Bringing Dynamics 365 Connected Spaces to Market
Since 2018, I have been primarily focused on bringing Connected Spaces from incubation to market. As the founding design member, I built the design and research practice up to drive experience excellence. I worked closely with our leadership team and marketing partners to influence and drive product scoping, organizational efficiencies, internal/external communications, and cross-organizational efforts.
Vision Video
In the fall of 2021, I drove the announce video above for Connected Spaces. To ensure that our video was to the standard Microsoft expects of customer-facing videos, I influenced the team to work closely with Nando Costa and hire Tendril Studio & Zelig Sound. This video was used at Microsoft’s annual partner conference, has been amplified in Microsoft Design social media, and is the primary video on our marketing website.
User Experience
For the past 4 years, we have been iterating and testing experiences for Connected Spaces. We strived to design experiences that were consumer grade and “Nest-like.” While people working in business contexts may be more specialized or technical, their expectations are built off the experiences they have with devices at home.
One significant challenge we faced during early development was collecting feedback during a period when we didn’t have many customers. We addressed this by focusing on both generative and evaluative research - conducting a total of 56 studies. These studies ranged from quantitative studies on industry expectations, to rapid feedback cycles leveraging the RITE methodology.
With this iterative approach, we were able to land a System Usability Score of 77.2, a wow-factor of 100%, and an Accessibility Grade of C, with a clear path to upgrading that to B.
Product Naming
Our product naming process resisted easy results. Each time I thought we’d agreed on the name, the decision was unwound by someone further up in corporate management.
In an attempt to reduce the ambiguity and uncertainty for our team, I initiated and led an effort that brought marketing, program management, design, and research together to brainstorm, test, and iterate on the name we eventually selected for the product. This yielded a name that each party felt confident to take to their management and defend to their executive stakeholders.
Align
Prior to brainstorming, we aligned on:
Primary objective
Importance
One-line-concept
Criteria
Diverge
Individuals brainstormed a list of name ideas independently.
They came prepared to meet and talk about their top 3 choices to riff on.
Converge
We spent an hour going through the ideas and voted on the top picks we want to test.
We also iterated on our one-line-concept based on the discussion.
Test & Iterate
We leveraged user research to learn different name’s unaided understandings, aided appeal, recall, and privacy concerns.
We listened to feedback, iterated, tested again, and shipped “Connected Spaces.”
Additional Marketing Support
In addition to the above, I was also responsible for reviewing Marketing and internal Sales collateral and ensuring these reflected the product truth and vision. I was also very fortunate to lead the production of the product demonstrations that Microsoft’s CEO, Satya Nadella, presented during Microsoft’s annual partner conference