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Inside Microsoft: From research to crossing
the chasm
Luis Daniel Soto Maldonado
Microsoft, Mexico
This talk describes the Microsoft Business Incubation
Process: research, synthesis, product development and customer
adoption.
Microsoft Corp. became one of the first software
companies to create its own computer science research organization.
As part of a dynamic industry that is continually reinventing
itself, Microsoft saw the need to support long-term pure computer
science research. There are currently more than 700 people in
the Research organization, working in more than 50 areas.
The Chief Technology Officer (CTO) group is responsible
for evaluating mid to long term investments that can dramatically
impact the industry. This critical step helps understand if a
business model exists around a particular idea and types of delivery
plus end-customer expectations.
Incubations need to be integrated with Product
Groups that will deliver the software products and services. Risks
include team and code base integration. The engineering excellence
challenge of building a supportable product varies from project
to project. For example, estimating the time needed to develop
general voice recognition is difficult: It hasn't been proven
that it can be implemented, it hasn't been implemented.
The last challenge is to bring new technologies
to the market and creating an ecosystem that can support and makes
money from the idea. Replacing older technologies and driving
growth are opposite activities that must be addressed to create
growth through innovation.
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