Interesting timing given the article and discussion yesterday [1] about other companies using stack ranking. I wonder (and to some extent hope) that the others follow suit.
Especially interesting considering the author of that article works at Microsoft
Yeah - as a manager, he probably knew about the changes a day earlier and hence decided a pen a post criticising other companies' ranking systems.
Managers found out this morning. It's possible he was part of a pilot program and had early knowledge, but I suspect it's a coincidence. If anything, having early knowledge would likely have kept him from writing that until after the new Microsoft program was announced.