Feedback 101: How Microsoft Works (Sometimes...)

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As a SQL Server Technical Evangelist I have a lot of customers.  My internal customers include the SQL Server and Visual Studio development teams.  The primary thing they are looking for from me is to drive great feedback back into the development teams to help them build software that actually addresses the needs of database developers.  I do this in a variety of ways, including trying to facilitate face time between the development teams and real database developers who are using their technology.

Unfortunately much of this feedback is anecdotal.  It requires the person representing the development team to be diligent about reflecting the feedback they received in product plans and specifications, and the reality is that the loop doesn't always get closed.  So I've been thinking about other ways to drive feedback that ensure a suggestion will get looked at as part of the product planning cycle.  Now Microsoft cooks up a new feedback engine du jour about every other week, but there is one feedback engine which has had some staying power, and that is Microsoft Connect.  Whether you love Connect or hate it, the bottom line is that when I go to the wall with development over some piece of feedback, they want evidence that it will have broad appeal, and that evidence comes from Connect.

So from now on, I'm going to log all of my suggestions as feedback on Connect, then I'm going to blog about them here.  My hope is that folks who watch my blog will spread the word and vote for the feedback.  The more votes a feedback item gets, the higher the chance that it will get addressed. 

If you have submitted feedback on Connect that you feel is important and want me to drive votes for it, let me know by emailing sqldevx@microsoft.com.  Make sure you include the appropriate connection (e.g. "SQL Server" or "Visual Studio and .NET Framework") as well as the ID and title of your feedback item on Connect so I can find it.  If I think its important enough to blog about, I'll do it.

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