Microsoft's CEO didn't work from a home office before the pandemic. Having to do so made him rethink how his company's products work.
- Satya Nadella said he didn't have a home office before the pandemic.
- The Microsoft CEO said he realized the importance of larger screens on PCs as he worked from home.
- He also said it gave him "a renewed sense" of how to tailor Windows products to customers' needs.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella didn't have a home office when the pandemic hit in March 2020, according to a new report from The Verge.
Nadella told the publication's editor-in-chief, Nilay Patel, in a wide-ranging interview that the health crisis, which drove people inside and shuttered physical offices and schools, made him rethink how to work from home.
"Suddenly, I found myself [saying], 'Oh my God, not only do I need a home office,'" he told the outlet. "'I have all my girls home and they need all their own independent PCs.' Without the PC, we wouldn't be able to do remote education, remote work, telemedicine visits. It became mission critical."
Nadella said the experience made him realize the importance of larger screens on Windows home products since we can't do everything from the smaller displays on our mobile devices.
He said the realization helped inform his thinking behind the Windows update strategy.
"We came out of the pandemic with - I would say - a renewed sense of why we need to do some of our very best work in serving [the] customers we have today," Nadella told The Verge.
Microsoft unveiled its Windows 11 on Thursday, and as Insider's Lisa Eadicicco noted, is the company's most promising attempt yet to make PCs run more seamlessly between desktop and mobile modes.
Windows 11 will launch later this year.