Ask an intern: The best advice I got from 7 Microsoft All-Stars this summer

the advice

To summer-ize the wonderful summer I spent interning at Microsoft, I’ve curated a list of the best advice I’ve received from 7 Microsoft All-Stars. Consider this food for thought (though I recently became a pescetarian — no, not a crustacean — so definitely not meat for thought!).

1. “The best way to make a great product is to design something that addresses your own needs.”

Lawrence Ripsher — General Manager, LOOP

My Explore pod and I met Lawrence at a time when we were still unsure about our vague bot project. As interns, we were too intimidated to tackle big problems Office developers were facing such as unit testing, build notifications, merge conflicts, and enforcing good coding practices.

That being said, I wish we had met with Lawrence earlier in our internship because in retrospect, his advice led us to refining our project.

“You will succeed the most when you create a product for which you are the target customer.”

You can think about this another way: Make something you would use for a problem you are currently experiencing.

We had never thought about this as we searched for our bot’s future purpose.

What we took away from talking with Lawrence is this:

• The key to making a product is to address your own pain points. By solving a problem you share with your own customers, you have the biggest opportunity to learn the most, create an effective product, and have fun doing so!
• It’s okay to focus on a small problem as long as it can be easily generalized and you can solve it fully. Trying to solve a smaller problem does not justify coming up with a half-baked solution.

As interns, we encountered at least 30 unfamiliar acronyms on our first day.

After realizing that Microsoft glossary resources lacked a structured <acronym, definition> dictionary, we decided to create AcroBOT.

The problem seemed too small at first and quite frankly a bit underwhelming (“I’m making an acronym dictionary this summer!” → Proceeds to finish project in a day), but in reality the constrained scope of the project actually gave us the most flexibility to explore creative solutions.

Taking Lawrence’s advice literally shaped the outcome of our project. It also convinced me that even if no one in the world decides to use your product, you'll at least benefit from it and (hopefully) improve your workflow.

My main goal thereon after was to create something people would adopt in their daily routine, a solution that would delight users to the point of recommendation.

During initial user interviews, we realized that the pain of learning acronyms was a blind spot to everyone except for new hires. Since we experienced this pain point everyday in our first two weeks, we knew it was a problem for all.

When we later asked users about their experience learning acronyms, they all exhaled a familiar chuckle, pointing to shared struggles. Even after their X years at the company, they still had trouble discerning acronym definitions, yet they accepted this acronym hurdle as ‘just another thing to get used to.’

A great product shouldn’t take much convincing to get people to use. It should reveal an ingenious way of solving a problem that maybe even users take for granted. In addition, you can't expect your customer to know what they need solved, and how.

2. “Have at least one passion in your life, but don’t necessarily become an expert in that.”

Brandon Bray — Principal Program Manager, HoloLens

I couldn’t meet with Brandon in his office because he works on incredibly confidential HoloLens material. Even if I tried, I wouldn’t be able to get past the intricate face and finger scan security check to his office.

Though we couldn’t talk much about the HoloLens, Brandon shared a story from his university recruiting tours. One of the biggest questions Brandon asks prospective hires is,

“What is one passion in your life?”

Were I to answer that honestly now, I’d have some idea of what to say. But what does it mean to be passionate?

6 years ago, my passion was stop motion animation. In junior high school, I would stay up until 3 am on weeknights transforming my bedroom into a film set and I had a strange fascination with personifying rubber ducks and eggs.

Today, I’ve continued this interest in visual storytelling and have even participated in film-a-thons (aka make a movie in 24 hours).

And now I’m studying entertainment entrepreneurship and film theory at the USC School of Cinematic Arts alongside my CS major, and I love it.

To Brandon, enjoying a class in college doesn’t mean you are passionate about that subject matter. But it could absolutely be a starting point.

From what I’ve understood, passion is something you take time out of your schedule to include in your life. Having a passion is a sign of dedicated mental investment to a subject matter of interest for which there is no career or degree incentive to learn.

This drive of curiosity shows a strong dedication to lifelong learning, and demonstrates the ability to really set your own goals in learning both in and out of work. Keep in mind, you don’t have to have expertise in something to be considered passionate, and it’s okay to have multiple passions.

Investing in your passion(s) shouldn’t seem like extra work, and it often attracts top companies to hire you. So lesson in hand, continue to explore your passions and make them the most fun part of your week.

3. “You might not be aware of the job you will love.”

Katherine Harris — Technical Evangelist, AR/VR & Game Development

I had the chance to Skype with Kat since she works in Los Angeles, but the craziest thing is I first met her at a Stanford hackathon called TreeHacks 6 months ago. Kat Harris — recently featured on Microsoft Developer’s Facebook feed for her Pizza Bot video — is a Technical Evangelist.

What does that mean? I think Kat has one of the coolest jobs ever. She’s a developer that teaches other developers how to use Microsoft technologies — including college students!

Through hackathons, corporate workshops, and campus visits, Kat shows people how to incorporate AR/VR/Game development in their own projects.

Back at TreeHacks, we certainly needed Kat’s help. My team of four female CS majors was making The Queen’s Speech — a public speaking VR mobile app for Google Cardboard that puts users in front of virtual 360 audiences so they can practice their speeches more realistically.

Throughout the 36 hours of coding and couch-napping, we were able to create a prototype of our minimum viable product that actually went on to win 1st place! We were beyond ecstatic with the outcome.

Talking with Kat over Skype months later, I couldn’t help but smile as I reminisced about that hackathon and the positive attitude with which she tackled unfamiliar problems and taught us about Unity.

Her patience, enthusiasm, and deep curiosity for learning make her the perfect person for her job, and I’m glad to see her thrive in her role.

However, during our chat I was surprised to learn that Kat had initially planned to become a PM at Microsoft — It’s true, the roles of PM and Tech Evangelist involve similar skill sets.

But after speaking with her recruiter and discussing her interests, Kat came to learn about an entirely new role that she now enjoys; one that allows her to travel the country, actively participate in the tech community, and constantly experiment with the latest technology. Without the recruiter’s push, Kat would have never even considered technical evangelism.

Though she isn’t exposed to a traditional software development team environment, Kat acknowledges how unique her job is, and she’s made me realize that you may not be aware of the future job you would love to have.

4. “Keystrokes are precious. Don’t waste them.”

Scott Hanselman — Principal Program Manager, Microsoft Azure, ASP.NET, and Web Tools

When I first heard about Scott, it was from Cesar, my tech mentor. To Cesar, Scott is his biggest idol.

Working remotely from his home in Portland, he agreed to chat with me through FaceTime one bright afternoon, and we talked about everything from his very involved hobbies to the pros and cons of big tech vs. startups.

I’m personally very interested in podcasting, blogging, brand management and public speaking and am so impressed with how frequently Scott publishes content online and travels for speaking engagements.

When I asked him how he finds the time to podcast and blog weekly, he told me these very words:

Keystrokes are precious. Don’t waste them.

What I took away from this is, don’t dedicate all of your keystrokes (your physical fingers typing away at a computer keyboard) to emails.

Think you don’t have time to keep up a blog? Instead of writing out those three paragraphs in your email, switch over to your Word document and spend those three paragraphs crafting your next post.

If you repeat this pattern enough, you’ll have taken a task that seems repetitive and trivial (sending emails, texting) and transformed it into something productive like blogging. There really are simple ways to make the most of breaks throughout the day for personal hobbies.

I find Scott’s appetite for learning new technologies and chatting with knowledgeable strangers through his podcasts pretty fascinating. I’m sure his 169k Twitter followers agree.

5. “All that matters is what you can prove today.”

Chris Capossela (chriscap) — Chief Marketing Officer

Wait, Microsoft CMO Chris Capossela? OMGOMGOMG…That’s exactly what went through my mind when he accepted my Outlook meeting invitation. It was too good to be true.

When we finally met in person, I had lots of questions ready to ask him, but the most pressing one was the inevitable one:

“Why did you meet with me?”

I restrained myself from losing my cool too early in the conversation.

I first heard Chris speak at an Intern Spotlight series to a crowd of 250+ interns. A compelling and humorous presenter, Chris shared the history of his career and his key takeaways from 20+ years working in 8 roles at Microsoft, including being Speech Assistant to Bill Gates.

What surprised me the most was this: Chris comes from a Computer Science background, but now works in marketing. How does someone make that kind of career transition?

Colleen Estrada — Sr. Director of Experience Design for Microsoft FUSE Labs — has a similar experience. An English major turned designer, she shares how she obtained the right skills for her job in an unexpected way:

“Design involves being able to successfully communicate the future story of a user. Literature — the art of storytelling — utilizes this same skill.”

Both Colleen and Chris’ stories point to the fact that it doesn’t matter what degree you hold or how you obtain your education — you never really know what career you’ll have in 5 to 10 years.

As a current Computer Science major who is minoring in Entertainment Industry at USC, I find myself exploring nontraditional roles at the intersection of technology, culture, and design.

But sometimes I wonder whether my degree is the best fit for my future career goals. A sentiment I share with many peers, I’m reassured to hear about how Colleen and Chris have embraced their respective career path changes and continue to excel in their roles.

It was intimidating contacting Chris at first. I mean he’s a C-level executive and I was just an intern. But then you have to wonder,

“What’s the worst thing that could happen?”

I was only going to be at the company for another 6 weeks, and the craziest thing he could say is ‘No’ or just not respond. I had nothing to lose.

Despite the seniority difference, I sent him an email introduction and put time on his calendar by scheduling a meeting invitation.

Fast forward 6 weeks and I was sitting in Café 34 on Microsoft’s main Redmond campus with Chris, sipping cups of ice water and casually laughing at funny anecdotes. Even in that moment I couldn’t believe it. I had a myriad of questions ready to fire for when the conversation slowed down.

Here are some highlights of our conversation and what I learned:

How does one measure success in terms of marketing and brand management?

It’s really hard to determine cause-and-and effect relationships between marketing initiatives and user satisfaction. There often is no single metric for success. In addition, marketing efforts can often impact more than just the targeted audience, especially when your product is on a shelf.

Who owns a company’s brand? Who makes the final decisions?

Brand teams drive brand redesign initiatives and CMO’s like Chris get to make the final call. When it comes to big brand changes — like when Microsoft completely changed its logo in 2012 for the first time in 25 years — you probably have to run this by the CEO as well.

What’s even more important than just advertising and marketing is being able to positively shape a user’s personal experience with a company and their product(s). For Microsoft, having strategic partners like the NFL, Real Madrid, and the Special Olympics helps connect customers with real applications of Microsoft technology that are making an impact.

If users don’t have a good impression of a company from their daily interaction with their product(s), what marketing initiative is going to influence them otherwise?

Is it possible to innovate too quickly? To bring new technology to society before it’s ready?

This is a question I ask a lot of people because I find it so interesting.

To Chris, it’s all about the timing. Would the iPhone have been as successful if it were released 5 years prior? Facebook had a targeted audience at first (Harvard students) but it has grown immensely since, and that in itself is not easy. Great technologies can often get lost with bad timing.

It’s also not convenient that user trends and preferences change all the time. Lots of superhero remakes are unsuccessful because of bad timing. Does that mean they were bad movies? Not necessarily. Sometimes they just don’t have the right audience interested at the right time.

How does one motivate corporate cultural change, especially in a big company like Microsoft?

Chris thinks it’s important for culture change to happen top-down, not through grassroots efforts. You need executives to “live the future culture” so people can see example. Despite whatever resistance you may face introducing new culture changes, it’s good to keep highlighting shining examples of good culture practices until people snap into it or move on.

When I asked Chris whether it was worth it to get a Master’s degree in this day and age, he came up with this great response:

“People will think of you no differently for having a Master’s degree. At the same time, people will judge you no differently for not having one.”

Tech is a crazy industry. It’s really a meritocracy. Anyone can achieve great things as long as their passion and current skills set can prove their worth. It doesn’t matter what you did 1 month ago. As Chris emphasized, “Show us what you can do now.”

From starting out as a Marketing Manager on the Windows Seminar Team, to living in Paris working as Director of Business Operations for Microsoft EMEA (Europe, the Middle East, and Africa), to serving as CMO, Chris has interacted with hundreds of thousands of customers. Over the years, he has developed an incredible ability to communicate product vision and purpose to people of all technical backgrounds.

I still can’t believe I had this stellar conversation with Chris, sitting in Café 34, sipping on ice water. There was no script to follow, no goal in mind, just to have a stimulating conversation with a fellow coworker, of sorts.

6. “Don’t assume that everyone is as passionate as you.”

Cesar Agustin Garcia Vazquez — Software Developer, Office Engineering

This sounds like an arrogant piece of advice. After all, it’s one thing to motivate yourself to be more passionate by labeling yourself as such, but to compare other people’s levels of passions to your own becomes competitive.

Taken out of context, this doesn’t make sense. But when you talk about passion and expectations in a team setting, this can be very relevant.

This summer, I looked to Cesar for advice whenever I felt frustrated or out of place asserting authority in our team setting. As our tech mentor, he oversaw our project progress and advised us on software design solutions.

By mid-summer, my fellow Explore interns and I had gravitated to team roles we found interest in. With the other two pursuing developer roles, I became the PM for our trio, but not without some hesitation and uneasiness.

Before this summer, I didn’t know what a PM even was — but after weeks of meeting with PMs around the company, I developed a better idea of what it takes to become the “CEO of a product” or the “vision-setter” for a team.

The weird thing about being a PM is this: Even though you’re determining what version 2.0 looks like while your team develops version 1.0, you don’t necessarily have the authority to manage individual team members, and this can make product development frustrating.

“The job of a PM: to bring data to customers and rally the team around a common vision of the future.”

As an intern tasked to PM a team of interns, I felt out of place.

Though I found joy in interacting with users to curate new product features for our project, I didn’t feel comfortable “leading” or “managing” my team.

I felt like I was being asked to tell people of my same rank what to do. To avoid micromanaging or appearing bossy, I didn’t assert enough confidence in my project vision. This caused AcroBOT to suffer.

When our project fell short on user adoption or telemetry tracking, I internally blamed my team members for not following through on their respective responsibilities.

But when I talked with Cesar about our teamwork conflicts, I quickly realized that I had projected my personal expectations onto the team instead of understanding what my teammates’ strengths and weaknesses were.

The danger of false expectations:

• I was expecting my peers to exemplify PM traits when they in fact were invested in and thriving at software development.
• I was expecting my peers to go above and beyond for the best of the project when they wanted to focus on their assigned tasks.
• I was expecting my peers to be more passionate in evangelizing our technology, but they weren’t comfortable doing so and I disregarded their current responsibilities.

Despite this confusion, I don’t blame my team and I’m not disappointed in us either. We made an awesome product in just 12 weeks that will live past our internship, and I’m thankful we were able to learn so much in such short time.

What I learned from this is that you should reevaluate your expectations of others so that you are most effectively bringing out the best in people. Job role and rank set aside, we as a team could have done a better job at being transparent and playing to each others’ strengths. It’s alright to have high expectations of others, but don’t overcompensate for the passion of others, don’t expect people to be able to read your mind or mirror you blindly, and don’t assume you can’t lead others because you share the same title.

7. “The most powerful people in a company are executives, and interns.”

Ryan Phillips — Program Manager, Office Engineering

This is one of the first things I learned this summer and one of the strongest (and coolest) I experienced to be true.

A lot of people have an incorrect perception that interns either aren’t important for a company, can’t make a difference through their work, or can’t be taken as seriously as full-time employees. Well guess again.

Having been an intern for two summers (Autodesk, and now Microsoft), I’ve been lucky to be able to work on projects that have direct impact on customers, both internal and external. I’ve learned that the scale of a intern’s impact should not color how we perceive their effectiveness, especially when they are only hired for 10–12 week periods of time.

So what makes executives and interns most powerful in a company?

For one, people are less likely to ignore your emails or your efforts to reach out when you hold these positions. Silly right?

But that’s pretty powerful, actually. Were this not true, I probably wouldn’t have been able to meet these Microsoft All-Stars and reflect on their advice.

Just as executives hold the power of rank, influence, and extensive career experiences, interns are also powerful — they project an image of refreshing innovation, curiosity, and modern-thinking. They are technically the future workforce of a company. In addition, who doesn’t love talking about themselves for hours on end, especially to eager intern ears?

Now I’m not saying that full-time employees can’t make a difference through their work. That’d be like saying chefs can’t create delicious meals (well I guess not all can but…besides the point).

What I want to communicate is that interns hold unique positions in a company. As sous-chefs of sorts, they can also put together delicious meals. Are those meals as intricate or elaborate as a chef’s? Maybe not. But don’t assume sous-chefs can’t please a customer and make a mean apple pie (okay, stretched the analogy too far).

Another gem from Ryan, this final statement wraps up my team’s 12-week adventure quite nicely:

“Invite the chaos.” (what? that’s it?)

The word chaos has many definitions. Main synonyms include disarray, jumble, turmoil, tumult — as opposed to its antonyms order, peace, calm…

When my PM mentor Ryan advises us to “invite the chaos,” he isn’t telling us to intentionally wreak havoc upon our environment. He’s advising us to challenge the status quo and to embrace the backlash and praise we receive in response to creating change.

This summer I invited the chaos by challenging the notion that interns are insignificant and don’t have the capacity to reach out to inspiring people.

This summer we invited the chaos by changing our project after 1/3 of our internship was over and refining our scope to corporate acronym education.

This summer Office Engineering invited the chaos by fostering the notion that interns can actually inspire change in the workplace.

This summer Microsoft invited the chaos by disrupting the current onboarding experience through initial integration of AcroBOT.

Facing both backlash and praise, my team wasn’t afraid to take risks and we worked hard to integrate widely-held user feedback into our final product.

By embracing both my skills and flaws and recognizing my worth as an individual, I additionally challenged myself by not letting a job title define or limit me as a person nor suppress my confidence.

But I guess it also felt nice to be OXO Sr. Management for a week or two. Even if it was just a typo.

the conclusion

I’ve had a week back home to reflect upon these last three months.

Though I’ll forever remember the amazing feeling of being able to create an end-to-end user experience that all Microsoft employees can benefit from (as an intern!), I think I’ll take these nuggets of golden knowledge with me wherever I go through life, my career, and my next adventures as I feed my new insatiable curiosity to learn from the world’s best.

As I start my third year of college and transition to interning at a music industry fintech startup in Hollywood called Stem, I am absolutely going to carry this same mindset that Ryan initially sparked in me:

“Everyone you will ever meet knows something that you don’t. … Respect their knowledge and learn from them. It will bring out the best in all of you.” — Bill Nye