Microsoft encourages employees to work part-time to develop applications for WP7 systems

According to foreign media reports, because the WP7 operating system is a new platform, developers need to learn it while developing applications for it, so WP7 application development progress is very slow. To speed up development, Microsoft decided to change the company's strict part-time rules, allowing even employees to use their spare time part-time jobs to develop applications for WP7 smartphones, and allow them to retain the intellectual property and revenue of these applications.

Now, Microsoft employees do not have to sneak in a part-time job, fully can be officially enrolled part-time for the WP7 platform development applications. Microsoft also organizes pizza parties for these part-time employees every week, and publishes their works in a variety of ways, including posters and awards for achievement, said Brandon Watson, director of Microsoft's WP7 developer experience. In 19 countries with WP7 smartphone sales, Microsoft has sent a WP7 smartphone to all its employees free of charge.

The drawback, however, is that if employees develop apps in their spare time that are unpopular, they will not get a penny. From an incentive point of view, this is less than Google. Google allows employees to use 20% of their working hours to develop projects that are of interest and benefit to the company.

But for Microsoft, the policy changes have been bold enough. Like many other companies, Microsoft's cultural heritage wants its employees to focus on their core work, said Michael A. Maikhelku Sumano, a professor at MIT's Sloan Management Institute.

The new rules were partly fueled by a strong push from the Watson team. "Our company has strict part-time rules." "But we've changed these rules so that developers can take advantage of their spare time to do development work and get some financial rewards and a sense of achievement." ”

For the sales of these applications, Microsoft is divided into the traditional way: 70% of the revenue to the developer, 30% of the revenue to the company. The incentives seem to work. To date, more than 3,000 employees have submitted applications and about 840 applications have been released.

One of the apps, bubblegum, allows users to process photos of their phones, such as toning them, illuminate them, and then posting them to Facebook and sharing them with friends. It was recently written by a couple of newlyweds. The newlyweds are Srilam-Klichnand (Sriram Krishnan), the project manager for Microsoft's cloud computing platform, and Ms. Ashe-Rama (Aarthi Ramamurthy), a project manager for the Microsoft Xbox game team.

' The development of this application is done entirely in the spare time, ' says Klichnand. "We started the work when we were on our honeymoon in Hawaii," he said. "he said. He is not worried that his sideline will make Microsoft unhappy. He has started developing a second app for WP7 handsets. I took the check and took out the cash. "Microsoft has given strong support to this," he said. ”

Microsoft's new rules have allowed people to rethink how large companies manage their research and development teams, says Josh Lerner, a professor of investment banking at Harvard Business School (Lerner). "Microsoft is not only rewarding employees to work in their spare time, but is actively mobilizing resources to serve the company's goals." "he said.

Prof Cusumano also believes the new rules will help to boost entrepreneurial dynamism. "This will not only make every developer a potential entrepreneur, but it will also help Microsoft's new mobile platform get a great development." ”

For those employees who are reluctant to leave but want their ideas approved for fear of entrepreneurial risk, the new rule gives them new options, the driving force: an astonishing Truth about incentives (drive:the surprising Truth about What motivates Daniel H. Pink, author of the book, said Pinker. "It's equivalent to saying, ' work here, you can have two worlds '--both employees and entrepreneurs of famous companies. "he said.