Designers at Microsoft operate in a multi-disciplinary environment. They are selected and trained for their ability to communicate and collaborate across disciplinary borders, and for their ability to understand the technology, business and user goals of their project and create designs that effectively meet those goals.
Microsoft integrates its design and product development teams totally, and design input takes place as part of the overall product development process. Each product team, such as Mail and Calendar, is comprised of representatives from programme management, test, development, design, user research, product planning, marketing, international project engineering, content publishing, and so on. These in turn draw on several key central resources, among which are the User Experience Excellence group, the Central User Experience Support Team, Microsoft Research and product design experts from across the company.
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multi-disciplinary working in the design process can lead to the development of new products and services
The User Experience Excellence group is central to the designers’ ability to work in this way. Headed by Surya Vanka, this is effectively a group of ‘culture change agents’ who are engineering standards to create Microsoft products that provide customers with a high-quality user experience. They are responsible for the harvesting and dissemination of best practices to the designers and researchers operating within product development teams.
According to Surya Vanka, Manager of User Experience in Microsoft's Engineering Excellence Group, teamwork, humility and a user focus are key personality traits of designers in Microsoft.
Designers' skills, training and career development are carefully monitored in alignment with the User Experience Excellence group’s targets and a comprehensive capability building programme is implemented for Microsoft's designers, managed by the group in partnership with Human Resources. Developed and customised for each individual, online training programmes and modern delivery mechanisms such as on demand video archives are supplemented by a range of general development activities. These can include visiting lectures from leading academics and design practitioners, as well as regular and actively promoted discussion groups and ongoing internal product or innovation forums.
Peer to peer coaching is used to help transfer key skills and best practices across the design function. Designers receive training on integrating effectively with other engineering disciplines, which is required to effectively deliver their input to the rest of the development team.
In more depth Find out how other companies in our study hire designers who demonstrate a
wider skill set including: multi-disciplinary working, business acumen and strategic thinking