Why We Wrote The Insider’s Guide to Innovation at Microsoft

Dean and I didn’t set out to write a book about Microsoft. Our goal was to write a book about innovation—providing both intrapreneurs and entrepreneurs a one-stop reference for the tools and processes that help us spend less time debating how to innovate and more time actually doing it.

But what better place to explore innovation than Microsoft? The company is turning 50, has had only three CEOs, and is one of the most diversified companies in the world. That kind of stability, combined with its vast reach across industries, made it the perfect subject for a study that goes both deep and wide. While other books skim the surface of many companies, we had the chance to look across countless products and teams that all share Microsoft as their core. The real power of that common thread is that it normalizes the analysis, making the insights broadly applicable to different industries and contexts.

The Entrepreneur’s Perspective

Dean and I are both innovators, but from different backgrounds. Dean has spent most of his career as an intrapreneur within large organizations, while I’ve spent most of mine as an entrepreneur. We both leaned into these perspectives as we wrote the book, and what we found surprised us. For example, here are a few things I thought at the start.

Perceived Difference #1 - People

In a company as large as Microsoft, every team operates like its own business unit. Human dynamics being what they are, you can only manage so many relationships at once. In a small company, that might mean knowing everyone. But in a place with 200,000+ people spread across 15 lines of business? Not a chance.

Perceived Difference # 2 - Structure

In my entrepreneurial ventures, people wore many hats. The product manager might also be the business analyst, designer, user-tester—and in the early days, you may even be doing sales and support. At Microsoft, roles are much more specialized.

Dean and I first connected over the realization that it’s tough to be valued as a "generalist" in big orgs—something we both consider ourselves to be. There are clear career tracks for becoming a distinguished engineer or moving up the management ladder, but not for staying at the forefront of innovation—leading initiatives from “nothing to something,” handing them off, and then starting the next one.

Perceived Difference #3 - Time

Then there’s the relationship with time. As an entrepreneur, you're building the boat while you sail it. Whether real or not, it feels like everything needs to happen yesterday, or you’ll sink. Meanwhile, Microsoft has systems and channels already at scale—but integrating into them (or adapting them) doesn’t happen overnight. Big ships take a long time to turn.

What We Found

But here’s the thing: at a fundamental level, these differences become less material.

• People: Whether you're in a company of 2 or 200,000, creating something new, bringing it to market, and scaling it requires many people. The difference is whether most of those people work for the same company.
• Structure: Dean and many others we interviewed proved that big companies need generalists—we call them boundary crossers in the book. And my entrepreneurial ventures wouldn’t have succeeded without the technical experts and specialists I relied on. The real difference seems to be in the reward systems.
• Time: Innovation takes time no matter where you are (except in those rare, extremely lucky cases). The difference is how that time is spent.

What Dean and I discovered was that there’s far more in common between our worlds than we initially thought. Fundamentally, innovation works the same way everywhere. Sharing those deep patterns—how to innovate every day, over the years, with everyone, and more than technology—is why we wrote the book.

That said, early on we also realized we couldn’t separate innovation from the people driving it. The lessons we uncovered were inseparable from the teams and individuals making it happen—and that’s what ultimately made this a book about both Microsoft and the how of innovation.

We can't wait to share it with you!

Pre-order now, support STEAM, and become an Insider:

We're excited to share more insights as we approach our February publication date. Please follow us on LinkedIn at https://www.dhirubhai.net/company/the-insider-s-guide-to-innovation-at-microsoft and visit?InnovationAtMicrosoft.com?to learn more, pre-order the book (or a box of books) and join our free Insider community!

All proceeds from the book will support STEAM education.

#Innovation #Microsoft #Entrepreneurship #Leadership #BookLaunch #STEAM Dean Carignan Debra Englander Ethan Drigotas