Your 100 Feature Dollars

A few weeks ago I asked how you'd spend 100 feature dollars on Windows Mobile. 

When we do this exercise, we typically brainstorm a list of features that we'd like to do or that have been requested in the past. We cost the features ourselves, and then ask customers to spend feature dollars on them. Obviously, if a feature is cheap to implement and customers really want it, then that's an easy win for us. If a feature is expensive and customers don't want it, we can shelve the feature with a clear conscience. If a feature is expensive and customers really want it, then we have to try to make space for it.

Since I didn't provide you with a list of features to decide between, the suggestions varied widely. So what I did was sum the requests roughly by which team internally would be doing the work. Here are the results:

IE Mobile: 125 (2%)

Messaging: 156 (2%)

Office Mobile: 300 (5%)

Connection Manager: 350 (5%)

Device Management & Security (my team): 360 (6%)

Phone: 377 (6%)

PIM (calendar, contacts, etc.): 405 (6%)

Windows CE: 420 (6%)

Sync (primarily wireless sync): 640 (10%)

Shell: 1425 (22%)

Other (OEM requests, or things too generic to categorize): 1473 (23%)

I put most of the one-handed navigation requests into Shell, although it's really something that has to be implemented across all applications running on the device. Connection Manager doesn't have its own team, but I made it a first class entity because it got so much attention.

I also noticed at least 480 feature dollars that requested things I know we have already implemented for future releases. There's probably more - that's just what I identified off the top of my head.

Thanks for all the detailed suggestions! I'll get it to product planning and the appropriate feature teams.

Scott

Comments

• Anonymous
  August 29, 2006
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  August 30, 2006
  One of the activities our Product Planning team often use in brainstorming is to consider what features...

• Anonymous
  August 30, 2006
  I missed the original thread, but here's my $100 idea.  First some background. I moved from a Samsung i600 smart phone to a Samsung i730 PPC Phone Edition.  I still miss the old keypad.  The small keys of the i730 are horrible.  I know that some phones improve on this by having a landscape slider, but these are problematic on sever accounts.  Landscape wastes too much screen real estate, the keys aren't easily reachable for one handed operation, and I prefer a phone that elongates itself (portrait slider, or better yet clamshell) to avoid the ear to mouth shuffle.
  
  I always found T9 to be really efficient for text entry on the i600.  The only problem with it was the need for long-presses to change modes or access the symbol menu.  What I'd rather see is a 16-key keyboard.  There would be the standard 12 phone keys and an extra column of four buttons:  T9 mode, 3 tap mode, digit mode, and special symbols.  Taping the mode you're already in would capitalize.  Entering digits was always a pain cause you had to do mutiple long-presses to change modes.
  
  The improved accuracy of being able to hit the keys made T9 much more plesant than trying to type on the tiny i730 keyboard.  When I want to enter a lot of text, I use the stylus and Calligrapher anyway.
  
  Oh, and one other thing I'd pay $100 for:  full screen mode in all programs.  The title bar and menu bars, especially in landscape mode, waste way too much space.  This is especially bad in terminal services client.  When you through in the scroll bars on that program, it's really bad.  You really need to rework that program to be full screen and have a drag-and-scroll mode instead of the scroll bars.  Otherwise, it's just barely usable on q QVGA screen.  It's better on a VGA screen, but still not pleasant in landscape since you the title bar and menu bar take up so much more space than in portrait mode.

• Anonymous
  August 30, 2006
  And something tells me you can't tell what those $480-or-so-features you already implemented are.

• Anonymous
  August 30, 2006
  $0.10 feature, but priceless for me:
  
  On WM5 Phone Ed, let users add a larger number of multiple SMS recipients to an outbound message. I don't know what the actual current limit is, but it sure is below 96... which is the size of my current SMS mailing list!

• Anonymous
  August 30, 2006
  I only have my HTC TyTN since yesterday (love it) and just came across the threads about vNext.
  
  My apologies for being this late but there's something IMHO was not mentioned yet:
  
  - Make the MS websites targeted at mobile users more form-factor-friendly (even if it takes endless discussions about corporate identity on web sites) (say, 20$)
  
  And, for completeness, to support what already has been said:
  
  - A application close button that closes an application, 30$
  
  - WPA2 support and consolidated configuration for all network types, 50$
  
  - update.microsoft.com for Window Mobile, Priceless

• Anonymous
  August 31, 2006
  Windows mobile scrollbars are right sided, wich makes them almost impossible to scroll for left handed people...
  Can the windows mobile team add left scrollbars as an option.
  Thanks  

• Anonymous
  August 31, 2006
  My money would go for a standard bluetooth stack so all windows mobile devices would support HID (humand interface device) devices like keyboards!!!

• Anonymous
  August 31, 2006
  PingBack from http://justanothermobilemonday.com/Wordpress/2006/09/01/interesting-results-on-wm-team-blogs-feature-dollars-wish-list-question/

• Anonymous
  September 05, 2006
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• Anonymous
  September 07, 2006
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  September 07, 2006
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• Anonymous
  September 08, 2006
  What Nathan Lock said +
  
  * support the <button> tag in PIE

• Anonymous
  September 12, 2006
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• Anonymous
  September 23, 2006
  Windows mobile scrollbars are right sided, wich makes them almost impossible to scroll for left handed people...
  Can the windows mobile team add left scrollbars as an option.
  

• Anonymous
  October 01, 2006
  I would focus first on really basic usability issues such as:
  
  - click on a contact in speed dial and it opens a properties dialog as opposed to diallig
  - click on call history and be able to select an alternate number (e.g. mobile as opposed to work) for any previously dialled contact
  - search of messages is very slow and needs to be available from within outlook mobile
  

• Anonymous
  October 01, 2006
  I am also left-handed and I am despreately trying  to change the scrollbar to the left side!!!
  PLEASE...

• Anonymous
  October 01, 2006
  Adding to what I just said about left handed scroll bar:
  http://www.leaonline.com/doi/abs/10.1207/s15327590ijhc2101_6#search=%22windows%20mobile%202005%20left%20scrollbar%22
  
  Thanks for implemention quickly!!!

• Anonymous
  October 04, 2006
  I am not new to Windows Mobile. Windows Mobile 5.0 has too few appointment reminder snooze choices. You have up to one hour to snooze, then it skips to 24 hours snooze....Windows Mobile needs to have snooze interval choices similar to Outlook

• Anonymous
  October 04, 2006
  forgot to mention...voice activated dialing for the phone portion of Windows Mobile 5.0 does not seem to come standard. My Pocket PC is a UTStarcom XV6700. It seem the software for  dialing the phone through contacts is all part of Windows 5.0 I feel voice activated dialing should be a standard feature.

• Anonymous
  October 07, 2006
  I should have the option of having e-mails,word doc, etc. "read" to me. Inotherwords give me the option to convert visual into audio.

• Anonymous
  October 25, 2006
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• Anonymous
  October 26, 2006
  I'm late to the game, but $100 rebuilding ActiveSync or at least thoroughly documenting it and usability scenarios.  There are a lot of areas that are nothing more than annoyances or luxuries.  ActiveSync development is practically impossible for most shops and many developers are resigned to building their own solutions.

• Anonymous
  December 03, 2006
  WM5 is severly lacking in a full featured PIM.  I am tied to the Palm TREO because even the third party solutions are weak.  If you will use ACT for Palm as a target you will make major improvements and gain many of us in sales who must carry large databases and related tasks, calendars, notes etc. And be able to sync them when at our desk.

• Anonymous
  December 12, 2006
  Please add  option the left scroll bar!! I am lefty.. and the scroll bar in the right is for me just horrible.. :(

• Anonymous
  December 17, 2006
  I just got the new HP ipaq with windows mobile... it's absolutely ridiculous that there's no option to switch the scroll bar to the left side of the screen.   Being left-handed, the absence of this option makes scrolling impossible.  One would expect MS to take this sort of thing into account before releasing a product. There's an option to turn the screen upside down, for crying out loud.  1 in 10 people are left handed.  What percentage of the population is upside down???

• Anonymous
  December 17, 2006
  Wow!  I posted the above message before realizing that there were so many other lefty having the same trouble.  Solidarity!   if a major corporation released a product which alienated any other 10% of the population, there'd be a class-action lawsuit!  Microsoft, you've been warned!!!!

• Anonymous
  January 03, 2007

1. i`m lefty (see above) ...
2. why not also synchronize dictations. i sometimes get awesome ideas while driving and just dictate them in my hx4700. but since they are not synchronized, i never get back to them. add a feature of having your dictations automatically put in your inbox, so that you are reminded.

• Anonymous
  January 08, 2007
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  January 08, 2007
  One thing we've been trying very hard to do with PocketPC is to make the hardware navigation good enough that you don't need to use the stylus at all.  The DPAD works equally well left and right handed (I frequently switch hands when using my devices).  You'll find a number of advantages to not using the stylus beyond being able to scroll while holding the device in your right hand.   Mike

• Anonymous
  January 13, 2007
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• Anonymous
  January 15, 2007
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• Anonymous
  January 22, 2007
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• Anonymous
  February 01, 2007
  Yes i agree! I went back to he store and returned my HTC TyTN. Its incedibly annoying that there no scroll bar to the left - not worth it.

• Anonymous
  February 09, 2007
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• Anonymous
  March 10, 2007
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• Anonymous
  April 12, 2007
  I was forced by my company to switch from a BB to my Ipaq windows based PDA. I too am a lefty, and this device is worthless to me.  In addition, I have become less productive.  The BB operating environment is much easier to use.  Windows on a PDA, with start, etc, etc, is a joke.

• Anonymous
  April 17, 2007
  Allow us to put the scroll bar on the left hand side of the screen.  PLEASE!!!

• Anonymous
  April 19, 2007
  -Please change the Snooze intervals back to how it was. Who thought to snooze 1 hour, then 24 hours !!!

• Anonymous
  May 09, 2007
  I am a lefty as well and bought a HTC TyTN just recently. I was switsching from a TREO 650 to the the TyTN mainly because i was impressed about the connectivity and progress Windows Mobile has made in the last 5 years. I feel discriminated also by a non switchaeable scrollbar. Please do something about that.

• Anonymous
  May 15, 2007
  Hi everyone, Here are three reasons why the left handed feature should be integrated:

1. Market (10% is plenty of money)
2. For the sake of equability (transaltes into Marketing, which translates to more money)
3. Sheer neediness of it (which translates to money). There is only one reason why this feature has not been developed until now:
4. Poor prioritization management
5. Not understanding the market need
6. Fear of trying I strongly disagree with MikeCal who referred us ,left-handed people, to other devices. It's like he said: "Guys, you can still pick up any other device, just leave out the touch screen!" "Half Job" according to mike means that only MS's application would support left hand while third party applications would "break". If this is the case, third party vendors must implement THEIR support in order to support the new OS! VISTA CAME OUT! even though many famous applications have been broken in the process! ** IMHO, This feature is so demanding that you can compare it to the percentage of people who desired tab browsing. This is BASIC STUFF for PDA's !! and it's about time MS comprehend that.

• Anonymous
  May 15, 2007
  Whoops - I guess three reasons why it hasn't been developed ;-)

• Anonymous
  May 17, 2007
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  May 17, 2007
  Sorry, forgot one other thing; Customizable hotkeys - maybe I'm missing something, but the hotkeys seem to be hardwired to "E-mail" and "Menu" and can't be customized (although the option+<something> can be used, it would be nice to be able to have alternate functionality for these keys). Nokia seems to have something like this on their Series 60 platform.

• Anonymous
  August 12, 2007
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  September 18, 2007
  I am left handed and i'm totally missing a left-sided scrollbar. I'm very disappointed from microsoft. It's sooo annoying - nothing to see while scrolling and i have to move my hand back and forth all the time. :-( Unfortunately i wasn't aware of this big disadvantage when i bought my device. If i had known it earlier i would have spared my money for the neo1973.

• Anonymous
  January 02, 2008
  Well, the most ironic thing is that Mr Bill Gates himself is left handed. =D But, maybe he doesn't use a Windows Mobile cell phone.. /Left is right

• Anonymous
  January 30, 2008
  What Gerard, Eva, Robert, and especially James said!  James is right: it's a BUG, not a missing feature.  I find it hypocritical that a company that expends manpower developing "accessibility" features for its operating system products, features which make them more accessible to a VERY TINY percentage of the population, would at the same time ignore FOR A DECADE adding an accessibility feature that is critical to a FAR LARGER PERCENTAGE of the population than all the other accessibility-challenged ones combined.  It amounts to left-handed discrimination, not a missing feature. I smell ugly politics at work here: just because those "disabled" people are organized and litigious is no excuse to placate them and ignore a far larger but less litigious group.  Maybe it's time we left-handers get organized and litigious?  I think by ignoring left-handed people for so long, Microsoft has clearly established a pattern of negligent discrimination that can be challenged in court. I smell a class action lawsuit in the making.  Left-handers unite!

• Anonymous
  February 10, 2008
  WM6 is now out, and still no left handed option...how can this be continuously ignored?  I would definitely join a class action lawsuit.

• Anonymous
  November 21, 2008
  Mike, you are a lousy manager with lousy arguments. Loser. And now im ordering a Palm Treo to get away from your "work".