Microsoft: the path to the consumer is… the family

Assuming that they are still interested in the consumer space, a way in may be re-purposing some of their productivity tools to cater specifically for the household workflows.

Once you have kids life becomes very much routine-based. The more streamlined the process of getting a kid through dinner, tooth brushing, bathing and bedtime book reading the more time you can claim back for your partner and yourself.

If you are a parent you’ll know that even an extra 5 minutes will help retain a degree of sanity.

My wife and I use Google calendars to remind us of events and important tasks, alarm clocks for the small reminders, Word for printing lists of things for our kids to follow and Facebook for events and communicating with other parents. School has it’s own platform and associated iOS and Android apps.

Missing in action: apps specifically designed to help families?

Or any other household where routines rule.

Searching Android’s play store yields some options, but nothing of the scale and feature-completeness that can be used as a single platform to manage the millions of things parents need to keep on top of: finances, shopping lists, house work, entertainment, chores, events, appointments, homework, etc..

Even allowing family members to share stuff like on social media.

I’d like to manage my household like a City State

With a constitution in place and a legislative framework of sorts, so that that a quarrel over what YouTube video to watch next would be dealt with via some kind of arbitration.

With our own economy, rewarding kids for their good behavior with the a currency that they can exchange for xBox credits.

(And with my wife unlikely to be reading this piece… I hereby self-proclaim myself Commander in Chief and Supreme Ruler of the Ladomery Household State.)

In all seriousness, there are many aspects of family dynamics that can be put in some kind of framework to manage them more efficiently. Adding a bit of gamification would make it fun too.

Introducing Microsoft Family Dynamics 365

Built on Azure and nicely integrated with the Office Suite.

And everything else that Microsoft seem to be trying to do with Cortana, IoT, AR and why not, mobile.

CRM for family management, effectively.

So spilling out of enterprise into consumer via a product that perfectly bridges the two.

And didn’t Satya Nadella say that the lines between enterprise and consumer are often blurred?

Phase two: a distributed network of family instances

Now, if this platform takes off and millions of families use it manage their day-to-day, wouldn’t it be logical to connect these instances so that related families and friends have spaces to share content and functions?

Building a de-centralised social network where families own data, content and are 100% in control of their privacy.

Unlike another social network out there and an alternative to it?