New Members of the Executive Team

Greetings all!

As those of you who follow Linden Lab have probably noticed, I’ve been expanding the executive team since I joined in May, 2008. Each hire has been focused on major initiatives within the Lab designed to make Second Life more reliable, more relevant and more usable.

We are reworking the user experience end-to-end. We started with the website (we recently launched a new home page which is the start of a larger redesign), are hard at work on the viewer and will shortly start redesigning the first landing locations for new users. Last week, we made two ecommerce acquisitions that will be more fully integrated into the Second Life experience as well. We have a new land store in the works. We’re developing a behind-the-firewall product for enterprise customers.

Put all these things together, and you will see we are intent upon making dramatic improvements to the Second Life platform and experience. At the same time, the team has been hard at work on stability and scalability. Last year, we halved the user hours lost to downtime in the second half of the year. But, with growth ahead, we have more to do and the team is hard at work on continued platform and network improvements to enable us to break peak concurrency records on a regular basis as we did this past Sunday when we hit 82,653. [As you know from FJ’s blog posts, it was “all hands on deck” this past weekend to ensure we delivered a stable experience to Residents. I watched the action on our internal chat channel during peak sessions on Saturday and Sunday as we broke our peak concurrency record without a hitch.]

All in all, we have a long list of ambitious projects on our “to do” list for 2009. To help us move the platform, product and the user experience forward, we’ve added two senior executives to an already excellent executive team:

Brian Michon (Michon Linden) will take on the role of VP of Core Development. Brian will be responsible for the voice, database and simulator infrastructure of the Second Life platform, scaling it to support our growth and our product expansion. Brian has over twenty years of technology experience with Fortune 500 companies. He joins us from Intuit, where he managed the development and operation of Web-based services and made popular products like TurboTax and QuickBooks easier to use and manage, both for organizations and individual consumers.

Judy Wade (Judy Linden) has come on board as VP of Strategy and Emerging Business. She’ll be responsible for working with the executive team in refining Linden Lab’s overall business strategy, including seeking out key partnerships to expand the capabilities of Second Life in key geographic and vertical markets. She joins us from Kapor Enterprises, the investment company of Linden Lab board member Mitch Kapor. Prior to Kapor Enterprises, she was a partner at McKinsey and Company, where she worked with a variety Fortune 500 companies, helping them define and implement significant strategic and organizational transformations across multiple sectors.

Brian and Judy join a stellar crew of Lindens on our executive team, including three hires I made over the past six months (in reverse order of appointment):

* Howard Linden, SVP Customer Applications, responsible for improvements to the Second Life experience and the development of new products and features that enhance the usability and overall customer experience of Second Life

* T Linden, Chief Product Officer, responsible for driving the product strategy for Second Life

* FJ Linden, SVP Global Technology, responsible for processes, systems and tools to maximize the scalability of Second Life’s network architecture

I’m really pleased and honored that we’ve been able to bring on such extraordinary individuals. Each is a great talent in their own right and together form what I feel is a superb team. Our ability to bring on such great talent is a testament to the power and potential of Second Life and to the wondrous content and experiences you – our Residents – have created.

I can tell you that going into 2009, everyone at Linden Lab is focused on making Second Life an even more important, more useful, more joyful experience for the Residents and we’re pleased Brian and Judy are joining us. Thanks to all of you for making Second Life what it is today. I look forward to all that we will accomplish together.

If you’d like post some questions, thoughts or congratulations on the Forum, you can do so here. I won’t be able to read and respond until after 5PM Pacific, but I’ll jump in then to answer questions.

Cheers,
M Linden

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Reposted from M Linden's Blog post at
http://blog.secondlife.com/2009/01/27/new-members-of-the-executive-team/

Hi, Pete! Can I have a bear? Even a test bear would be good!



edit: welcome to the forums!

edit edit: ok.. no fair changing the title & post!! now you MUST give me a bear! And the new execs, too! (Welcome, folks!)

I knew I should have been paying more attention.

Pop quiz on the complete contents of the forums!

edit: It all sounds good! Moving forward is a positive.
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check one two.. check check... two two
Great first post Pete, welcome.
Carry on...
check check one two... check check

Psst Sue. Can I cheat off of your answers?

So what is the post today going to be about? The merge? Or maybe its that the banner above will finally be retired consider most aren't even active anymore in world.

Test worked, are you the new Katt?

Oh that's it change the title of the thread!

It's nice to see the new people coming onboard, but what about the old people like Robin and Catherine? We aren't seeing enough of them and they are very valuable to the community.

One thing that has impressed me about M has been the new people he's brought onboard, that has to help progress.

Now if you'd just get a Linden for inworld business we'd be going places!

OK, question time?

I've been hearing a rumor that "Teen Grid and the Main Grid are going to merge", and the people who are most upset by the rumor are those who believe that this means the underage and adult populations of SL will be mixed together.

My own guess is that the "merge" in question giving rise to the rumors is some sort of infrastructure move that won't actually mix the two populations. But in the vast echo chamber that is out there, stuff gets distorted.

But I bet M or somebody who works for him knows, and a definitive word on this might help quell the wild speculation early.

Help us out here?

Clare Rees
Tom Hale
Scott Sechser
Amanda van Nuys
Howard Look
Frank Ambrose
Judy Wade
Eric Argel
Brian Michon
...

At this rate, there will be more Vice Presidents and Directors than Developers in Linden Lab.

There is absolutely no need to redesign the first landing locations. Some excellent places already exist created by the users of Second Life.
Wouldn't it be in Linden Lab's best interest to simply use the tools it has at its disposal? The mainstay of Second Life's selling point is that it has always pushed the 'user created content' to the very forefront. So why are you not holding true to this particular value when it comes to redesigning new Orientation and Help sims? Surely there can only be benefits to using an Orientation Sim that has already been created by the residents for the residents? I'd like to think that in the last five years SL's community has grown to a point in which Linden Lab are able to turn to its residents to complete tasks like this and, in my opinion, it is the residents who are better positioned to be able to discern what a new user can best get out of his first hour experience.

Perhaps it is time to stop viewing us as customers and start viewing us as part of a community that can be a benefit to Second Life and Linden Lab.

The first Landing Locations would need to be held up to higher standard if LL was going to partner with residents in developing the NUE. The Brooklyn Firm bought in to re-develop the NUE and the Premium Mainland account holder's experience have not been heard from at all. Again, what happened to mainland zoning and enhancements for premium account holders? Would one of these enhancements for Premium account holders be commission-free product sales on SLexchange? Since the people printing the money get the money - it does not seem necessary to charge sellers anymore.

.

I hope fixing physical buoyancy (normal hovering and llSetBuoyancy) on the simulators is in your "to do" list for 2009. These are broken since March last year...

http://jira.secondlife.com/browse/SVC-1792
http://jira.secondlife.com/browse/SVC-2013

its sure looking that way. this is normally the sign of a company ready to re structure and lay everyone off. at least in my experience...

If you want to deputize a few adults to be able to sell in the Teen grid, stuff approved of and checked by the lindens, that would allow teens access to more merchandise. Having a select few adults selling safe wares under the watchful eyes of LL would make the teen grid more fun. (My own daughter will be entering teen grid in 2 years).

But if you are talking about simply dropping the teens into SL at large and expecting everyone everywhere to behave like they were at church, buddy, you can forget about it. We do not pay the big bucks for our private estates and our mainland parcels so you can tell us to make them kidsafe. And as there is nothing to keep the teens in the PG sims, simply releasing them into the adult world will definately catch the attention of all those Attorney Generals once more.

I hope this Duogrid plan is not what it sounds like. Either way, some communication to us telling what it really is and what it'll do is in order.

Are these Lindens going to be actually "inworld" interacting with us lowly avatars, or are their Linden names just for show? It might be fun if they actually came out sometime and Sailed or Surfed or Skydived. I'm available if they ever want to try it. Second Life IS business of course but it is REALLY a lot of fun. -Tory Micheline

Welcome aboard!

Hey M is there any plans to bring some political clout onto the board anytime soon?

Welcome Michon and Judy!

New executives reminds me of a question I had a long time ago--I'm wondering how much the philosophy of the LAB has changed under new leadership. For instance in The Tao of Linden: Tao of Linden:hil described the management style of Linden Lab in quite a bit of detail. This may not be something you can share with us, but I would love to hear

1- How you have changed or embraced this style

and

2- How employees of the Lab that have been around under both leaders have dealt with the changes.

Cheers- Brookston Holiday

I still would like to know why I haven't been asked to join the Executive Team?

I'm serious too. Go back and read my blog and you will see I have successfully predicted every move made by Linden Lab over the past couple of years.

It wasn't predictions per say, more like reading past behaviour and extrapolating future actions. That's not a good thing mind you, because, and I mean this in the nicest possible manner, really, but it's not been hard stating what Linden Lab would be doing, considering they consistently are doing the wrong things.

You need someone like me, that's been in the Community since the beginning, that won't lie down and be a YES man, that will speak his/her opinion, even when it seems no one is listening, that will speak for the Community, for the existence of our World, for what's RIGHT by the Customer.

I'm serious too, you don't need any more Harvard Grads or years of service in Software/Hardware Companies. You need people that know Second Life, not what's the best way to squeeze your Customers for their last dollar.

So, here's my official notification, I want to be on the Executive Team. I promise to do the job to the best of my ability, with the CUSTOMER in mind, and I will be a pain in the ass to all those that are lazy or have no idea what the Community wants.

So? So? SO?

But you communicated your predictions. Major fail.

That's such a total nonstarter that it's the main foundation for my belief that what the rumormongers have been saying can't be true.

That and the fact that the Age Verification initiative hit a major roadblock in the EU personal data laws that it apparently never recovered from.

You mean I got this serial number tattooed on my hind quarters for nothing!?!?

Congrats to all (including M) for all your hard work recently along with the Non-laggy Weekend is great. Along with your purchase of Xstreet.

a good week for Linden Lab indeed!

Picture or it didn't happen.

What's happening is that Linden Lab is becoming more and more top-heavy with middle management that does nothing anybody can clearly identify, while the boat goes in circles because nobody's hand is actually on the tiller.

Take a look at these people's descriptions - they're all offices that spend most of their time talking to other offices at their own level. Are they adding more technical people who actually know how to do things? No. Are they adding people who have had great successes turning around floundering online services? No. So what are these people doing on the payroll?

This is classic leadership failure in Linden Lab, and they're adding suits to the roster without a clear plan as to how this is going to improve their business model. I've worked at a lot of product and service driven companies, and when I see this happening it's never good.

The emphasis also seems to be on scalability - which is good - but with sights set on currently mythical, currently unidentified corporate clients who, in the past year, have been running AWAY from, not TOWARD Second Life. Bad plan. Focusing on what's right in front of you would be a much better idea, building on your success rather than hiring a bunch of suits at a quarter million a year each to theorize your business into the ground.

Time for a strip-down and a rethink, not a dogpile. The Titanic is not unsinkable.

Get a clue.

First step is definitely to get a good leadership team in place in my experience. Then they hire good folks to work with for their areas...

Not sure about anyone who did the Intuit website - it has always been one I have really found hard to use; full of a lot of text and not much info. That being said, I have always used their products anyway so I guess something was being done right.


The first experience really needs to be improved especially since new residents arrive to find alts of experienced residents spamming sex ads or chat. For many folks not used to the raw wild west sensibility, this can be off putting.

I loved the way I got in with that path and the talking parrot; I was really sad when they replaced it with that buggy badly built intersection and office building.

Still, I really want SL to succeed and grow well so I will send best wishes to this new team and hope for the best.