IT Communities and the way they are changing the world

Interview with Christine Betts

I recently interviewed Christine Betts, General Manager, Technical Audience Global Marketing-Microsoft. She is a wonderful person, exactly what is needed from a person who manages the Global Technical Marketing team at Microsoft, a large part of her work is working with community. I had two wonderful opportunities to meet her. First at the Community Summit held immediately after the MVP Summit and the 2nd about a week ago, during the first week of TechEd the Developer week. I had loads of questions for her, but before that, let me give you a brief profile about her, directly from her.

Christine works in the Technical Audience Global Marketing team at Microsoft where she describes her job as “helping people find better ways to do big things”.  Her focus today is to help Technical Professionals find better ways to leverage technology to greater benefit. This means working on bringing  realism and relevance to Microsoft’s interactions and engagements with Technical Professionals so they can be successful in their jobs and in their careers.  Why?  Because  Technical Professionals bring technology to life every day in amazing ways so that others can be successful too.  They help Microsoft to realize its vision of empowering people and businesses throughout the world to realize their full potential.  “Moving Forward Together “with Technology {Technical People]  (technology to the power of Technical People) is what Christine’s  team is focused on.
Christine is a 25 year veteran at Microsoft with a broad range of cross-company experiences from Finance to Learning, from IT to Support and Customer Service, including international and global roles, always at a senior management level and with a “change” focus for over half of that career.
Christine is a citizen of the UK but has been resident in WA state since November 2004, having relocated to do this job.

My questions to Christine and her responses below:

1. Looking at the evolution of communities, what would you identify as defining moments/activities which have been a driving force?
   Obviously, the formation of groups like Culminis, INETA, and PASS! I think that it’s actually less about defining moments than it is about the steady growth of User Groups, especially in the IT Professional space, and their enthusiasm to help one another and to get the best out of technology for their organizations. Helping others is a natural human tendency but I’m really impressed with how the communities in the technology industry take helping others so much to heart and run community projects together over and above their business interests.
2. From a Microsoft standpoint, how difficult is it to convince people internally about utilizing the strengths and supporting the community?
   It’s actually very easy!  There are very few people within Microsoft who don’t think that the community is a wonderful resource, both for its members and for Microsoft. The issue is that there are many different opinions as to how to best work with these communities. Everyone is keen to engage.  Sometimes we come up with so many different ways to do this that it must look disorganized from the community viewpoint. We are trying though, and one of my groups most important roles is to help bring consistency and make the best possible use of the limited resources we have so that we are easier to understand and to work with.
3. Could you describe key initiatives by Microsoft which you feel will help grow the community?
   On a global level, our relationships with the key organizations such as Culminis, INETA, and PASS are critical to ensuring that we have as good a relationship as possible with the thousands of user groups and millions of members. We are also in the process of launching User Group Support Services (UGSS) – an online platform which will greatly help to provide user groups with the tools that they need.
4. What does the IT community mean to you personally, what drives you about it? 
   It’s all about people.  The more people you meet within any community scenario, the more amazing individual stories you encounter.  Within the IT industry those stories are rich and varied on why people get involved with technology and then they are truly amazing on what people achieve with technology.  Within my team, we remind each other that the winning formula is Technology ^{{technical people}} – Technology to the power of technical people.  We produced a book of portraits of some of these people for our 2008 server products launch earlier this year under the theme of Heroes Happen Here.  Those stories are fascinating and humbling –and they are representative of many many more that happen every day all over the world.  I am inspired by being in a position to help those people to achieve their goals and dreams.
5.  How and where do you see the future growth of the IT Community, do you foresee any significant inflections points? At the moment, less than one in ten IT professionals are part of a user group. The percentage is growing, but of course I’d like to see it grow much faster. I’d also like to see Microsoft become an equal partner in the community, rather than being viewed simply as a vendor. As for inflection points, I really think it’s more about steady growth and gradual change than anything.
6. In your 25 years at Microsoft, what are your top 3 community related learning’s? 
   I have learned that  “community” is one of those words that everyone uses and not everyone understands!  Community is both fragile and incredibly robust at the same time.  Communities are formal and informal.  Community cannot be managed or manipulated but it does not survive and thrive without continuous stimulus.  It’s an incredibly powerful “thing”!  It’s all about the people and the things they share an interest and a passion for.  I used to be somewhat nervous about not being a deep subject matter expert in what our communities were engaged in but I soon discovered that passion and the motivation to help others transcends all language and skills barriers and becomes infectious.  I’ve heard people say things like offline communities will die in favor of online – and then online just made offline connection so much richer and more productive.  Community is one of the most organic phenomena that I have encountered!
7. What is your vision of the perfect community and its relationship with Microsoft?
   Independent, open and engaged. It’s actually very important that the community feels both independent from Microsoft but also connected and engaged.  The last thing we want is people telling us what we want to hear or feeling constrained about what they can say – we need you to tell us the truth, both the good and the bad.  At the same time, we want technical professionals wherever they are in the world to think of Microsoft as another community of individuals who care about the same things – moving forward with the power of technology.  As a commercial entity though, Microsoft brings something different to the party.  Our success is inter-twined.
8. At one time in the history of Microsoft not so long ago, there was rumored a clarion call given by Bill Gates about turning around every product and making sure it was Internet enabled, another time it was Security, Do you think it’s time for the call of Community, Community, Community to be shouted out loud?
   Yes – and no.  I actually think that this has quietly been happening within Microsoft for some time now.  There are some teams who are deeply connected to their related communities but people come and go and relationships ebb and flow.  The clarion call approach tends to focus the entire company for a period of time – until the next clarion call.  Community needs to be part of our soul rather than something we concentrate on until we think we have “fixed” the problem.  My team is on point to remind everyone about that and to help instill it with some best practices of community connection.  I think the long-term play is the way to go.
9. For some it’s The law of Attraction (Abraham-Hicks), Buddhism ZEN philosophy, Church of Scientology, Eckhart Tolle, Anthony Robbins, Who is your inspiration (you could say Bill G, or Steve Ballmer as well 😉 
   Actually, it is Frank Gaudette, the first CFO of Microsoft.  He taught me to “reserve the right to wake up smarter every day”.  This means always being open to new learning, never being arrogant about knowing it all, being able to change a decision when you find it to be wrong, and being completely open and transparent.  Frank was a wonderful mentor in life.  He remains so for me even though he died in April 1993 as his teaching lives on.
10. What’s the one device, which you feel has personally affected you the most? And your family? 
    Clearly the PC.  When I joined this small software company back in July 1983 in UK it was just a job with some really nice people!  I had little idea just how significant that career decision was.  I was the accountant then and I had the pleasure of trading up my PCs for faster and faster versions over the years, finding new and better ways to manage the accounts of a very fast growing business.  And I have gone on to work in just about every area of the business since then except for product development and sales!  For my family, it’s all about the power of communication technology.  It’s not a big family but we are scattered across the globe now.  We keep in touch through technology – sharing emails, photos, videos etc. as well as talking on the phone regularly.
11. Do you believe in causes? Which cause inspires you the most (It could be Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, CRY, Unicef, etc. Or your local charity)
    I am touched by causes large and small and by the efforts that people put in to help each other.  It’s one of the things I admire so much about Bill and Melinda Gates that they put so much of their energy and wealth back into supporting the causes of healthcare around the world.  Similarly I am impressed with how the user groups rally around causes in their local communities, offering their help and support as well as their technical expertise where appropriate.  This is the true spirit of community. I love it when we do that at work too.  We take the whole team and work on a local community project.  It is very rewarding.
12. What would be your clarion call to the community? What would you love it to be or do?
    Engage with us!  And, to some extent, understand us.  Microsoft is a company of more than 99,000 individuals, empowered to drive forward with their piece of the puzzle of advancing technology.  That may not always look as connected as it should do but when it works it is hugely powerful!  Tell us when we get it right and tell us when we look like we are getting it wrong.  You’ll find us to be hugely adaptable to good feedback.

My questions to Christine overflowed beyond the ones I had emailed her. I had the pleasure of meeting her once more during TechEd Developer week, we chatted more, and I’m sure we would have many more engaging conversations, more on that later. I’m happy to see people like Christine within Microsoft who are keen and understand the importance of the IT community. Cheers to that!

June 16, 2008 at 6:19 pm Leave a comment