‘Softie in Question: McKenzie Eakin

Job title: Xbox LIVE Service Delivery Program Manager

That’s quite a title, what exactly does that mean?
Pardon the analogy, but I bartended in college, it’s:

*One part Back-end Community Strategy – setting the vision and direction for how we enable our customers to connect with each other and with us, from a behind-the-scenes systems and programs perspective. 

*Two parts execution – everything from managing the @XboxSupport Elite Tweet Fleet to the Xbox Ambassadors program, which recognizes and promotes good gaming and sportsmanship.

*And the whole cocktail is garnished with a LOT of Beatles Rockband.

Yeah, I see that you’ve got a Rockband set-up about ten steps from your desk.
We recognize mental breaks as productivity enhancers.  I’ve even had one-on-one meetings while playing Halo on LIVE.

You're at the nexus of gaming, social networking, television, music and enough other technologies to make my head spin.
We’re pushing into new frontiers in every direction. I mean, I got chills the first time that I saw the Project Natal promo video. And the community of interconnected Xbox LIVE users is growing like gangbusters.

How many people are we talking about?
Twenty million... give or take. We got a bump around the holidays.

That’s more people than, like, New York, LA and Chicago  – combined.
Those are just the number of Xbox LIVE subscribers. We have a lot more users out there who haven’t subscribed yet. We’re probably growing even faster than those cities.

I understand that you have an impressive background in both math and in business. Why Microsoft and not, say, finance?
I wanted to be somewhere that would satiate both the mathematician and the businesswoman in me. Once I found that everyone I met from Microsoft shared a consistently high level of intellectual intrigue and, frankly, a sense of humor – I knew it was home. That and there's only one Xbox LIVE, baby!

Finally, what keeps you here?
‘Softies + meaningful job + Pacific Northwest = duh.