Name:
Randy Oakley

Title/Product:
Principal SDE, Expression Encoder

What inspires you?
Seeing real people using the stuff I’ve worked on: for example, recently I was at a ski club event where “home movies” created by the children of other members were displayed. The movies made by seven, eight and nine year olds were cute and they had been edited using Windows Movie Maker—a product that I and several other members of the Expression Encoder team helped create. Seeing how much fun these kids had was very satisfying.

How did you choose to work on this team with this product?
I’m on the Expression Encoder team primarily because of the great people on the team. I’ve worked with many of these people on a number of products and it is a good team. I like the fact that we don’t take ourselves too seriously, but we are all serious about the quality of the products developed. I really enjoy the current product I’m developing—in it I’m leveraging my video experience from Movie Maker—but applying to technologies that until recently I knew nothing about. It is a hard challenge sometimes, but I learn a lot every day.

What’s your favorite feature? Why?
The one I’m currently working on, of course!—but that is for Expression Encoder V4 and I can’t really talk about it...In Expression Encoder V3 I really like the new “preset” feature. I didn’t write it, but it sure is a time saver when I’m using the product. That and the H.264 support so I can use content from my new camera.

How long have you worked on Expression?
Since May 2008.

What does your typical workday look like?
I don’t really have a “workday” in the traditional sense. Sure I spend a good chunk of time in my Redmond office and interact with my team in a conventional sense. That is good for team morale and collaboration, but I also work a lot from my home office. The day starts early (6:30AM) when I take my son to high school and ends late at night with work time and family time woven together. Sometimes I’ll wake up at 4:00 a.m. with "code floating in my head." I do some of my best work at those times.

How do you like to spend your time outside of work?
Hiking, skiing, running with my dog, cycling, canoeing—physical activities where I give my body a workout and give my brain time to wander.

Anything else you’d like to share with the community?
Life is a gift—and it goes by fast. It’s amazing to me that my youngest son is about to graduate from high school.

Links:
http://blogs.msdn.com/randyoakley/