Microsoft, here’s my offer.

Don’t let this great ship sink any further.

I am a big fan and former employee, but I have stopped defending you.

A few years ago, I was working for you as a young product planner in Office (W15, 2013). The job was probably one of the best I have ever had. (Sadly, US visa issues related to my green card processing time led me to resign and move back to Europe. My processing time suddenly jumped from an expected 2.5 years to 7 years due to an error by the law firm filing my application). That aside, I loved the company, a lot.

But, things have changed. So, here’s where we stand, almost three years later. I feel this has gone too far.

Ever since I left, I have been following you very closely. You are everywhere I go, there is no escaping you. But I like that. What I absolutely don’t like, is how people are treating you.

You are close to 100.000 people strong, that’s 100.000 of the world’s most creative, smart, passionate spirits, willing to make it the best brand with the best range of products in the world.

That’s 100.000 people who go out on the streets after work and (metaphorically) get punched in the face for ‘messing up everything’. There is an immense amount of bad news floating above your head, there’s so much hate. I was on the inside of this institution, I know how hard of a life this can be, for those in charge. I also know how much incredible, positive and smart potential this company houses and nurtures. But where in the process did the line disconnect?

‘Ignore the haters’, is what everyone learns on their first day at internet school. It hinders progress and it hurts your feelings. Since I parted ways with you, Microsoft, I have been fighting for your reputation where ever I could. From parties to newspapers, from Twitter to Facebook. I have told and recounted many stories of all these smart people working there, the insane amount of work going into your products and designs, the thought process, the incredibly huge market and limitations it brings. Selling the same version of Windows to a street shop in India, as well as to million-dollar offices at Accenture — and still making it work, on any type of hardware. That’s incredible.

But the people don’t care about that. And now, sadly, even I don’t care about that anymore. I am losing the fight, trying to defend you, you’re taking away my ammunition, day by day. I think you are making a lot of great big bold bets (as SteveB likes to call them) and I feel they are going to pay off. But that’s only possible, if you don’t die the death by a thousand cuts beforehand.

For instance, I have tried to explain why/if Office now limits to 1 PC, or 2-3 in a family like it used to? How Xbox One is not going to allowing me to transfer games, or is it? Why it makes sense to have no “Start Button”, when you re-introduce it now? I have tried to attend Windows Developer sessions with close friends, we signed up for free accounts with our credit cards “just needed to get processed”, only to find out now that you are about to charge me this coming year (which I understand) but taking ALL abilities to remove my card, cancel the subscription or just opt the hell out of this before it renews? Really, I need to contact support for that? Is this 1997? The interface is confusing, it’s terrible, it’s too hard for me to find my way out, I failed using it. And I work with technology for a living.

Today I learned that I supposedly have 4 different accounts with you (3 personal, 1 business), all listed under my ONE Microsoft e-mail address. What is this? Why are all my products/services scattered across all of these accounts, my credit card associated randomly all over the place?

Why is Skype “Home” so ugly? Did nobody ever look at this page? Come on, it’s the default page when you start Skype, what does it even do?

Why do I receive e-mails from you (yesterday), that start in German and continue in English?

Linking Skype and Microsoft accounts, oh my god, it was a nightmare!

The stories you hear from partners, the messed up CRM data sets, the insane pressure in your international sales subs. What is this, SAP?

The list, and trust me, I have a really long list, goes on forever.

Why?

Please, Microsoft. I know you want out of this.

As unreasonable and unlikely it sounds, I truly believe that it does not take millions of dollars to do so. Let’s start small. Setup and empower a small task force team, strongly tied into social media and engineering at all major divisions. Anytime someone from the engineering, marketing or legal team says, “I don’t think this is feasible”, or, “this can’t be done quickly”, give this task force team a joker card to elevate it up to the top level division leads. Make them the A-Team of the people. Thrive for one sentence to be posted to online forums in a year from now:

“Microsoft’s service and user experience is incredible.”

By removing a lot of small problems, you can at least start cleaning up all the ammunition for hate. People will still hate on polished products, they might not like a color, a vision or a UX flow. That’s okay. People hate Apple and Google just as well, for all sorts of random things.

I strongly believe that I can compile a list of over a thousand little but necessary improvements that will have dramatic impact. And this goes across all teams, all divisions. From Bing to SQL Server.

What’s not okay is the fact that there are so many easy wins out there, waiting for you to realize them. Transforming a “wow this is terrible” experience to a “wow that was quick” one.

So here’s my offer

Hire me and let me compile you a list of things that are so terrible that I feel in no position to defend you anymore. Invest a million dollars into this team for one year and see what happens. All they need is superior power to drive improvement. Quality is something that can be tricky in the software and services business. But it needs to improve, now.

Let’s start by fixing everything related to Windows 8, Windows Phone, Outlook.com, Office 2013 and make life of third-party developers a golden if not platinum experience.

You own an operating system brand (Windows) that 91% of all computer owners in the world have installed on their system (June 2013). How is this not awesome? Because people feel that’s not fun or cool — you are the giant, nobody likes the giant.

Any young developer just starting out is more likely to learn iOS and Cocoa (which both suck learning when you’re starting out) just because it’s cooler. That’s why you are not attracting developers right now. The distribution is confusing and marketing of apps from consumer to consumer sucks. The story sucks. It’s not cool if I download a Windows App. So, it’s not profitable for most developers. Visual Studio kicks ass, the distribution market kicks ass, the frameworks kick ass: Any developer worth their dime will attest to that (even those who work on Mac OS and/or XCode now). This is all golden, but where did the line disconnect to the consumer?

Did you even realize how well-received your AMAs on reddit where? The OneNote team as well as the Outlook team did incredible Q&As, there was barely any hate or trolling, people felt like there was a chance to really ask and say what they felt about this product. Talking to the giant can be exciting, but not if you feel like it just hits a dead, corporate wall of lawyers and marketing executives.

If I go to Microsoft events, and I do from time to time, there’s people always asking those hater questions. And I know each and every question before it’s being asked, before I even enter the room. It’s the same questions newspapers have, the same issues people raise when the product launches. No answers are being communicated. The internet is full of guesses about your strategy.

Ugh. It’s just really, really sad. I want you to succeed, so badly. For all the people working there, for all the great ideas, the research at MSR, for everything. This is not about Apple or Google, this is about your own backyard. Let’s cut the grass and install some new fences and maybe a swing, make it nice to hang out there.

For a start, open up an e-mail address, call it mystory@microsoft.com and let people vent. This will deliver the first 1.000 items on that quality TODO list. For free.

You can reach me at my firstname@lastname.com.