One Year at Microsoft: What I’ve Learned

It’s been a little over a year since I embarked on my Microsoft journey, one that saw me take on new challenges, teams, and opportunities in different ways. I’ve spent my career focused on building products at early stage, growth stage, and late-stage startups. It’s fair to say that at this point in its history, Microsoft is none of those things!

When people ask me why I made the leap, it’s an easy answer. Having experienced all phases of growth from zero to one, one to many and pre-IPO through IPO, I saw this as an opportunity to leverage my experience and apply it to an even larger scale.

We have to trust the timing of our lives, and it’s no coincidence that I was drawn to Microsoft during what may be considered the most pivotal moments in tech history—the rise of AI. From the outside, I could see that Microsoft was years ahead of the competition, and I was excited by the opportunity to be at the forefront of innovation.

It’s been quite a ride—being at the heart of AI’s development—and as I look back on my first year, I’ve realized some of my assumptions were incorrect, some were spot on, and there were plenty of surprises too. Here are a handful of my key takeaways.

1.????? The pace is fast.

One of my only hesitations about working at a large company was the concern it might stifle my ability to move quickly, take risks, and experiment. I've been pleasantly surprised at the pace of innovation at the company. The pace is set at the top by CEO Satya Nadella, and it cascades through to the individuals who are building products and programs and supporting customers day in and day out. ?

2.????? The mission is meaningful.

Microsoft’s mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more, and every employee at the company works towards this goal. It’s not lip service—it’s a shared ethos we embody every day. And what makes this such a powerful mission is the company’s global reach. Recently, we held our annual developer conference, Microsoft Build, and the scale of that event was truly eye opening. When Microsoft holds its developer conference, the world tunes in to see what’s going to be released, what tools are being unveiled, and what insights will be shared. Understanding Microsoft’s extensive reach has been grounding for me as we work to bring the mission to life.

3.????? The “aspire to” culture is alive and well.

Much has been said of Satya’s efforts to help transform the company culture and influence a growth mindset amongst employees, to shift from a “know it all” perspective to a “learn it all” perspective. And the truth is, you can’t know or understand a company’s culture until you’re inside it. I’ve been impressed with how Microsoft’s culture lives up to its values. The culture permeates everything we do, including our offerings like Microsoft Learn, Founders Hub for Startups, and through our Developer Relations team.

4.????? One Microsoft runs throughout every aspect of the company.

When you’re embedded in an organization with more than 200,000 employees, there’s a risk of silos, disconnection, fragmentation, and most important, a loss of customer focus. But the fact is, to succeed in every role, we must work together—and I consistently see and participate in cross-organizational collaboration for the greater good of the customer and company. Our mission cannot be achieved by individuals—and the idea of One Microsoft is all business groups working together as one, united and connected organization to better serve our customers and future customers. ?

It's been a great year of learning, especially in this time of rapid innovation.

For those of you considering taking on a new role in a new organization, my advice is to go in ready to learn. Change can be a powerful force in life, and the ability to adapt, stay curious, and embrace new opportunities can lead to incredible growth and unexpected successes. My first year at Microsoft has been transformative—and I can’t wait to see what year two brings.