Jeff Sandquist isn't a cheerleader The geek in question: Jeff Sandquist

The job title: Senior Director, Platform Evangelism

How long have you been with the company?
I think it's been about 12 years. I get a plaque every once and a while to remind me. I started as a contractor answering phones for Product Support Services.

So, if you've been here that long, you've gotten to witness Microsoft's shift toward transparency — including your own “peer to peer over a beer” work with Channel 9. What are the limits of that transparency? How does it feel knowing management reads your blog?
When I first started here, I was terrified of the higher ups. They were almost like Santa Claus — these mythical figures running these billion dollar businesses. I used to be so scared of Sanjay that I would actually go down a different hallway rather than talk to him.

He went away on sabbatical a few years ago, and while he was gone my daughter had some health problems with her legs. I wrote about it a lot on my blog because it felt therapeutic.

Sanjay came back from sabbatical, and showed up in my office asking me, "How are Josie's legs?"

I was like, how does he know about that? I found out he’d been reading my blog while he was on sabbatical, and we ended up talking about how maybe it’s not a good idea to keep work and life so separate. He was able to learn about me through my blog, and I was able to relate to him on a different level.

... I stopped turning down different hallways after I realized he read my blog. Sandquist stares down the D&PE sign

So, as a technical evangelist for the company, I’m curious about how you perceive the differences between an evangelist, apologist, and huckster.
People hear the word “evangelism” and get freaked out by it. If you open up a presentation about evangelism, you risk 50% of the room getting up and leaving — or if you're in Canada, 70%.

But in industry terms, as Guy Kawasaki once said, technical evangelism is about eating like a bird and pooping like an elephant.

Uhh…
A hummingbird eats 50% of their weight in a day. An elephant poops 150 pounds a day. So, evangelism is about consuming knowledge like crazy and spreading it. A great evangelist understands the technology deeply; understands the limitations and opportunities. And then spreads it via conferences and blogs and coffee shops and everywhere else.

When I interview evangelists, my first questions are "Do you write code? Are you a developer?" Our greatest evangelists work the products before they start. Developers connect with developers better than anyone else can.

It's all about using products and being deeply technical, and then spreading that information, which we do via Channel 9 for developers, Channel 10 for product enthusiasts, and Channel 8 for college students.

You dodged my question, so I’m asking again: How do you reconcile the line between evangelist and apologist?
You're equating evangelism with cheerleading. Evangelism is not cheerleading. It's not about raising your arms up and saying "This is awesome!" Evangelists know where the warts are —they know the strengths and the limitations. The right evangelist understands what competitors are doing better, and understand our strengths.

You win no one by bashing a competitors’ product. A great evangelist knows that their credibility is everything — otherwise they're a shill. I don't feel like I straddle the line with being an apologist, because I’m not a cheerleader — I’d never say something is what we all know it actually isn’t.

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