Atlas Brand View, Wabi Sabi … and DevHawk?

Tanya, my cohort on the Architecture Strategy Marketing team, has finally – after much promising and subsequent delays – starter her blog. So far, just she’s just written a hello world post where she explains why she named her blog “Wabi-Sabi”.

Of course, long time readers are probably wondering: “Did he just say ‘Marketing team’?”

Yes. Yes I did.

About two weeks ago, I was re-orged to be reporting to Norman. While you might expect me to be displeased about this, I’m really ok with it. First off, I was acting as the marketing director for about six months, so the fact that we now have three people doing marketing instead of just me is a huge bonus. Secondly, while I was acting as the marketing director (badly I might add) I was in total firefighting mode – no opportunity to do advance planning whatsoever. Now, I have the opportunity to focus on doing a great job on a few things well (like the TechEd Architecture track) rather than doing just enough to keep a ton of things from completely falling apart. It’s taken a while to shift gears, but now I spend more time doing and less time running around like a chicken with my head cut off.

Finally, my move to the marketing team is inherently temporary. Yeah, it’s fun while it lasts and I’m learning a ton, but don’t think this is a long term career change. Before it even happened, Adam (head of Architecture Strategy) explained that he expects me to be over on the architecture side of the house “soon”. Norman and I have already started planning that transition.

So get your “marketing slime” digs in while you can! (Apparently, we marketing slime prefer the term “marketing flacks”.)

Comments:

Better than being a sales guy at least. ;)
Welcome to the ranks of Flack-dom, Harry. Personally, I'd think they'd want a high-end dev/architect like you on a high-end marketing team. Maybe not at MS, but at lots of companies the marketing folks fall down when they get increasingly separated from the real users, real buyers, and real implementers/developers. Knowing you, I'd think you'd make a great bridge.
I, of course, am thrilled that Harry has joined the marketing team. I am also thrilled that Tanya has joined the team and started a blog. Now, I can just sit back and cook up insane marketing schemes that will require Super Bowl ads, mascots, a dedicated 747 jet, and frequent trips to New York and LA to meet with media and show biz people. The team will be taking all future marketing meetings from the Chateau Marmont. Yhea, the slime live well....
There are some disputable moments in your article. I do not absolutely agree with the author.