{"id":8476,"date":"2023-09-18T08:48:41","date_gmt":"2023-09-18T15:48:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/insidetrack\/blog\/?p=8476"},"modified":"2023-09-18T09:41:43","modified_gmt":"2023-09-18T16:41:43","slug":"how-microsoft-digital-improves-its-own-employee-experience-and-yours-as-customer-zero","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/insidetrack\/blog\/how-microsoft-digital-improves-its-own-employee-experience-and-yours-as-customer-zero\/","title":{"rendered":"How Microsoft Digital improves its own Employee Experience\u2014and yours\u2014as Customer Zero"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"MicrosoftAnyone who has been around the technology industry for a while is familiar with the concept of \u201cdogfooding.\u201d \u201cEat your own dog food\u201d is a phrase that has been in use at Microsoft since the 1980s, and it is common vernacular in the industry to describe the process of a company using its own products and services before they\u2019re available in the market to power internal operations. The idea behind the metaphor may have been inspired by a 70’s era TV commercial\u2014\u201cThe dog food is so good, I serve it to my own dogs.\u201d In other words, when Microsoft uses it internally, we learn from that experience and use our insights to improve the product or service so it\u2019s good enough for your business too.<\/p>\n

As Microsoft has become more sophisticated in the way we build, test, deploy, and improve our products, equating the usage of our own solutions to eating dog food has become outdated. It doesn\u2019t speak to the sophistication with which we obsess over the employee experience to ensure that our products and services don\u2019t just meet the needs of our own employees, they exceed them. And by applying our internal learnings to improve our solutions, we ensure that we exceed the expectations of your employees also.<\/p>\n

This role has only become more critical with rapid advances in Artificial Intelligence (AI). Microsoft Digital Employee Experience is the very first team to deploy, use, and collect feedback on critical new capabilities like M365 Copilot. Through our role as Customer Zero, we’re helping to refine and improve these experiences before they ship in our commercial products to ensure we maximize the value and utility of Copilots for our customers.<\/p>\n

[We’re] establishing a shared vision, strategy and OKRs with multiple product engineering partners to accomplish our “north star.” We get to co-develop select capabilities that not only help Microsoft users but also get integrated into our products.<\/p>\n

\u2014Vijaya Alaparthi, principal group program manager, Microsoft Digital Employee Experience<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The new term to describe that employee obsession is \u201cCustomer Zero,\u201d and in Microsoft Digital Employee Experience, we take pride in being the first customer for a wide variety of Microsoft products and services, obsessing over our own employee experience to make every person on the planet more productive.<\/p>\n

Being Customer Zero at Microsoft<\/h2>\n

As the team that \u201cpowers, protects, and transforms the employee experience at Microsoft,\u201d we are responsible for driving Microsoft\u2019s own digital transformation in a hybrid world.<\/p>\n

I asked Vijaya Alaparthi, Principal Group Program Manager, what it means to be Customer Zero at Microsoft. \u201cIt means that I get to represent the user voice and needs at Microsoft as well as enterprise users at large to help shape our products and solutions.\u201d<\/p>\n

But how do you do that? Vijaya continued: \u201cPart of this is establishing a shared vision, strategy and OKRs (Objectives and Key Results) with multiple product engineering partners to accomplish our \u2019north star.\u2019 It also means that we get to co-develop select capabilities that not only help Microsoft users but also get integrated into our products.\u201d Being Customer Zero means a deep partnership between our IT organization and our product engineering to envision the right experiences, co-develop innovative solutions, and both listen to and act on insights we gather from our employees. We work together to stay grounded in the way our employees use our products every day, so your employees can benefit from our insights.<\/p>\n

There are four dimensions of our Customer Zero approach that shape our investments:<\/p>\n

\"Text
Being Microsoft\u2019s Customer Zero means continuously working to improve the experience the company\u2019s employees have at work.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Envision<\/h3>\n

The key to succeeding as Customer Zero at Microsoft is to envision the right experiences in the first place, then to use our insights and knowledge to influence the direction and development of those experiences. We do that in multiple ways:<\/p>\n