So what learnings can the rest of the Redmondians take away from Microsoft;s digital-media player team? A while back,
Microsoft Office Pro Plus 2010 clave, I listed ten lessons that the Xbox team could teach the rest of Microsoft. Now I;m wondering the same about the Zune side fof the house. On the short list:1. Don;t introduce anything in brown. At any time. No logos, no product boxes. And definitely no gaming consoles or other consumer devices. (That said,
Office Pro Plus 2010 X86, I must be part of the one percent of the population who liked the brown Zunes. I liked them more than the white ones,
Office 2010 Pro Plus 64 bits, for sure. And possibly more than the new green ones.)2. Keep your bleeding-edge adopters happy when rolling out updates to your product to earn brownie points. Microsoft;s decision to provide Zune 1 users with all the new functionality and features that the Zune 2 users are getting won the company lots of kudos.3. Little details matter. The new free laser-engraving Microsoft is offering with the new Zunes is a very nice touch. I;m not trading in my Sony Walkman yet (so that I could get from Microsoft my five free lines of engraved text — something classy like “Bye,
Office 2010 Pro, bye iPod”). But it;s still a cool extra.4. Steer clear of spokespeople who tattoo your logo on themselves. Especially when they do it three times (and change their name to “Microsoft Zune”). They are not the ones you want doing your “I;m an iPod” and “I;m a Zune” commercials.5. Wait out your competitors. Your motto: First they ridiculed. Then they mocked. And finally, they succumbed. The Zune 2s are way less clunky than the Zune 1s. By the time the Zune 3s roll out, maybe that ugly button within the center will be gone. And perhaps Apple will have made some blunders — like Sony did inside the PlayStation vs. Xbox wars — that will give Microsoft an added boost.Any other tips/tricks you think the Zune team could show the rest of Microsoft? Or Microsoft;s competitors,
Office 2010 64 Bit, for that matter?