I remember, only a few years back in around 2020 or so, when I was back in India doing my undergrad, exploring random places on Google Maps (I have a thing for looking at maps all the time - but that’s for another time!), I came across this city called Redmond.
I wasn’t even looking for it. I was looking for Seattle. And something just caught my eye. It was this place close to Seattle that had so many buildings saying “Microsoft Building …“ I had just discovered the Microsoft Headquarters.
I explored the area on the map for a long time and wished that maybe, one day, I could be working there. It looked so nice. Yeah, that’s how simple it was. Just the fact that it was nice. In fact, I had used Windows all my life and pretty much equated someone saying “Windows“ and someone saying “Computer.“ And I loved what I saw on Google Maps - this beautifully spread out campus-like area with all the Microsoft buildings, none of which were tall towers, but just white-colored squarish buildings and gardens between them.
Fast forward to September 2022. I had just started grad school. And out of all places - it was in Seattle! And while I knew well that Microsoft would be so close, I had almost forgotten how much I admired this company and the campus just a few miles from Seattle.
But it was time. A day after I started grad school, Microsoft sent me a summer internship offer. I didn’t cry or anything then. But I look back at that moment now, and I might just. One of the best things that ever happened in my little professional career so far.
I know this letter is supposed to be about my learnings or a reflection of what happened during this internship. But I had to write this story. It is one of the few things that means something to me.
This Means Something to Me
The fact that I got an offer in September and the internship only started in June was kind of weird. It was nice because I had less to worry about (finding an internship), but the closer this internship, the more I was reminded of what this internship meant for me and what Microsoft meant for me.
From the very first time I ever used a computer, I only knew Microsoft, and I only knew Windows. I started at XP and then to Vista, and 7, and through everything in between to now at 11. I had been annoyed by Clippy, and I had been distracted by Encarta (ah, I loved it!) I hated how cringe the PowerPoint animations were, but I still had to try them out once in a while. I saw Cortana come alive, and I saw it die. I played every game on a Microsoft computer, and I adapted to using Windows-only design tools when all design tools were made for MacBooks.
Microsoft has been so much for me, and for the first time, I was going to be at the HQ! Alongside the people who made Windows! And when they are doing all this absolutely amazing work with cloud technologies and generative AI. I was a bit nervous, but it turned out just the way I thought it would be.
I interned as a Technical Program Manager Intern within Microsoft’s Azure Core org in one of the Mission-Critical Platforms teams. Here are some of the things I learned there about the role, the company, and myself.
1. Lack of instant buzz: Delayed successes
Whether you are an engineer or designer (or in most other roles in any industry), you have a lot of clarity on what needs to be done to succeed. You either have to design interactions for a feature or write code to implement a specific functionality.
This is something that I missed in my role. As a Program Manager, the job is to decide what to do and bring clarity to engineers, designers, and other stakeholders. But no matter how much data you have on those decisions from before and no matter how well you can get people to agree that this is the right decision, as a PM, you will not be satisfied until the product or service is up and running for some time.
On my internship project, defining requirements and policies was not really a hard job — especially once there was data that clearly indicated the root cause. But is implementing those policies really the right solution? Well, I couldn’t say that unless those policies are actually implemented, and users have had a good experience with them over some time.
This was the big, ambiguous part of everything I did, and while I missed getting those satisfaction shots, I truly enjoyed being able to think about new ways to solve problems in a very unknown space.
2. The balance of art and science
PMs are generally experts at one thing, and they are mostly generalists at everything else, which helps them have the context of a number of things to make the right decisions that work for most (if not all) stakeholders, the business, the partners, and the customers.
But you can’t always be at a high level. PMing is both a science and an art to sometimes go deeper and understand the root cause but also be aware of the job to be done. When you see interesting things, it is natural to be falling down a rabbit hole trying to learn more and more. While there is nothing wrong with that, it’s important to think about how that fits with the goal — to provide a better experience to customers and more value to the business.
During my internship, I learned to understand this management of balance between diving deep and thinking about what is important to make better decisions. I leveraged the incredible engineers and data scientists to learn how things worked, documented everything, and evaluated them with the support of my mentor and manager to make the right decision.
3. Asking questions is a way to think
Ah, this one! This is one piece of advice I have received from people all over the place. And so many people at Microsoft, too. But I could never understand. What do I ask? I mean, I have questions, but only so many.
During my internship, I realized that asking questions really means showing your thinking. When you learn so much, you will have quite a few questions initially. And then, suddenly, you will have none.
But the key is to never listen to some concept and just accept it for what it is. You can’t passively accept something. Take that concept and try thinking about how it works in different contexts — like in the context of your project or in the context of your colleague’s project. Think about what would happen if that concept was false.
And as you think, speak out. Discuss this. For most things you think about and question, there is a chance someone else has thought about it, and there is an explanation to it — don’t underestimate the talented people around you. But the key is to develop this skill of thinking, questioning, and discussing, which will eventually lead to some very relevant new ideas.
That’s it! Those are the big learnings.
Now, there’s this one additional thing that I just want to mention. It’s not a big learning, but definitely something I embraced during my internship and realize every day. Being technical gives you an edge!
Being technical is never a requirement for someone to be a great PM. And I don’t think of myself as being super technical either. But you could do so well in a PM role if you can just show more interest in the technical side of things — especially if you are working at a tech company.
Going into the internship, I was a bit worried about the technical side of my role, and I remember the second day of my internship, I was told that my project depended on being technically proficient in certain aspects. While it was worrying, it helped me prepare to know that this is what is necessary.
As I accepted the data-heavy parts of the job, I really started enjoying how I realized it was not just technical, but as a PM, you are using these technical concepts to think about the impact it makes on different teams as well the customers who depend on your decisions for some of their most critical work.
Being in tech, you will always need to be interested in how the tech works. You don’t have to be an expert in it. But you have to genuinely care and ask for what you don’t know. This helped me learn from the talented teams at Microsoft and eventually be able to have great ideas.
That’s it. That’s what I have for you!
I learned so much at Microsoft, but these were probably some of the biggest ones. Hope you got some insight! If you are interested in learning more about my experience interning at Microsoft, reach out to me!
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