Hardcore Software by Steven Sinofsky (Audio Edition)

108. The End of the PC Revolution [Epilogue]

04 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Welcome to the final installment of Hardcore Software. It has been an amazing journey in the 115 or so sections including bonus posts. I owe a huge de...

107. Click In With Surface

20 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Happy Holiday to those in the US. This is a special double issue covering the creation and launch of Microsoft Surface, an integral part of the reimag...

106. The Missing Start Menu

13 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

This section was the most difficult to write. At least people look back favorably on Clippy. The Windows 8 Start screen lacks any kitsch or sentimenta...

105. New Ultrabooks, Old Office, and the Big Consumer Preview

06 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The previous section detailed the release of the Windows 8 platform, WinRT, for building Metro-style apps. In the reimagining of Windows from the chip...

104. //build It and They Will Come (Hopefully)

30 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Imagine building a computing platform that powers a generation. Now imagine taking the big step of building the replacement for that platform while th...

103. The End of Windows Software

23 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

A reasonable question to ask is “Why did Windows 8 need to create a new platform?” Not only did Microsoft have Win32, the tried-and-true real and ...

102. The Experience

16 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

A challenge that comes with writing down experiences occurs when writing about events that readers lived through, have strong opinions about, and feel...

101. Reimagining Windows from the Chipset to the Experience: The Chipset [Ch. XV]

09 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Welcome to Chapter XV! This is the final chapter of Hardcore Software. In this chapter, we are going to build and release Windows 8—reimagining Wind...

100. A Daring and Bold Vision

02 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Hardcore Software has shared the vision planning process for five releases of Office and Windows 7. Though not detailed we followed the same process f...

099. The Magical iPad

25 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The launch of an innovative new product is always exciting. The launch of an innovate new product from a competitor is even more exciting. But what is...

098. A Sea of Worry at the Consumer Electronics Show

18 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The planning for Windows 8 was moving right along. But something wasn’t right as we wrapped up Windows 7 activities at CES 2010. It was looking more...

097. A Plan for a Changing World [Ch. XIV]

11 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Welcome to Chapter XIV. This is the first of two chapters and about a dozen remaining posts that cover the context, development, and release of Window...

096. Ultraseven (Launching Windows 7)

28 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In the era of “boxed” software release to manufacturing was a super special moment. The software is done, and the bits permanently pressed onto a ...

095. Welcome to Windows 7, Everyone

21 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

While it is incredibly fun to do a first demo of a big product as described in the previous section, there is something that tops that and even tops t...

094. First Public Windows 7 Demo

14 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In an era of huge software projects with a zillion new features in every release, there’s little more exciting than the first public demos. Such dem...

093. Netbook Mania

07 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The Windows team was plugging away on Windows 7. The outside world was still mired in the Vista doldrums. Then in the summer of 2007 there was a wakeu...

092. Platform Disruption…While Building Windows 7 [Ch. XIII]

31 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Welcome to Chapter XIII! In this chapter we build Windows 7 and bring it to market. We start with all the forces that were shaping up to “disrupt”...

091. Cleaning Up Longhorn and Vista

24 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Whenever you take on a new role you hope that you can just move forward and start work on what comes next without looking back. No job transition is r...

090. I’m a Mac

17 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Advertising is much more difficult than just about everyone believes to be the case. In fact, one of the most challenging tasks for any executive at a...

089. Rebooting the PC Ecosystem

10 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The word ecosystem is often used when describing Windows and the universe of companies that come together to deliver Windows PCs and software. Providi...

088. Planning the Most Important Windows Ever

03 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

One of the main challenges in leading a big team is that nothing ever seems to finish—there’s always more to building a team. Even at milestones, ...

087. Reorg! Why Are We Together, Exactly?

26 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

After thinking and writing to provide context to BillG, SteveB, and KevinJo, I had to begin the real work of changing the team. As much as I would hav...

086. The Memo (Part 2)

19 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The previous section detailed the raw observations on Windows and Services culture I saw after weeks of hearing about the situation from as many peopl...

085. The Memo (Part 1)

12 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Everyone in their career should have one memo that they think of as the most consequential. For me, it is a memo I wrote after a about six weeks on th...

084. How Many On the Team, Exactly?

05 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Much of what Hardcore Software has been about was what we were building (and why). This chapter is about how. Specifically, I wanted to delve into the...

083. Living the Odd-Even Curse [Ch. XII]

29 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Welcome to Chapter XII, where Hardcore Software turns from Office and enterprise customers to Windows and consumers (and PC makers). For many readers,...

082. Defying Conventional Wisdom to Finish Office

22 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

As we conclude the story of Office12 and the major redesign of the product, Microsoft of late 2005 to early 2006 is in a bit of a lull which for bette...

081. First Feedback and a Surprise

15 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

We’d been working on Office12 for almost two years and the product had made enormous progress. The team was buzzing, and everyone was very excited. ...

080. Progress From Vision to Beta

08 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

This section tells the story of a plan coming together and the breadth of the release. We did have a bit of a speed bump early on. I was told to align...

079. Competing Designs, Better Design

01 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

A common belief in big companies with resources to spare is that innovation works better when there is a competition between multiple efforts with the...

078. A Tour of “Ye Olde Museum Of Office Past”

24 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Welcome to “Ye Olde Museum Of Office Past.” This section is one of the more deeply product-focused of Hardcore Software. I hope to make it fun. In...

077. What Is Software Bloat, Really?

17 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In this and the next five sections, the story of Office12 (Office 2007) unfolds. This is really the story of the development of the new user interface...

076. Chasing The Low-End Product [Ch. XI. Betting Big to Fend Off Commoditization]

10 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Welcome to a new chapter. As we approached the launch of the massive Microsoft Office System 2003, it was time to plan a new release and that started ...

075. Scaling and Transitions

03 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Wrapping up the development of Office 2003 was an enormously challenging time for me personally, while the team continued to do well finishing a relea...

074. Outlook Pride, Finally

27 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Each module of Office deserves a shot at being the hero of a release. That’s how a healthy product bundle should move forward, rather than relying o...

073. **DO NOT FORWARD**

20 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

As readers of this chapter have seen, the theme of Office11 continues to be enterprise, though now it is turned up to 11 so to speak. Despite my conce...

072. Notes on Tablet PC Innovation

13 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Few products have captured as much attention as Microsoft’s Tablet PC (except perhaps Xbox, which coincidently launched the same year). The company’...

071. Resolving NetDocs v. Office

06 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

With the announcement of .NET, Microsoft was overflowing with projects, many not yet products, destined to become the next big thing in one area or an...

070. Office.NOT

27 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Welcome to the only project I worked on that had the plans upended at the last minute after one executive meeting. This is a journey that starts back ...

069. Mega-Scale, Mega-Complexity [Ch. X]

20 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Welcome to Chapter X! The turn of a new century and survival of “Y2K” begins a massive expansion of the Office product line, a dramatic change in ...

068. The XP eXPerience

13 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The last months of a product development cycle the scale and length of Office10 are moments of calm punctuated by moments of terror. The calm comes fr...

067. MYR-CDG: Product Meets Sales

06 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Microsoft was often viewed as a Borg-like structure though we’ve already seen when it came to product development it was decidedly of two cultures. ...

066. Killing a Killer Feature In Outlook, Again

30 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Enterprise software customers learn about roadmaps and plans long before the development team has robust execution plans. That’s part of the busines...

065. SharePoint: Office Builds Our Own Server

23 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

I admit up front this will be one of my favorite sections to offer. SharePoint was a remarkable point in the history of Office as we expanded the prod...

064. The Start of Office v. NetDocs

16 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Microsoft went through so much in the first year of the millennium. It began with SteveB taking on the role of CEO and BillG taking on a new role as C...

063. Managing the Antitrust Verdict

09 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Back to 062. Split Up MicrosoftWe received little guidance regarding how to talk about legal matters. I was never under orders to avoid speaking about...

062. Split Up Microsoft

09 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Writing about the antitrust court case and the final judgement can be difficult. The topic has been covered extensively and by my own count, of the do...

061. BSoD to Watson: The Reliability Journey

02 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Happy New Year! I want to offer a short but sincere thank you to all the subscribers, readers, and sharers who have made the past eleven months of Har...

060. ILOVEYOU

26 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Viruses were nothing new in the late twentieth century, but we were about to cross a line where they were far more than annoyances. This is the story ...

059. Scaling…Everything

19 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

It is one thing to change a product in order to meet market needs, but entirely another to change the culture. Scaling the teams and processes to meet...

058. Synergy

12 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Welcome to planning Office10 and going inside the strategy, synergy, unification engine that characterized the early 2000s Microsoft (beginning in lat...

057. Enterprise Agreements [Ch. IX]

05 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Welcome to Chapter IX, taking place 1999 to 2001 where the world realized just how dependent it had become on email and the PC when viruses became a m...

056. Going Global . . . Mother Tree

21 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Launching a product in a local market, natively so to speak, is an extraordinarily special experience. It is so special that for nearly every product ...

055. Office 2000 is Good to Go!

14 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Office9 (aka Office 2000) was the very first release of Microsoft Office built by a team that began the project and ended the project as one. Well, al...

054. Steve and Steven Get New Jobs

07 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Steve Ballmer was named Microsoft president in July 1998. There was not much fanfare because it seemed an entirely natural progression of his role at ...

053. Strategy Tax: Outlook Storage, First Attempt

31 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Most tend to think of Microsoft strategy as the march from BASIC to DOS to Windows to Azure. While that is a robust external narrative, the more inter...

052. Alleviating Bloatware, First Attempt

24 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

What happens when your biggest strength and greatest asset as a product development organization becomes your biggest weakness? Perhaps that is inevit...

051. HTML: Opportunity, Disruption, or Wedge

17 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

While we knew the time was wrong to build a whole new Office out of one of the new disruptive technologies, we did need to arrive at a strategy for HT...

050. The Team's Plan in the Face of Disruption

10 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

With the looming threat of disruption, at least according to everyone at the company and the desire to get moving on adding new features to the apps, ...

049. Go Get This Rock

03 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The most difficult thing to do in a big company is change a core belief. Microsoft was going through a late 1990s change, and rather unevenly. We were...

048. Pizza for 20 Million People

26 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Few recall our products being developed at the end of the 20th century, but they were the foundation of modern Microsoft: Windows NT 5.0 (Windows 2000...

047. Don’t Ship the Org Chart

19 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The Microsoft sales force had a ritual of reorganizing every fiscal year, like clockwork. The Platforms teams always seemed to be in some state of org...

046. Prioritizing a New Type of Customer [Ch. VIII]

12 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

This new chapter begins the middle of the PC era, starting in 1998, as I experienced. In a very short time, the industry from customers to suppliers, ...

045. Incompatible Files, Slipping, Office 97 RTM

05 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Back to 044. Our First Big M&A Deal (Beating Netscape)Please keep the feedback rolling in. This post concludes with shipping Office 97. It represents ...

044. Our First Big M&A Deal (Beating Netscape)

29 Aug 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Office had been early and aggressive inserting Internet technologies across the product, including hyperlinks (so new!) and HTML, as well, sort of, em...

043. DIM Outlook

22 Aug 2021

Contributed by Lukas

I’ve received so much positive feedback which I do not thank readers enough for. A few have asked for more sooner, so I am going to see about a slig...

042. Clippy, The F*cking Clown

15 Aug 2021

Contributed by Lukas

As a company gains success and grows, taking risks becomes, well, riskier. The costs of failure come front and center, as the ability for a company to...

041. Scaling the Office Infrastructure and Platform

08 Aug 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Perhaps more than any particular feature in what would become Office 97, though there were a lot of features, the biggest innovation was building the ...

040. Creating the First Real Office [Ch. VII]

01 Aug 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Welcome to Chapter VII, 1995 to 1997 and Office 97. As PC sales surge, growing at a rate of 60 percent in 1996, the enormity of the internet becomes w...

039. Start Me Up

25 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

It has been 26 years since the Windows 95 launch and still no launch from any company has come close to the global scale and impact of the event. Ther...

038. Designed for Windows 95

23 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

A quick story about something that felt like a corporate or ecosystem tax, the “Designed for Windows 95” logo.Back to 037. Capone and Email Withou...

037. Capone and Email Without Typos

18 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

All we wanted to do was bring the rich formatting and lack of typos people experienced with Word to email. We saw how email was replacing many uses fo...

036. Fancy Wizard and Red Squiggles

11 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Office94 (still the working name for what would become Office 95) was primarily about working with Windows 95 and shipping on the same day. That led t...

035. Windows 95, August or Bust [Ch. VI]

01 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

1994 to 1995: Sharing code and processes to build Office pays off and the concept of the suite takes hold in the market. The Windows schedule becomes ...

034. Office94, Office96

25 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

With the Office Product Unit in place, and the outline of a plan to release with Chicago in about a year (whenever Chicago was finishing, which was un...

033. Creating the Office Product Unit, OPU

20 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The most difficult transition for most new companies is going from a single product to multiple products, something Microsoft managed to pull off fair...

032. Winning With the Suite

14 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Strategically, the bundling-unbundling arc or cycle is one of the most common dynamics in technology. Something that starts off as a single product or...

031. Synchronizing Windows and Office (the First Time) [Ch. V]

07 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Welcome to Chapter V. Subscribers, if this were a printed book then you’ve just read through a typical trade press book by word count. Since we’re...

030. My Performance Review (and an Expense Report)

03 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Summertime at Microsoft was also performance review time. I was also busy trying to figure out what job to do next and was quite stressed. While this ...

029. Telling the Untold Story

30 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

A more interesting aspect of being in a staff role is how your perspective changes from day-to-day execution to strategic milestones. From this perspe...

028. Pivotal Offsite

25 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

There was no shortage of energy around the internet. It was clear that a bunch of stuff would happen. Turning that energy into something resembling a ...

027. Internet Evangelist

23 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

I’m about to get my first lesson in disruption. It wasn’t called that yet, the first HBR article is a year a way and the book and phrase “innova...

026. Blue Suede Pumas

16 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Microsoft was now big enough in early 1994 that it was easy to know the really old-timers (10 years was really old, 5 years was the period of doubling...

025. Trapped

12 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Imagine having all the confidence of an early twenty-something at an incredibly successful technology company leading the industry and lucky enough to...

024. Discovering “Cornell is WIRED!” [Ch. IV]

09 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Welcome to Chapter IV. The next series of sections detail one of the most interesting, exciting, and to many, troubling eras in the history of Microso...

023. ThinkWeeks

02 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

People always seem to want to know the habits or techniques used by CEOs for managing the company. I’m not sure if that helps or not, but at the ver...

022. Injecting New Ideas and IQ: The Information Superhighway

27 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In 1993, it would have been difficult to overstate the hype surrounding the “Information Superhighway”. Whatever definition or capabilities it mig...

021. Expanding Breadth versus Coherency: The EMS Project

23 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Back to 020. Innovation versus Shipping: The Cairo ProjectThrough Microsoft Office, even the first versions, Microsoft sold a primitive form of email ...

020. Innovation versus Shipping: The Cairo Project

19 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Back to 019. BillG the ManagerAs technical assistant I spent most of my time navigating our operating system strategy and progress during late-1992 to...

019. BillG the Manager

15 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The breadth of the Microsoft product line and the rapid turnover of core technologies all but precluded BillG from micro-managing the company in spite...

018. Microsoft’s Two Bountiful Gardens

11 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Back to 017. Eyes On Competition, Architecture, and Left FieldOne of the first things I did as Technical Assistant was to set up time with each of the...

017. Eyes On Competition, Architecture, and Whitespace

05 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Back to 016. Filling the Void Left By IBMI’m still just finding my footing in the role of technical assistant. My first weeks happen to be a flurry ...

016. Filling the Void Left by IBM

29 Mar 2021

Contributed by Lukas

One of the first things I did as Technical Assistant (TA) in early 1993 was attend something called the “Management Conference” which was a new of...

015. Every Group Is Screwed Up

23 Mar 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Back to 014. Chapter III. Executing on the Expansive Vision of Bill GatesEven to this day I get queasy when I think about being late to this first me...

014. Executing on the Expansive Vision of Bill Gates [Ch. III]

20 Mar 2021

Contributed by Lukas

At the start of Chapter III towards the end of 1992, I thought I was about to start on the next release of Visual C++. Instead, a surprise email has m...

013. End of the Beginning

14 Mar 2021

Contributed by Lukas

It is 1992 and we’re finishing up the release of what would become Visual C++. Powering through the battles of naming a product, engaging on reviews...

012. I Shipped, Therefore I Am

12 Mar 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Attending and presenting at the first Win32 Windows Professional Developer Conference (PDC) and meeting (and being intimidated by) Dave Cutler along t...

011. A Strategy for the '90s: Windows

07 Mar 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Back to 010. Our BillG ReviewFinally, in the Spring 1991 we had clarity on our platform mess, but complexity in how to move forward. I get promoted to...

010. Our BillG Review

28 Feb 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Back to 009. Password is NeXTStepThe story of my first BillG review, except I’m too junior to attend. Soon I will find myself doing nothing but Bill...

009. Password is 'NeXTStep'

24 Feb 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Back to 008. Competing with Steve Jobs (the First Time) [Chapter II]It is only fitting that a post about an accomplishment by Steve Jobs would come on...