All you need to do is compare the crowd reactions to literally hear Microsoft's Xbox business,

going from one of the lowest moments in its history to a triumphant return over the course of two years.

Here's Xbox leader Phil Spencer announcing the pricing for the Xbox One console back in 2013.

$499 in the US andS. and $499 euros in European markets.

Yes, that was a murmur of shock at the price, which was $100 more than anyone expected.

It was followed by a smattering of obligatory cheers. But here is Spencer again,

two years later in 2015, making a follow-up announcement about the Xbox One.

Last year, the team decided to tackle a feature that has been consistently at the top of your

request list. And while we weren't sure it was possible, today I'm pleased to announce Xbox One backward

compatibility.

Now that is the kind of unbridled crowd reaction that every tech executive dreams about. What happened in between over the course of those two years is one of several case studies in a new book called The Insider's Guide to Innovation at Microsoft.

As the book explains, the Xbox One launch was a classic example of misalignment in a framework known as BXT, or

business experience and technology.

We got too focused on some of the T, the technology that excited us, but maybe wasn't meeting

the need of the users.

And we got a little too excited about the B. We put it at a

price point that was, let's say, towards the high end. And the gaming community let us know about

this clearly and very vocally. This is one of the book's authors, Dean Kerrignan, who was working

in the Xbox business at the time. To the organization's credit, Dean Kerrignan, who was working in the Xbox business at the time.

To the organization's credit, they pivoted back and they really changed the product itself.

But it was just interesting to watch at the time how an organization that had kept those

things in balance could slowly drift and lose that balance. And so I think that framework is something

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