Saw this great article about the Xbox One (full disclosure: I already have one on preorder) and some of the launch problems they’ve had early on in the announcement of the console. They’ve fixed most all of them now and it looks incredibly promising, but no one would deny it was a tough start:

“We took some feedback and realized there was some stuff we needed to add to the program,” he said. “Taking Family Sharing out of the launch window was not about ‘we’re going to take our toys and go home’ or something like that. It was just sort of the logistics of ‘how do we get this very, very clear request that people really want, that choice, and how do we make sure we can do an excellent job of that, get to launch, and then be able to build a bunch of great features?’”

Whitten continued, ”One of the things I think we learned was that we didn’t talk enough, and we were incomplete in a lot of how using the system would work. We weren’t participating in the conversation in a deep enough way, it got us sort of off cycle about how we talk about our program. I think we’ve learned a lot of lessons. And I think it’s something that you’re going to see a lot more from us, frankly, is engaging more with the community. I think it’s the number one thing I’d want to do if I went back, was have the conversation more open and more complete.”

Couple learnings here, would love for you to add another in the comments:
  • Never assume you have all the answers.
  • You certainly have insight into what students need, need to hear, need to study, etc.
  • How can you connect more with students, hearing their stories, listening to their cries for help, etc?
  • How to learn from your mistakes and making things right?
Super excited about the new Xbox … and proud of Microsoft for modeling this to youth workers, too!
JG