Beyond the px —Microsoft’s Charu Choudha on focus, productivity, and digital adoption
We’re back folks. This month’s in depth interview is with
, who works for Microsoft in Hyderabad, India.Having a modest introduction to the world of design, Charu landed herself some excellent experience both in an internship and then by landing a job at a famous Indian startup.
Enjoy.
What team are you working with at Microsoft?
I am a UX Designer in the Microsoft Office team. Our team is responsible for building the Microsoft Office App on android and iOS.
What has been your design journey up until now?
I am brought up in a small town in Central India where people are usually not aware of design as a career choice. I moved to Mumbai for my college where I studied communication design from NIFT in 2010 and my design journey began from there.
During my college days, I began skipping classes and taking up lots of freelance design work to survive in a massive city like Mumbai. I worked on multiple web design projects, which not only helped in paying my bills but also exposed me to UX Design. I applied for an internship in Adobe and luckily got into it. The internship taught me about the practical work and life of a product designer.
Soon after my internship and graduation in 2014, I decided to make my career in product design so I started working with multiple startups as a freelancer to learn.
After one year I decided to join a popular Indian startup – Zomato. I got to work on multiple projects which were focused around the food and restaurant industry and learned a lot about designing with data and experimenting with designs in a condensed amount of time. I loved working with the team there and learnt a lot from an extremely enthusiastic and passionate bunch of people especially my first boss.
After few years, I decided to move into a larger organisation, and I joined Microsoft. I’ve been here for the last three years, and have worked on multiple teams with some highly talented folks.
What does your typical morning look like?
I wake up around 7:30 and starting my day with a workout is a must. Followed by a good breakfast and cup of tea, it helps me feel recharged.
I start work around 9:30 by making a to-do list first so that I’m focused throughout the day. I try to do some focused, uninterrupted work in the morning before meetings with teammates starts in afternoons.
What does your tool stack look like?
I am using Figma for design, collaboration as well as sharing designs with developers. Since everything has moved online now, our team has also started using Figma for brainstorming. Protopie and Principle for prototyping.
Sometime I go back to Adobe Illustrator and After Effects to create motion graphics. I still use Google Keep to make to-do lists and Apple notes to take longer notes. For presentations, I use Powerpoint and store files in OneDrive.
Do you find it hard to define what you do to your friends?
They broadly understand my job but they do not know the nitty-gritty of my job. Most of them still believe UX designer’s job is to play around with pixels all day and they do not realise the conversations, negotiations and collaboration which happens behind that and moving pixels is just a small part of my job. My friends from Microsoft are of-course exception as we all work together.
What drew you to working in this area?
I have a knack for productivity. I have always loved reading and learning about productivity from various sources and I have been obsessed with books like Creativity Inc, Zen mind — Beginners mind, The Big Magic and many others which are stories and theories about productivity.
Although landing a job at Microsoft was absolutely inadvertent, but I love working in the productivity space because at the end of the day I am helping people do more in simple ways.
What’s your team dynamic?
Our design team currently has 5 designers, one researcher and one design engineer who are all based out of Hyderabad. Although we have bigger cross functional teams like Fluent design team, Microsoft Office desktop team which are based in Redmond and we work with them very closely. Outside the design team, we have a large PM and engineering team who also sit with us in Hyderabad office.
Will your product exist in ten years time?
Absolutely, I see Microsoft Office existing and adapting to the modern needs in next ten years. We are definitely looking at Voice, AI & VR technology and evolve our experiences to adapt to these. Apart from the technology, there is also a shift as digital is becoming mandatory from being an option for our users these days, hence we are keeping a close watch at the shift in user behaviour.
What advice would you give for those interested in kick starting a career in designing for the market?
Design goes beyond screens and technology. When you are starting out try to work with as many as people as you can to learn and gain experiences, which will help you figure out what side of design really interests you. Sometimes you might not even find that one thing but thats okay the experiences always helps.
The value of design in the market is booming, especially in emerging markets like India where more and more people are adapting to digital products for there day to day needs like digital wallets, education etc. There is always place for good designers.
What’re your thoughts on burnout?
I think thats the case for all jobs in tech world. I like to put a pause to work at the end of the day and take out some time to switch off and relax or learn something new but I think making it so rigid will also not suit everyone. I feel it should be a personal choice to decide what kind of work style works for you and your team.
Thank you for reading, Charu shared some great honest insights into the life of a designer and I hope you enjoyed it.
See you next time.
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