Redmond explains how teams work together to improve the OS

May 25, 2017 07:44 GMT  ·  By

Windows 10 was developed from the very beginning with customer feedback in mind, and the Windows Insider program was an essential tool for the company to test-drive new features and get reports from users trying them out.

Today, the company reveals CLIP, which stands for the Customer Listening and Improvement Program, a new effort that groups a large team whose purpose is to handle customer feedback and then improve the operating system based on suggestions received from testers.

In the video you can watch below, Per Farny, the Windows CLIP Program Lead, explains that the CLIP team monitors all feedback channels, including not only the Feedback Hub and the Community forums but also social media like Facebook and Twitter where most insiders discuss about the operating system and propose improvements for the next builds.

After that, engineers organize daily meetings to discuss ways to manage user suggestions, with the CLIP team proposing fixes and improvements that are then prioritized depending on a series of factors.

Microsoft: We’re listening

Microsoft puts the emphasis on the listening part of its collaboration with users across the world, explaining that all feedback is received and taken into consideration by the Windows team.

And truth be told, there are indeed features that were implemented in Windows 10 based on user suggestions, such as OneDrive placeholders, which are coming back in the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update, but at the same time, there are also suggestions that were completely ignored until now.

The best example here is the tab support for File Explorer, a feature that users have been asking for since Windows 8, but which for some reason Microsoft still doesn’t want to make part of Windows 10.

At this point, however, a new touch-optimized File Explorer is in the works, and there’s a good chance it sees daylight in September when the new OS version goes live.