Self-confessed 'geek' opening Windows and doors for users

Ian McDonald

Microsoft's Iain McDonald happily describes himself as a geek and a dork, but as the project manager for Windows 2000 and project director for Windows XP, he changed the way we work, play and communicate. Meet Iain McDonald: super geek.

"The weird thing about Windows is the sheer numbers that you deal with," he says. "You end up with a very different sense of scale than really any other product you ever work on."

But McDonald doesn't wander the world marvelling at the impact of his handy work.

"The most fun thing about making software is [the way] people use it and do things in ways you've never thought of when you're in the original design [phase]," he says, "Not sitting around chest-beating [saying] look at how good I am."

McDonald, 42, is based at Microsoft's US head office in Redmond, Washington, but was born in Sydney and spent his twenties playing music, teaching windsurfing and filling computer contracts for a living.

He joined Microsoft in 1991 answering telephones in the Australian product support department before moving to the United States a year later to begin a six-year stint working in the exchange server development team.

At the end of 1998, he became project manager for Windows 2000 and subsequently project director for Windows XP and Windows Server 2003.

"I'm absolutely a geek - technology's fun," he says. "You end up after a while discovering you actually have a career [in it] ... which is always a bit of a shock."

McDonald now heads up the windows server programme and says the key to keeping pace with advancing technology is maintaining an open mind.

"What we were seeing 15 years ago seems like a bit of a joke to us now", he says. "The base thing is fear. If you remove fear of the thing that you're dealing with [then] anything's easy to learn."

And the open, college-like atmosphere at Microsoft is ideal for pushing the technological boundary, he says.

"For all the ways that Microsoft is vilified, it's a pretty cool corporate culture. I went to work today in a pair of shorts, a pair of thongs and an old ratty T-shirt."

But the expectation to succeed is high.

"Its not all bunnies and flowers. If you're not on your game you are going to get caught out eventually," McDonald says.

To make sure that doesn't happen, McDonald keeps talking to the customers who have come to rely on his products.

"For us going and having discussions with people and finding out what we can be doing better is probably one of the most important things we can do," he says. "If you're always coming out with the attitude that you know everything, you're sure to be whacked on the side of the head pretty quickly."

McDonald says he likes to look people in the eye and hear their response, and speaking at the Microsoft Tech Ed conference, running in Auckland until tomorrow, provided the perfect opportunity.

McDonald yesterday gave the conference a taste of Microsoft's latest technologies, including the Windows Vista operating system expected in the second half of next year, software development tool Visual Studio 2005, and SQL server 2005.

Iain McDonald

Who: Director of Windows server group at Microsoft.

Favourite gadget: Sonos digital music delivery system.

Next big thing: Convergence of technology in the home.

Alternative career: Music industry recording engineer.

Spare time: Family, snowboarding and riding his Harley-Davidson.

Favourite science fiction movie: The Fifth Element.