Web Platform and Tools Product Management-- who we are, what we do now, and a place for you to tell us what to do

A lot has changed over the last five months for me and I wanted to tell let you all know, my reading faithful what has been going on.  Then, I want to ask you to provide us with feedback about what you want us to do to make your lives easier for the next twelve months.  We are in the middle of FY07 planning (Microsoft fiscal year runs July 1àJune 30th) where we make all of our budgeting plans and tactics for the year.

 

In November, I took on a new role here at Microsoft.  It wasn’t a big change, but instead of just being the Product Manager for ASP.NET, VWD and “Atlas,” I took on a broader team that I affectionately call Web Platform and Tools Product Management.  It is probably a bit of a misnomer, but our groups charter is to ensure that Web Developers have the best possible experience building and delivering applications of all types on the Web using Microsoft technology or the Microsoft Web Platform.  This includes product management for:

 

 

And a handful of other incubation efforts related to the Web like dynamic languages, web community, etc.

 

As of today, my team consists of:

 

Keith Smith (ASP.NET, Web Tools, and “Atlas”)

Sanjoy Sarkar (ASP.NET breadth community and outreach)

Eric Woersching (IIS and Shared Hosting) [he’ll be starting a blog soon is my guess J]

TBH (Commerce Server)

TBH (Internet Explorer) [I need to write the JD still and open the req, let me know if you are interestedJ]

 

Over the past year we’ve been responsible for delivering a lot of great content and resources that we see you all using on a regular basis including the CSS Adapters, How Do I Videos, learn2asp.net, provider toolkit, ASP v ASP.NET Comparisons (just soft-launched), ASP v ASP.NET Productivity Study (new too!), the ASP.NET 2.0 Starter Kits, all our community efforts (www.asp.net, atlas.asp.net, etc.), a bunch of IIS related stuff that you will be seeing come online with Vista Beta 2 (very very soon!), lots of whitepaper content on MSDN, the ASP.NET Design Templates and a whole bunch more.

 

But the big QUESTION for you all is what else do you want?  What else do you need?  I want to hear it all, product feedback, content feedback, materials for your boss, friends, developer materials, everything.  No holds barred, your feedback will help me prioritize some of my team’s efforts and spend for FY07.  Tell everyone you know – keep the feedback coming.

 

Some things we are looking at already are:

Extending the CSS Adapters

Formalizing the ASP.NET design center

Tons of “Atlas” related resources

More HowDoI videos

A complete www.asp.net overhaul

Tons of content to support IIS7

Integrating more projects into the new codeplex.com site (like starter kits, “atlas” control toolkit, etc.)

 

Help us grow the list!

 

Also, if you love web standards, know the browser market inside and out, have a deep understanding of Web development from ASP and ASP.NET to PHP and Java and what to help make a difference with Internet Explorer, send me your resume, I’m HIRING! (more info on jobs coming in a few weeks)