Panos (Premium)

When Terry Myerson left Microsoft five years ago, I lost a trusted source, a confidant, and a person I really trusted, though I later came to understand that his time at Microsoft was, to put it kindly, a bit more nuanced. But Terry also valued my feedback, which he often sought privately. And he continued a long tradition at Microsoft of understanding that my criticisms were constructive and always came from the right place.

Panos Panay was different.

First, let’s acknowledge that he was polarizing, both as a speaker and as a leader at Surface and then Windows. Some loved his style, others found it fake and forced. I always fell into the latter camp, but there are people at Microsoft I very much respect—including Ralf Groene and Stevie Bathiche—who clearly love the guy and perhaps owe him for a big chunk of their careers. And now I’m curious what they and others at Microsoft really thought of this guy.

Second, it is worth noting that Panay was literally the last surviving member of the bad old Microsoft from the pre-Nadella years. I have no idea how he survived the pogroms that swept through Microsoft in the wake of Steven Sinofsky’s firing, let alone Steve Ballmer’s exit. But he did, and he thrived at Microsoft. After assuming control of Windows, a product group for which he has no relevant experience or expertise, he then entered the mystical realm of made-up titles as Microsoft’s Chief Product Officer (CPO).

And though I like Surface products overall, I’ve long argued that this product line should not have ever happened and feel that it should not exist today. That’s not Panay’s fault, of course: Over a decade ago, Sinofsky feared Apple would kill the PC and he somehow convinced Ballmer to back what most others saw as a mistake. And then Surface stumbled drunkenly along over the years in a haphazard fashion, with no real point in being. That lack of focus, at least, is on Panay.

He and Microsoft often talked of inventing new product categories, but they created none. And only one of their hardware designs, the Surface Pro tablet PC, has ever been in any way successful, albeit it as a niche form factor few want or buy. (Surface fans have also incorrectly alleged that Surface somehow inspired PC makers to up their game, when in fact Dell, HP, Lenovo, and others have always offered superior premium PC designs that customers want and buy in volume.)

There were so many mistakes that it’s hard to keep track. Among them the years-long effort to pretend that USB-C wasn’t a thing, the expansion of Surface into too many models, some premium, some inexplicable, and many tired retreads of other Surface products, and the almost insidious adoption of previous-generation chipsets just as new ones were coming to the market. Surface, above all, has been nothing but frustrating.

And not to get too personal, it feels unfair. But Panay always seemed a bit off to me, and his weirdness was always on display. He was like an awkward middle schooler on stage despite hours and hours of rehearsals over many years, and as noted, the result came off as fake and forced. It got so bad that he insisted that his audiences be packed with fans because journalists and bloggers weren’t cheering or applauding, denying him the positive feedback he needed to perform. But that was just him being insecure: His final public appearance, at Build 2023, was an off-kilter warning sign to the world and might be why he’s leaving.

I want to be fair here: Public speaking is hard. I did this over many years, and I don’t feel that I ever got good at it. But one thing I can do, and you can see it every single week when Windows Weekly goes off-topic, is speak at length about whatever is happening in our industry. And I hope it’s clear that I know what I’m talking about, at least most of the time. My best and favorite moments on stage were always the off-the-cuff bits, like the audience Q & A, because I never knew what to expect and was ready to field any question imaginable. (This resulted in the weekly Ask Paul column, I guess.)

But those experiences make me worry about speakers and leaders who can’t do that. Panay was “pumped” a lot, no one will miss that, but he never had much of substance to say. And I never felt that Windows, the product I care about so much, was in good hands. Windows 11, especially, was released far too early and in incomplete form. And then it took his team two years to fix that.

To be clear, my personal interactions with the man ranged from non-existent to vaguely hostile on his end. And we never had the type of relationship I had with the three men—Jim Allchin, Terry, and, yes, even Steven Sinofsky—who preceeded him. And if you suspect that this fact colored my view of him, I get it. But wish I had seen something, anything, over the years to change my mind. I was always looking for it.

But now he’s gone.

The first thing that came to mind was the worry that we’d experience another years-long leadership void similar to what happened when Terry left since Panay’s responsibilities are being split between three executives. But Microsoft reached out to tell me otherwise. And I was surprised to see that Yusuf Mehdi, a long-time Microsoft executive (who I first met in 1998) has left Bing and come back into the fold to lead the Windows and Surface businesses. Interesting.

Microsoft also communicated to me its desire to “build silicon, systems, and devices that span Windows, client, and cloud for an AI world,” and I suspect that will be the message at this week’s Special Event in New York. Perhaps the firm realized it needed better leadership in place to make this a reality, and I’m happy to see that both Ralf Groene and Stevie Bathiche will be part of a new team that will try to make this vision a reality. Those folks are capable and ready to break out and become stars in their own rights.

They certainly deserve the chance.