The Importance of Branding

They don't make all the decisions, but you can't tell me they take input from consumers and produce a product like the Zune or an OS like Vista.

You just can't.

People grab a Zune and the first thing they do is try to scroll the wheel around. It doesn't work that way. People since it came out have suggested that it would've made more sense if they had just asked people beforehand. I find it hard to believe that they consulted anyone and came up with the Zune.

That's just one of many examples.

Software dorks don't have the final say with no other input, but I think Microsoft tends to listen less to users and more to their internal "we think this is great" yes men.

Microsoft's notes are interesting, as are Dunn's comments. However, I'm amazed that people still think "engineers and software developers make all the decisions" WRT the "customer experience" ... most if not all of the experienced developers I know would be willing to discuss such things with both management and customers, but in many cases we have very little say in the process or the end result - decisions are made by marketing and management after they listen to customers - or not, sometimes.

The old game of "telephone" (or "post office") doesn't begin to explain the distortions I've run across over the years because of this ...