Adam Hecktman, Director Microsoft Technology Center Chicago

Posted on: January 11th 2011 | Filed under: Agency News | Comment on this post

Adam Hecktman, Director Microsoft Technology Center Chicago Talking about the Challenges of a Game-Changing Product Launch

On the heels of Microsoft’s recent launch and media blitz for the new Windows Phone 7, we sat down with Adam Hecktman Director of theMicrosoft Technology Center Chicago, a nineteen year veteran of the Microsoft team, to discuss the challenges faced launching the newest contender in the mobile technology marketplace. Some of those challenges include end user resistance, gaining trust, and balancing flexibility with proven technology business tactics.“As the executive sponsor for the windows phone launch this year one of the things we do in the technology center is spend a good amount of time getting to understand our customer’s business drivers.

"One of the things we do in the technology center is spend a good amount of time getting to understand our customer’s business drivers. Much in the same way you would start with a new marketing client who has a concept, a lot of time our customers will come to us and say “we want to implement this or that kind of system” and we’ll work with the customers to move off of the end solution and try to see what the real business drivers are driving the need. We’ll want to understand not just what IT is thinking about, , but what everybody in the company is thinking about: what’s the CEO thinking about? What is the CFO and his/her staff thinking about? The CMO? The COO? How does that feed into your need to make a technology decision? Only when we have a good understanding and an agreement about what those business drivers are have we earned the right to talk about these new products and how they can be implemented and the technology behind it- how to best get it architected in a way that makes sense for the business- it’s the fine line between business and technology that my team is driving at MS.

About user behavior and consumer demand…

“One of the things we do in the technology center is spend a good amount of time getting to understand our customer’s business drivers.  This includes listening to the consumer.  We have spent the last several decades getting really good at listening to the market. We may not lead the market every time, but we understand it- we understand what customer needs are and how customers really use devices.”

About Windows 7 Phone innovation…

 “First, completely forget everything you’ve ever thought about smart phones- start from scratch. This is a completely different kind of phone- it’s a brand new code base, device specification, ideas, team…. One of the goals behind this, we call it smart design, was to find a way so that the services, applications and software on the phone could all work together so that you’re not operating in a world of independent applications and icons.”

About integration…

“We’re merging the concept of PC, browser and phone by storing a lot of this stuff in the cloud. So again we had to try and break the notion of ‘I’m on my phone, now I’m on my PC, now I’m on a kiosk on the web’ and try and think about that holistically.”

About understanding the marketplace…

“Microsoft was hoping to enter the smart phone market with a fair number of ready-made applications for download on the Windows Phone 7.  Our goal was to have a lot of apps for the launch, and we ended up having thousands.” The phone platform was readily adopted by application developers thanks to Microsoft’s use of preexisting frameworks.  These already established development platforms (Silverlight, .Net and the XNA toolset) allowed programmers to craft applications for the new phone platform immediately, ensuring a number of attractive options ready for download in the Window Phone App Marketplace.  Some of the most popular applications for the Windows Phone 7 include mobile stalwarts like Facebook and YouTube. The inclusion of business-oriented tools in the new marketplace will include resource planning and development software aimed at improving productivity and integrating with Microsoft’s popular suites of business solution software.”

About being a game changer…

“There was definitely a void in the marketplace. Again, the existing players that are out there are focused on individual applications doing individual tasks and leaving it up to the user to pull that all together. The market void was ‘how do we pull all that stuff together for you so it’s do it- and move on’.”

About the challenges we faced… 

“There are a few challenges. Number one; there are a lot of expectations built up over the years around the existing platform. When you’re working on a platform that’s been around for a while it’s challenging to introduce a whole new concept- to come out with something that says, “everything you thought about this before is different now.” I still see people that view the Microsoft Windows platform through the eyes of Windows XP- a ten-year-old operating system. Our phone is going to have that same challenge- people looking at it through an old lens.”

“Another challenge we’re going to have is that there are going to be a few things that we wanted to put in the initial version of this phone that we just couldn’t get out in time. You will see these features in an update soon, and they will build on the features that make this a great phone for the enterprise.”

About marketing…

“The challenge from a marketing perspective for the Windows phone is it’s much more interesting because it is both a consumer device and a business device. The element of what we call the “consumerization of IT,” where millenials are coming into the workforce expecting to do work on their consumer device- this is where devices like this blend between the consumer side and the business side.”

“It’s taking a look at the way people actually live their lives and use their digital libraries,  all the digital things they have, and try to streamline that- try to make it more effective so that they can live their lives outside of a 3”x5” screen… We are creating a generation of young people, digital natives, who have spent their entire lives staring at a little screen- what we want to do with this is pull together the different applications, services and devices and give them an opportunity to glance, get something done and move on. That’s really what that ad campaign is trying to say.”

About competition…

“It’s a double-edged sword. When your competitors come out with a great consumer platform they’re the ones that are setting the expectations for the platform. That’s a hurdle we have to overcome, and, the nice thing about it is, we have spent the last several decades getting really good at listening to the market.”

With the launch of Microsoft’s Windows 7 platform, we will see a change in the landscape of the mobile marketplace.  Microsoft credits their innovation to having a deep understanding of their customer.  Using that knowledge, they have been able to satisfy all their customers’ needs on a single screen.  We’d like to thank Adam Hecktam for providing us with his expert insight on the challenges of a new product launch, and for giving us an insider’s look into the new Windows 7 mobile platform.