Built For vs. Used For
Posted on April 15, 2007
Filed Under Companies, Enterprise Software |
"Outlook wasn’t designed to be a file dump, it was meant to be a communications tool…There is that fine line, but we don’t necessarily want to optimize the software for people that store their e-mail in the same .PST file for ten years."
The quote is from the Outlook Program Manager following the recent release of a fix that promises to resolve the Outlook 2007 performance issues. She is wrong. Period.
Software applications may be designed to one use case scenario but users end up utilizing them in entirely different capacities. That Outlook is being used as file storage shouldn’t surprise anyone, from the moment I first laid my hands on that product that is exactly how I used it, and when I found Lookout’s very cool search plugin for Outlook back in 2004 my use of Outlook went into overdrive… I started emailing crap to myself because I could more easily find it, with an associated note in the form of an email, in my inbox than I could in my desktop file system.
I’m really quite amazed that any product manager for a mature and widely used product like Outlook would have the temerity to dismiss the manner in which people are using their software as "well we never designed it for that".
This is exactly what is wrong with Microsoft and alot of other big software companies, they spend too much time building enterprise products for what IT tells them the requirements are, which in the case of Outlook/Exhange has been better security, spam protection, and admin capabilities. Microsoft should have spent a few more cycles on understanding better the numerous ways that users are taking advantage of Outlook to make their lives better and don’t involve being a "communications tools". No wonder enterprise usres are increasingly going to Gmail.
Tags: Outlook, Exchange, Product management, Gmail
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My name is Jeff Nolan and I write Venture Chronicles. These are my thoughts on technology, innovation, management, public policy and pretty much anything else that I find interesting.
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