20 Years at Microsoft

Over in Redmond, Robert Scoble interviews Larry Osterman, a software design engineer who recently hit his twentieth year at Microsoft. He’s clearly a man who loves his job and loves the company. Robert et al are building Channel 9, which is essentially a series of informal interviews with Microsoft folks.

It’s a great idea to demystify the Imperial Empire and hear directly from the people building your products. However, this interview with Larry highlights a useful secondary application: It makes Larry a star. When he looks back on his twentieth anniversary with Microsoft, Larry will probably remember most that his video interview was watched by (I’m guessing here) 20,000 people. I’m sure Microsoft gives him something nice for 20 years of service (turns out that Bill gave a speech), but the fame is pretty memorable too.

This has probably already been discussed somewhere, but Channel 9-type projects can offer a real morale boost or reward to members of your company. Why not interview your tech support star and get them to discuss commonly-asked (or stupid) questions? Not only will it build better customer mojo, but it’ll make the tech support person feel great.