Getting to know the people behind the Windows 10 Insider program

Ever so often Insiders are given a glimpse behind the curtain that’s behind the curtain of Windows 10. Yes, being a part of the Insider program, grants participants access to new and upcoming features to Windows as well as information about delays, bugs, and retractions ahead of major releases to the public.

However, there are times when Insiders are given access to the people who are behind the updates, fixes and community news that goes on in the Insider program. The first instances came around the refocus on the Insider Feedback hub and now the team is offering more info about the the program and the people behind it, with today’s release of preview build 16184 for PC and Mobile.

Alongside today’s build release, Insiders are greeted with a community update that walks through how the Insider team works and a brief introduction and overview of a handful of players and their roles.

Windows and Devices Group – thousands of people who build Windows, our apps, devices and services. Within WDG are a group of people called.
Community Champs + FlightOps – Engineers throughout WDG who live and breathe customer data/feedback – these are all the lovely humans who help make flight/no flight decisions based on data and feedback from Windows Insiders. Each person is responsible for a specific area from Core UX to deployment and are the main evangelists for customer feedback for their area. Within this group are a bunch of folks you all probably know well.
Windows Insider Team – a scrappy group of six who represent the Windows Insiders both internally and externally. Here we are below left to right with our Twitter handles. Please get in touch with us if you want to know about the things we’re working on!

As for the players specific to Window, most Insiders already have a clue of Dona Sarkar and what her responsibilities are but we’re also introduced to:

Blair Glennon (@jbglennon) – Baseball loving Blair leads the Windows Insider Program for Business sub-program and owns Insider Insights. He is the one who partners with our AMAZING data science team to understand the happiness and health of our overall community. Through both quant and qual data (cluster/trend analysis, surveys, side convos at meet-ups), he helps us determine what we need to do to better co-create Windows and the Insider program with you all.
Jason Howard (@northfacehiker) – #TeriyakiTuesday-loving Beam Master Jason leads social sentiment from Insiders to communicate to the overall WDG org. He also spends a ton of his time helping Insiders get unblocked on build issues and rolling up lists of top issues to the product teams. He is also the creator and owner of the monthly Insider Beam webcasts.

Tyler Ahn (@skrelnick) – Chihuahua-mom Tyler leads the Global fan programs and the Insider MVP Program. She is partnering with Brandon on the website spec and launch and thinking about how to create Insider-in-a-box so you can run Insider programs within your own organizations! She has over a decade of experience doing business development in emerging markets and has the superpower of taking an activity and figuring out how to scale it globally eg CAT-in-a-box, forums, etc. She has been an INVALUABLE asset for our team as we think about building products and services to empower EVERY person and organization on the planet to do the thing.

Brandon LeBlanc (@brandonleblanc) – Bat’leth wielding Brandon owns the main communication to Insiders. He works with the Community Champs to make sure the features and bugs are represented in our communication. Brandon is working on the Insider all-up social media strategy as well as content creation for our shiny new website.

Jeremiah Marble (@jeremiahmarble) – Global negroni hunter Jeremiah is the architect of the Windows Insider Program. He drives projects for our core audiences and projects, deciding where and how to grow our community. This year, he’s focusing heavily on global entrepreneurs and creatives. He also leads our “Co-Creating with Sub-communities” initiative, which will launch its first pilots in June. As a third area, he’s looking at ways to better connect Insiders seeking to help others. Jeremiah was a founding member of the Windows Insider Program and our current “village elder”.

On top of the “get to know us blog post” the Insider team also hosted a Visiting the Twitter handles of Jeremiah, Brandon, Tyler, Jason and Blair should help Insider put a face on the countless hours of engineering, coding, testing, flighting and releases some people are often flippant in demanding. looks like Dona and her team want to bring the Insider community even closer.