EP 26 - Steven Sinofsky on leading Office & Windows at Microsoft and the art of writing well
Podcast Notes Playlist: Business
English - December 22, 2022 00:00 - 1 hour - 105 MB - ★★★★★ - 2 ratingsBusiness podcast notes podcastnotes playlist Homepage Download Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Overcast Castro Pocket Casts RSS feed
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Podcast Notes Key Takeaways Steven Sinofsky doesn’t write immediately when he has an idea; he will stew with an idea for days at a time so he can really think about itThe Darwinian element of early Microsoft was the ability to do email Microsoft had to realize that TCP/IP was not something it had to make go away, but something that the company would have to pivot around After getting back from a recruiting trip at Cornell, and only three months on the job as Bill Gates’s technical assistant, Steven wrote a memo explaining why Microsoft had to adopt the “internet thing” People celebrate the winner for a short time, and then go onto to dislike the winner for a long time“My whole career at Microsoft I thought we were on the verge of going out of business.” – Steven Sinofsky on only the paranoid survive The Mac vs PC ads were “brutal”, according to Steven Sinofsky; they were 90% accurate, but the 10% that was inaccurate drove him absolutely bonkersHave a “Strong opinion, willing to change” operating framework “Leading is giving people a picture upon which to decide things so that you are not the limiting factor, the gatekeeper, or the micromanager.” – Steven Sinofsky Leadership requires the fortitude to create the picture for those following you and then let it go “There is a very fine line between leadership and manipulation.” – Steven Sinofsky
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This week's special guest is Steven Sinofsky, one of our favorite techno-optimists responsible for shipping Windows and Office products at Microsoft used by billions of people. He is also the author of one of the most popular Substack books - https://hardcoresoftware.learningbyshipping.com
In this episode we talked about Steven's early days at Microsoft, his famous internet memo, working with Bill Gates, and the traits he sees in good leaders and founders, how to set company culture, his experience leading Office and Windows teams at Microsoft, and the secret behind his ability to write well.