Thoughts as we finish up

Some of you who have been following my blog know that I've been involved with many different MP3 player launches over the years. Last week we had the "sign off" for version one (we literally sign off on our various parts of the project). While we were doing the sign off, I got to thinking about where we are in relation to other products I've shipped and I thought I'd share some of those thoughts.

One of the difficult things for us is that we see the flaws as they arise and we forget that the experience for most users is much different. In every project there are lots of issues that come up. Some are major and others are minor. But, we get paid to solve those difficult problems. In fact we get paid to make sure the customer never knows about them.

This weekend I installed the Zune Software on my home machine. That's always an indicator of how comfortable I feel with the project. If I'm willing to install software on my home machine that I've got fine-tuned, then you can bet I feel pretty good about the experience. While I was installing the client, I really tried to look at the experience with fresh eyes. Was the experience easy? Did it experience any glitches? Was it fast (I've got 16,000 files)? Was it on message? Did it speak to me? Was it fun? Of course I am biased, but looking at it with this filer on it, I was really, really happy. It is amazing what the team did in a short time.

At the same time I loaded up the player at home, I installed the final builds on my Zune. Again, I tried to look at this as If I had never seen it before. The upgrade feature worked seamlessly (I can't wait for future upgrades). I then went through every feature one by one. I have to say this is a solid product. I can usually come up with an edge case with most products that breaks the device or makes me mad. I couldn't do it. My biggest complaint was that I can't delete tracks directly on the device. However, it is very easy to do that via the Zune software, so it isn't a big deal. If that's my biggest complaint, I'd say we are doing pretty well.

I then spent about an hour on Zune-Arts.com. My wife and I watched all of the shorts (including the Lion and Gazelle). It was really fun to watch her reactions to the shorts. It was clear that she didn't always "get" them, but she enjoyed them none the less. She said that the spots didn't look like Microsoft ads. EXACTLY! Coincidently, I happened to see my first ad this weekend with Dave (Zunester) at the Borat movie. I had a huge group of 18 year olds sitting behind me. One of them asked the other if that was a Creative Zen ad. The other said, "no, it's that thing from Microsoft. I've got to get that shit!" I think that was a compliment. I felt pretty good.

So, all in all, I feel very good about where we are. I really think we've created a great customer experience. This has been the most fun project I've worked on in years. It is right up there with the days when we invented the PMC, which still holds a special place in my heart. But it has many of the same elements; a cool product, great people, and cool new features. Now is the fun part. We get to see how all of you react to the product. In one week we'll know what you think. I've got no doubt you'll tell me (both good and bad).