A New Career Journey

About 2 months ago (July/August), I shared an article called 4 Years, 4 Stories in Leadership capturing my time at Google Cloud and my own journey of growth through new experiences. In a corporate culture, it is so natural to capture all of the things you have contributed to your company through the continuous performance reviews and promotion cycles and check-ins, but it is less-natural to spend the time thinking about all of the things that company has contributed to you - personally and professionally. Self-reflection is something I have committed to do better going forward.

Then, abruptly (maybe to some?), in September, I shared an update that I had resigned from Google to pursue a different opportunity. In traditional LinkedIn fashion, I was vague and cryptic and used terms like "excited for the next chapter." I took essentially an entire month to decompress and forget everything I knew in order to empty my brain for all of the new things I would learn in that next chapter. And here, we are, at the next chapter...

I just finished my first week at 微软 . It's a whirlwind, to be honest - and I am reflecting on my week in Redmond with new leadership, and sharing my rationale and first impressions. As many of you know, I enjoy writing - it is cathartic for me and the stream-of-consciousness that flows onto the keyboard is something I often revisit.

So here goes - what, why, and how?

What am I up to?

I was offered an amazing opportunity, as CVP, Customer Experience Strategy and Operations to continue to build on the experiences that I've had in my #transformation and #AI Incubation journey at Google, including infusing AI into business operations, launching and landing (Automation and Assistive) #conversational #generativeAI capabilities into customer experience, both across reactive customer support and proactive customer success, and driving continued improvement and alignment in #enterprise engagements to bring the best of Microsoft to customers. Defining, then executing on this strategy, consistently and at-scale is an exciting endeavor - and joining at (or near) "ground zero" is even more interesting!

I also have the opportunity to focus on #cultureofexcellence, to think both outside-in (#marketinsights -> strategy, #cocreation), and inside-out (product -> #customervaluecreation), while simultaneously #runningthebusiness. In other words, A LOT!

Running TO vs. Running FROM

To be perfectly honest, I didn't leave Google. "Leaving Google" implies that I was running FROM something, rather than running TO something. I can't imagine running FROM Google, ever. I have nothing but admiration and adulation for Google and what it has accomplished and how it has accomplished those things, the leadership, and the people.

Under any other circumstance - in another time, in a different place - I would still be at Google leading and growing its AI incubation organization and continuing to press at the barriers of possibility and bridge breakthroughs back into Google's products. I loved what I did and the team I had built - they navigated the forest while everyone else was staring at the trees. I feel confident I left behind the blueprint for success, and it left me comfortable in my timing to pursue what's next (although I wasn't really looking until "what's next" found me!).

Sometimes a company becomes so comfortable with and appreciative of what you've been contributing that they miss out on all of the things that you COULD BE contributing if given the right opportunity. I felt valued within the Google leadership team, but the right opportunity was presented by Microsoft, and I saw the opportunity to bring all of me in contribution. It's not often that you get the opportunity to move from one iconic brand to another, both of which consistently occupy the "Best Places to Work" list (Microsoft is #1 this year), and to continue to be at the forefront of the once-in-a-generation technology adoption cycle that is Cloud+AI.

A rose by any other title would still smell as sweet....

The CVP / GM of Customer Experience, Strategy and Operations is a big opportunity - be big, think big, act big. It even SOUNDS big. The title sounds important - but more so. than the title, I look at what's important to me for the next phase of my career? Does the role "check the boxes" of what's important to me at this stage of my career, and for my ongoing career path?

Microsoft presented a unique moment to apply many of the technical foundations I've built during my cloud/AI journey at Google, with the breadth of #scope across both strategy and execution, and at the #scale and #impact from prior career stops.

• Working with great people. What makes a great peer is not just someone who you can build a familiar relationship with, but someone who you trust will execute when you hold them accountable, believe will hold you accountable, and will intellectually spar with you in ways that stimulate growth and betterment.
• Always Be Learning. Having the opportunity to continue to learn and grow, to develop a new technology prowess or a new operational muscle or a new leadership skill, and to be able to think about a set of really complex problems, then feel empowered to go solve them.
• Building great teams. Investing and developing people - helping them become the best of themselves and having groups of people become even better than the sum of the individuals, is something that I have always prided myself in. I've built ultra-high performing teams multiple times (If I don't say so myself), and the opportunity to do it again, against a set of expectations that I feel both uniquely qualified to deliver against and unbelievably daunted by, is exciting.
• Operationalizing Transformations. I've talked to so many leaders and thought-partnered with CxOs across many industries on how transformation - especially cloud and AI adoption - are broader than just technology. Organization structures, skill sets, processes and methodologies, and even behaviors and attitudes change as a result of successful transformation. Transformation is as much emotional as it is technical and organizational - and the opportunity to lead this at a scale in the TENS of THOUSANDS is exciting (Especially when pace is accelerating!).

What's next?

To be honest, I (for the most part) don't know - it's only 1 week!

And that's what's so exciting about this whole process - the unknown is equal parts scary and intriguing.

What I do know is that a tremendous amount of trust and belief has been placed in me by Microsoft leadership, that the people who I will surround myself with are equally excited about the opportunities ahead, and that the organizational culture is one that seems to lean in to change and disruption. Those are some pretty powerful starting points!

I also know that I will share the journey and the learnings that I feel benefit a broader community. I will share more on #leadership and #strategy and #execution and #AI value creation and #operationalization, and I will embrace the unknown.

Wish me luck...