Dear VMware, Thank You!
After having spent 7 years, 8 months, and 16 days, the time has come for me to bid adieu to VMware and to all the wonderful people I have had the pleasure of working with. As I sit here and write this, I cannot help but go back to a few key moments during this journey that have shaped me to become the person I am at work and outside.
The Interview
On a cold January morning, I found myself interviewing for a company, AirWatch, that had just been acquired by VMware. The interview itself was conducted in a tiny room with huge glass windows and a whiteboard. While I waited for my interviewer to show up, I peered through the glass windows of the interview room overlooking the trade floor. For anyone wondering why it was called the trade floor, it used to be a commodities trading company’s trade floor. As you can see in the image, we still had the ticker LEDs across the floor.
I sat there in the room seeing people in the trade floor walking over to each other, discussing things and working together. I had not seen an atmosphere as collaborative as this before, and I was struck by how approachable all the people I spoke with were. I knew that I was in the right place, and that I would get ample opportunities to learn and grow as a designer in this company.
The Initial Phase
When you are right out of school and have joined a new organization, you want to take it all in as quickly as possible. This was especially true in my case as I had little to no idea what Device Management was. But I took it in my stride, making sure I put in the extra time to understand key concepts in this space. Quickly VMware and leadership rewarded me with my first big break: Lead the redesign efforts of the Mobile Device Management client on iOS and Android, AirWatch Agent.
This has always been true throughout my career here at VMware—your hard work is always rewarded. While working on Agent, I got to rub shoulders with seasoned designers who were always there when I had questions or concerns. They shaped my career early on and helped me understand that working in a big enterprise is so much different from leading a design project at school. At VMware, you are working on bleeding edge products, and are often needed to take crisp decisions in demanding and constrained environments. I faltered a few times but was quickly helped by senior designers on the team.
Boxer Acquisition
By late 2015, I was leading design on a product called AirWatch Inbox. It was a secure email, calendar, and contacts app for the enterprise. Right at this time, VMware acquired a company called Boxer that did the same thing. At first, I was fearful about what this meant for Inbox. But as soon as I met the Boxer team, all my fears were alleviated. We went on to combine the strengths of the two products, and developed a product that became the industry leader in its category. During my time working on Boxer, I also formed a strong relationship with their two-member design team. One of them went on to become my manager and still is. It is this kind of a relationship that we have built and fostered over time that I am going to miss the most.
Early Management
While I always wanted to be a manager, I had little idea of what it entailed. I knew I was a good designer, but people management was a whole another ball game. In the beginning, I was overly protective of my team and ended up creating friction with my peers and other cross-functional leaders at VMware. Luckily, I had leaders in the organization who reached out, gave me feedback, and helped me to be a better partner to my peers and not just a leader to my team.
To any aspiring managers out there, this is one of the most crucial aspects of management that often goes unsaid. Focus on building great partnerships with your peers and cross-functional leaders. You need them to drive the product in a certain direction. Also, do not fret about asking for help, even from executive level leadership. Their best interest lies in seeing you succeed.
Workspace ONE team
VMware’s pivot towards working on an employee experience platform in Workspace ONE gave me the opportunity to carve out the vision, and work with my peers towards creating the platform we see today in Workspace ONE Hub. It has been a crazy ride starting from a workshop we orchestrated back in the day between design, product, and development leaders to seeing those whiteboard sketches transformed into a platform that solves key problems for our customers across verticals. I am lucky to have been a part of this project that helped me grow as a design strategist and become a better enabler of my team.
Cut to Present
I am very lucky that I joined AirWatch and VMware when I did. I have had the opportunity to create, nurture, and foster a strong team of design professionals here at VMware. Our team in 2016 was a team of three, and I was still a designer with 18 months of experience who had worked on a couple of products. Today my team is spread across three continents with thirteen full-time employees. This has only been possible due to: first, the Rockstar talent we have been able to hire, second: the leadership group that has shown faith in me and my abilities, and third: my peers who have constantly guided and helped me.
To sum it up, VMware took an extremely unpolished designer and transformed him inside out over the last eight years. I got the opportunity to lead design-driven pivots in projects as well as manage a team of amazing designers. Keeping aside all the projects we worked on, the single biggest feat we achieved was to transform the way design is viewed and interacted with in our business unit. We were able to build a cross-continental and multi-cultural team without compromising on quality and efficiency.
I would like to thank each person who has interacted with me, coached me, and challenged me throughout my career here at VMware. This experience has molded me into a committed professional and an even better person.
It is now time for me to graduate out of VMware, a truly magnificent place to work. I will cherish all the memories and friends I have found here.
