24 years in the Microsoft MVP program
24 years in the Microsoft MVP program and I still enjoy getting that renewal email. The program is technology focused, but the connections you make with humans are not. I’ve always had a broad technology interest. Over the years I’ve been part of multiple program areas and as the technology shifted so did I. And the cool part about that was you also met new interesting people both inside and outside Microsoft.
The waves of change that bring transformation in each of these areas were always technology focused. Today we are in an even more drastic transformation than the last 20+ years and while the technology is what we all hear about “OpenAI this, Claude that, Copilot and let’s not forget Claw this and that.” that is not what we need to be paying attention to.
We’ve built a couple of houses from 0-1. Digging for the foundation is essential. With shovels it might take a few years, with a bulldozer a few days. Using shovels is an inhibitor. We would let it influence what we built. The same way technology has typically limited what we can build and integrate. Those limitations are what shaped our visions of what we would build for solutions.
That’s now flipped in 2026. The blocker and skills that everyone needs more of include things like ideation, envisioning and imagination not what the new TypeScript 7 features are. Some of the best ideas won’t be fixed in how they are built, but flexible within guardrails we define.
Now I see all of you getting ready to slam me about those low-level technologies being important. You’re right! They definitely all are important just like for someone excavating with a bulldozer it’s even more important to understand the fundamentals of ground stability because they are moving 10-100x more dirt than before. The same is true in building solutions. Agents can create code faster than ever, beyond what you are even able to inspect and consume manually. Bad practices pile up quickly. So just like the bulldozer drivers have special skills so do agent drivers. They know how to navigate these perils and keep things on track. Interestingly a lot of these skills are portable across the specific underlying products and much of what you need details on you can collaborate with an agent to fill the gaps. This skill layer doesn’t go away in fact in might become more valuable and more accessible to a broader set of people.
This is a problem for technology companies because the stickiness in their products becomes less every day. When you can just tell an agent Migrate X to Y moats fill with cement quickly. What used to be a 1–2-year project is collapsing into just a little more time than the human collaboration and verification time. They are accommodating for that by flashing shiny objects “Look at what X can do now” giving customers hope that they should stay put. To give another parallel, I’m a good photographer. The camera doesn’t matter Nikon, Sony, etc. it's just the tool I use. Now don’t interpret any of that as me saying SaaS is dead, that's a catch phrase. But SaaS is changing. We can talk more on that another day.
The real winners are those that look beyond the technology and explore their dreams and execute them with precision. What could we build if we didn’t have the prior limitations? That is the question every company should be asking. Notice I didn’t say dream big, I just said dream. The size of your dreams should adjust by many factors (Insert consulting pitch here). The real challenge here is to harness the opportunity with discipline and a plan.
This year's renewal got me pondering how the MVP program will change as this transformation wave plays out. What do you think this will look like next year…the year after? I’ve got my opinions, but I will wait to share so I don’t influence your comments :)