Microsoft just announced a huge shakeup to the Windows org, and with that it almost goes without saying a shakeup to just about the entire company. CEO Satya Nadella laid out the changes in a letter to employees, but to make things a bit clearer we’ve parsed his words into a rough org chart so that you can follow along at home.
In this new org, Windows becomes not an overarching umbrella covering a wide range of products, but a cog in a bigger wheel, falling under Rajesh Jha’s Experiences and Devices team. The org looks something like this, according to the memo:
- Experiences and Devices, led by Rajesh Jha
- Devices – Panos Panay, Chief Product Officer
- Windows, led by Joe Belfiore
- New Experiences and Technology, led by Kudo Tsunoda
- Enterprise Mobility and Management, led by Brad Anderson
- Cloud + AI Platform, led by Scott Guthrie
- Azure, led by Jason Zander
- Business Applications Group, led by James Phillips
- Universal Store and Commerce Platform, led by Eric Lockard
- AI Perception & Mixed Reality, a new team led by Alex Kipman
- AI Cognitive Services and Platform, led by Eric Boyd
- AI + Research, led by Harry Shum
In looking at this new structure, a couple of things beyond the obvious shakeup of the Windows org pop out. First, in what could be looked at as a newfound love of AI, or just another typical Microsoft redundancy, AI appears in two engineering groups. How these teams will work together on the coming focus on AI will be a balancing act, but maybe it’s too big of a platform for just one team.
Next, and a bit lost in the bombshells of Myerson and Gurdeep Singh Pall’s ouster and the overall shakeup, is the elevation of the Universal Store to a much loftier position in the company. Having the Store platform sit in Cloud + AI Platform under Scott Guthrie, instead of in Windows/Xbox/who knows where, should lead to a more unified Store experience, one that may be far more forward looking than just crappy apps on the Microsoft Store, and for that we’re grateful.