李保存

(Keep in touch. My msn: baocun_hld AT hotmail DOT com, email: bill.z.li AT gmail DOT com)

My dear friends,

Today is my last working day in Microsoft, and it is time for me to start a long-awaited adventure. During past 3 years, many folks impressed me deeply and I hope have a slice of knowledge/skills you have.  After working in such a wonderful place, I possessed enough confidence to face any subtle difficulties ahead. What I got are much more than what I contributed to this company.

What I learned

• How to tackle the most complex problems in the world as a team.
• How to attract most smart people
• How to inspire people
• How to make a great place to work
• How to build the right software right as a team
• How to deliver good news
• How to deliver bad news(This one is harder)
• How to deliver good/bad reviews(One of hardest part of people management)
• How to deliver a speech
• How to handle *angry* customers
• How to educate customers
• How to learn what customers want
• How to sit down with customers and close a deal
• How to run a team of different size in different stage with different goals
• How to make friends(Pop quiz: Do ICs need friends? Are they all about diagram and code?)
• How to approach people and win their support
• How to win an email argument
• How to response to the competition news
• How to beat competitors
• How to build ecosystem
• How to build up a giant company from scratch (If I can say)
• The way how MSFT encourages knowledge sharing – Discussion loop, brown bag, online learning center, in-person training, marc polo, silk road, mentorship, mentor ring, code review, spec review …
• Share ideas – think week paper, idea exchange, …
• The most easy one – How to reply to all with a “good job” message after a product ship
• And many more…

I won’t claim I am a guru in any of areas above because I see what the highest standards are in this company. And I just reach the good(to me) level of combination of these ingredients.

People

• So many great folks including leadership, developer, tester, PM, marketing, sales, support… I can’t say your names since this is public post, but I will memorize how you changed my mind.

and also something unique about me…

In addition to taking part in shipping 3 products…

• Win FOOL(group alias ‘FOOL’) award. I am probably the only person who has this award in greater Asia.(If not, let me know. Maybe we can talk about that.)
• Win Best Business Value award in a startup team
• Win largest number of valid bugs in first team wide bug bash
• Deliver a presentation to the whole STBC in all hands meeting. (Enwei is even listening to me:-)
• Enter final list with a mobile phone innovation idea(Finally it is so smart that one team in US is on the way of building it quietly.)
• Board number of of STBC citizenship committee
• Organizer of Junior Achievement program in STBC
• Posted a question which a technical fellow answered(MSFT have less than 20 technical fellows which are highest technical title one can achieve.)
• Regular guest speaker of SJTU software institution
• Probably the best Java learner in a .NET world
• Probably the developer with most deep business minds, or business man with strong technical background(I call it “Think globally, act locally” as my blog slogan.)

Almost everyone asked about where I am going. This world is undertaking dramatic changes, especially this country. I can’t stay in this huge market to build software for anywhere else except here forever. Life is short, and I won’t forgive myself if time just passes by as “yet another year” way. Pursuing a fair ROI is another factor which won’t be achieved by working for any company. I am happy to complete engagement with Microsoft roughly on schedule.

2010 will be a new exciting start. I will enjoy in any event.

Good luck to us all! (And luck is actually where preparations meet opportunities.)

Bill