Why this Microsoft exec totally shook up the team that makes one of its most important products

Brad Barket/Getty Images for WIRED
Microsoft's Julie Larson-Green
But on stage at the Bloomberg Technology Conference, Microsoft Office Chief Experience Officer Julie Larson-Green revealed that she recently shook up the whole Office organization - because people just don't get stuff done the way they used to.
When people are working on their smartphones, or even using voice interfaces like Apple Siri, Amazon Alexa, or Microsoft's own Cortana, they're not worried about individual apps, but rather the overall project they're working on.
"People want to get things done in the fastest way possible," Larson-Green says. "It's about the task you're trying to do."
Larson-Green says that she reorganized Microsoft Office around tasks, not individual software. Some members of the Microsoft Excel, PowerPoint, and Sway teams have been retasked to work on "content creation," she says, while some of the Excel and Access teams are now focused on visually presenting data.
"We can think more deeply about 'task' versus 'tool,'" Larson-Green says.
Microsoft Microsoft GigJam is an experimental Office app that breaks a document down into "molecules" that you can then share.
The key advantage here, Larson-Green says, is that documents will "decompose into their parts." Which is to say, Microsoft can start to treat charts differently than text or spreadsheets or calendar invites. That way, for example, if you ask Cortana for all the charts you made on Monday, she can strip them straight out of Excel and show them to you.
It's an unconventional approach, Larson-Green admits. But Microsoft has a self-given mission to change the way people work. But Larson-Green is a long-time Microsoft exec who invented the Office Ribbon and headed up design for Windows 8, among other jobs, before she took her current job. And she knows that it helps to take a long view.
"You have to be willing to take risks," Larson-Green says.
Now, a smart SIP that alters your monthly installment as per market valuation
Adani Wilmar’s Angshu Mallick on edible oil prices, rural consumption patterns and outlook for Q2FY23
WhatsApp is working on a ‘login approval’ feature to help prevent hacking – here’s everything you need to know
Tata Motors acquires Ford’s manufacturing plant in Gujarat for ₹726 crore
Ronnie Screwvala's edtech company upGrad bags ₹1,670 crore