Top Takeaways From My First Year at Microsoft

One year ago this week, I left Microsoft Cloud partner, PTC, and began my journey as Corporate Vice President of Azure Marketing. With “the great reshuffle” transforming the work world, some of you may be considering a career change or recently made a big move. Or maybe you’re celebrating a milestone work anniversary or blooming in your current role. What I’ve learned is that it doesn’t matter where you are in life. What matters is finding joy in every day.

It’s cliché, but so true – time flies when you’re having fun, and for me, the past year is no exception. As I kick off my second year at Microsoft, I’m taking time to reflect on the insights I’ve gained and the support my husband Mark, our kids Victoria and James, and I received during our transition. To commemorate this career milestone, each day this week I’ll be posting a bit about our journey in the hopes that you will find these insights helpful in your own journeys.

I’d like to kick off this series with some of my biggest takeaways.

We’re in This Together.

This rally cry during the pandemic really resonated with me in my daily life. Since my family moved from the East Coast to Washington, I began building a network of people inside and outside Microsoft who also value comradery, collaboration, and support.

At work, some of my favorite moments have been those when we came together as a team to learn, grow and connect with our partner, customer, and developer communities. As we’ve gone from in-person events to continuing on our second year of virtual events, and the team has brought energy, creativity and relentless vigor to ensure invaluable experiences for our extended audiences. In total, we created hundreds of successful Azure and cloud sessions at virtual events like Build and Ignite over the past 12 months, reaching thousands of IT decision makers, IT professionals, and developers. ?

From my previous experiences with Microsoft as a partner, I already knew the company puts customers and partners at the center. But being part of that mission as an employee has inspired me and continues to validate my decision to join the company.

To my Microsoft colleagues, partners, and customers: it’s a pleasure and honor to be in this together with you.

The Power of Partnership.

For many years, I had a glimpse of how much Microsoft values connection and collaboration, which was a big draw for me to come on board. Since I started at the company, I’ve experienced just how deep “partnership” is rooted in the company’s success, from how we work internally, to how our products work, to how we approach our partner and customer communities.

• Between Microsoft employees. While I represent Azure, my team works almost daily across organizations, such as Global Partner Services (GPS), Sales, Customer Success, Engineering, the Technology and Research Group, Analyst and Public Relations, etc. By combining our strengths, we’re stronger and better poised to help our partners and customers thrive.
• Within our products and solutions. It’s not just about Azure or data or dev tools. It’s about all those things together with our productivity solutions like Microsoft Teams, Power Platform, and Microsoft 365. And underpinning it all is Azure. When our technology and solutions work together, we provide the most value to our partners and customers.
• With our partners and customers. As a Microsoft partner, I was always impressed by how the company made us feel supported -- like we were part of the team. I connected daily with my Microsoft contacts and spoke alongside Microsoft leaders at big events like Inspire. As a Microsoft employee, I now understand the incredible work that goes into ensuring our partners and customers feel that same kind of connection and support that drew me to the company.

It’s so true: Through partnership, we can accomplish more.

We’re Just Getting Started.

When the pandemic struck in 2020, so many companies had to move quickly to the cloud to keep their businesses running.

Using the experience of its own decade-long digital transformation, along with its trusted partner ecosystem, Microsoft rose to the challenge, helping our customers in any way we could. During this time, customers achieved the impossible, for some, driving two years of digital transformation within two months.

This spring, I had the pleasure of meeting with Mari Lovo from the University of Miami to talk about their digital transformation journey, and that conversation really stuck with me. After talking with Mari, I was reminded that even as the pandemic wanes and we return to normal, the world still faces other challenges, like climate change. The campus is at continuous risk of hurricanes, and the university needed to strengthen its disaster recovery strategies. They also faced a looming hardware renewal. They turned to Microsoft Azure VMware Solution and realized a six-figure cost savings, averted months of purchase order processing and supply chain delays and gained agility during the pandemic. That’s the power of the cloud in action, and we’re just getting started.

As a partner and now as an employee, it’s been amazing to be a part of this rapid innovation. It’s also one of the many reasons I joined the Azure team. The growth potential of the cloud continues to be enormous – for companies just getting started on their digital transformation, to those who are looking to the cloud to innovate faster, gain a competitive edge, save time and money, operate more efficiently, and achieve their goals.

We know that the digital transformation journey is not a one-time preparation for a new platform, but an ongoing and consistent endeavor from migration and modernization, through adoption, and toward sustainable innovation. In the past year, we’ve helped customers at every stage of their digital transformation journey use cloud technology to meet their unique business needs.

Fresh Perspectives Go a Long Way.

I love how Satya describes innovation as “empathy in action.” He said, “The ability to put ourselves in other people's shoes to see the world the way they see it is the most humane quality we all have.” I’ve always believed that innovation is powered by curiosity -- the desire to read more, get out of your comfort zone and connect with people who aren’t like you. It’s about seeking to understand first, then sharing your thoughts.

My drive for life-long learning is rooted in an insatiable curiosity I’ve had since I was a kid. It’s what led me from fashion design into technology, and it has served me well at Microsoft.

We begin each meeting and discussion by ensuring that we’re all on the same page regarding the “why” behind our decisions or initiatives. My natural curiosity leads me to ask questions like: What’s our goal? What partner or customer need are we addressing? How are we making their lives better? What are the gaps? These questions remind us to take a step back and evaluate our priorities, so we know we’re focused on the things that are important to the people and businesses we serve.

When you’re new to a company, it can feel intimidating to ask these types of questions. But I find that if you trust your gut, be yourself and get curious, you can bring a fresh perspective and make a huge impact on day one. This is empathy in action. This is how innovation happens.

Culture is Everything.

With the great resignation upon us, creating a strong company culture – one with people at the center– is more important than ever. It’s one of the biggest factors candidates consider when deciding where to apply and what jobs to take. As a partner, I was fortunate to experience the Microsoft culture and knew the company’s values aligned with my own. I knew it was the perfect place for me to grow my career.

As a leader, my greatest pleasure has always been in seeing my team members move upwards and onwards, follow their passions, and achieve greatness. With an emphasis on diversity and inclusion, Satya has built a culture that fosters that kind of growth.

The culture here is driven by customer obsession and a growth mindset. I’ve experienced the reality of this first-hand. We’re encouraged to expand our reach and go above and beyond possibilities without fear of failure. We’re inspired to try new things and take measurable risks. We’re not obsessed with perfection because, as Winston Churchill stated, “Perfection is the enemy of progress.” Our obsession is with our customers, understanding their needs and innovating to help them achieve their goals.

This is the kind of culture I’m striving to create with the Azure Marketing team. My goal is to make Azure Marketing the best place to do great work while also having loads of fun.?

Moving a Family Across the Country is Serious Business.

There is absolutely no greater joy than moving across the country with a dog and two young kids (said no one, ever).

Generally, we’ve all embraced our new life in the PNW – even our beloved dog, Andy. But it’s taken some adjusting in our ways to a new normal, though I'm not sure if we’ll ever fully adjust to not having our regular Dunkin Donuts fix.

As for myself: I underestimated the challenges of this transition. I was so eager to start my new work life, I didn’t really get the chance to settle into my new personal life. My advice to those relocating: Take some time for yourself. Take at least a week to get you and your family situated before you jump into work. Everyone will thank you.

Those of you who have moved across the country know I could write an entire series on the trials, tribulations, and embarrassing moments during the move (ten months in, I’m still unpacking and searching for my summer clothes – thank goodness summer doesn’t start until July in Seattle!). But I’ll save those stories for future posts and focus now on gratitude.

Finding Joy in Gratitude.

I’d like to take a moment to thank the people who helped make the past year a wonderfully memorable one for me:

Behind every successful transition is a supportive network of family and friends. I’d like to thank Mark, Victoria, and James (and Andy!) for embarking on this adventure with me, and our friends who encouraged and helped us along the way.

My fellow Microsofties, especially my Chief of Staff, Susan Kim, and Executive Assistant, Michelle Matisin, along with the rest of my amazing leadership team: Ashmi Chokshi, Cyril Belikoff, Demi Albuz Hudson, Joe Biron, Natalie Wossene, and Omar Khan. To the Azure Marketing FTE team for the work you do to grow the Azure business and the culture we’re creating where all voices are heard and it’s safe to bring our authentic selves to work each day.

Special thanks to my closest collaborators in engineering – Scott Guthrie, Jason Zander, Amanda Silver, Corey Sanders, Douglas Phillips, Erin Chapple, Girish Bablani, Julia Luison, Roanne Sones, Thomas Dohmke – whose patience never wavered as they helped me get up to speed on the business. And to my field cohorts – Mala Anand, Merrie Williamson, Madhan Arumugam Ramakrish, Mark Souza, and Thuy Le.

My marketing leaders and peers who helped me learn the ropes – Chris Capossela, Takeshi Numoto, Alysa Taylor, Jared Spataro, Jerry Lee, Richard Chin, Stephanie Ferguson, and Vasu Jakkal.

There are countless others – too many to list – who helped us on our journey. The kindness and support we received from the Microsoft community meant the world to me and my family. Thanks for sharing your favorite hikes with us, pinging me links to helpful information in meetings, showing up, and sometimes even pointing me to the nearest café on campus.?

I look forward to another great year at Microsoft and in the great PNW!