In my role as a PM for Windows feedback, we still found regular ways to flex my design and content skills, including internal logos, templates, pitches, and projects like Feedback Wrapped. For this project, we took the opportunity of a slow holiday flighting season to mimic Spotify Wrapped’s trending design…

The Windows Insider website was ready for a revamp, so I spearheaded building out initial strategy and designs to refocus the site on the core of the program, streamline content, processes, and tools, and refresh the look with improved UI/UX and Microsoft’s new, more accessible version of their web framework,…

Community was always a huge part of the Windows Insider Program, with social media often being a key surface for that. Not only did we put ourselves out there, putting our names and faces to the program across events and content, but as I took over our social media presence,…

Originally the role I was hired on for the Windows Insider Program was specifically meant to focus on writing, which means that even as my role evolved into more of a content strategist and creator of all things content, writing was always a key part of my job. I wrote…

Events quickly became a major part of my role with the Windows Insider Program. From designing all of our PowerPoint presentations, to videos that would run at our booth or show users demos, to fliers, stickers, and on the fly changes on the floor, my design and content skills never…

Windows Insider article published on Mar 29, 2021 Pelagia Majoni is no stranger to hard work. After all, she’s the daughter of the one female mechanical engineer in Zimbabwe—innovating solutions is practically in her blood. Growing up in Harare, Zimbabwe, Pelagia often found herself drafting solutions to the electricity and…

Windows Insider article published on Mar 1, 2021 When Josh Ndemenge enrolled in Dedan Kimathi University of Technology in Kenya to pursue electrical and electronics engineering (EEE) five years ago, he wasn’t necessarily interested in the wonders of technology outside of his major. But after seeing his peers building apps and discussing concepts, he…

Windows Insider article published on Dec 5, 2019 Juleen Kristina Gentles, one of the Windows Insider Program’s 2019 Grace Hopper Awardees, has big plans for the future of Jamaica and the Caribbean region. She dreams of helping the area develop a startup culture, improve agriculture through technology, and empower girls…

Windows Insider article published on Dec 4, 2020 This year’s Grace Hopper Celebration (GHC) went virtual, and some of our past Grace Hopper Award winners attended and took us through how this year’s event is helping them look to the future of their own careers and the technology industry.Play Video…

Windows Insider article published on Nov 20, 2020 For Elizabeth Lin, one of our 2018 Grace Hopper Award winners and a computer science student at the University of Washington, her passion for learning has evolved into a passion for teaching. Her STEM League Developer Program taught coding to over 300 children around…

Windows Insider article published on Oct 9, 2020 Michael Gillett, a Windows Insider MVP from London, has always loved art and began fusing that with his passion for technology at a young age. As a teen, he moved on from drawing and painting to improving the design of website templates…

Windows Insider article published on Jun 29, 2020 Nana Aba Aprewa Turkson is a young woman of seemingly endless talents, and she’s using them to change the world. She’s a Windows Insider, winner of our 2019 Grace Hopper Award, and a student at Mount Holyoke College. She’s a computer scientist and coder, exploring…

Windows Insider article published on Jun 24, 2020 Gomolemo (Gomo) Mohapi has built a life out of helping others. “My personal mission statement is to teach as many people as I can how to code. As long as you can read a bit of code, you have the edge over…

Windows Insider article published on Jun 11, 2020 Vuyo Mhlotshane leaned over a chess board across from her four-year-old son and asked him a question, “How many points is a queen?” “Five,” he answered, without missing a beat. What might otherwise seem like an ordinary exchange between mother and son…

Windows Insider article published on May 12, 2020 Caleb Ndaka had never used a computer before he went to university in Nairobi, Kenya’s capital city, in his 20s. Growing up in a Kenyan village, computers had only shown up in movies or the stories neighbors told after a visit to a…

Windows Insider article published on Mar 17, 2020 While Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal, attracts students from the country’s 77 districts, it still lacks technology training materials in their native language of Nepali. Sambhav Bhurtel, is a Microsoft Student Partner who has experienced this problem first-hand and is making a difference…

Windows Insider article published on Jan 24, 2020 Muazma Zahid, a senior data engineer for Microsoft’s Azure Global team, struggled to find a mentor who could help her grow when she graduated in 2006. “From a country like Pakistan, there’s not many role models, especially when I was graduating. Computer…

Windows Insider article published on Oct 24, 2019 We held our second annual Grace Hopper Awards for Windows Insiders to join us at the Grace Hopper Conference in Orlando, Florida for a week of keynotes, sessions, and networking designed to help further women’s careers in tech. We’re excited to introduce…

Windows Insider article published on Aug 19, 2019 “This is a once in a lifetime opportunity,” says Windows Insider Stefan Malter as he attends the Microsoft global Hackathon—the largest private hackathon on the planet. A hackathon is a mishmash of two terms: hacking, or coming up with innovative new ways…

Windows Insider article published on Apr 4, 2019 Cassandra Oduola recently landed a job offer from Microsoft’s Machine Learning group, another exciting step in her journey as an engineer. At the top of her field and with both a PhD in Computer Science and a BS in Physics under her…

Windows Insider article published on Feb 28, 2019 Dan Flores made his first mark on Atlanta around 1995, when a friend suggested he show his art portfolio to a tattoo shop owner and see about getting a job. After serving in the U.S. Marines for four years, Dan had been dishwashing…

My friend started a new scalp micropigmentation business called Restoration Hairline Seattle in early 2019. I built her website to help her get her new business off the ground. Unfortunately, her business was impacted by COVID, so the website is no longer live, but this was a favorite project for…

Windows Insider article published on Jan 24, 2019 Mónica Ceisel, a Windows Insider who will graduate from the University of Wisconsin-Madison as a computer science major and art minor soon, loves finding a way to bring art and technology together. “We recently built a 3D, virtual reality game,” she said. “I…

Windows Insider article published on Aug 10, 2018 Hamilton Cline has spent years drawing his fellow Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) passengers on his morning commute. Hamilton, a computer programming teacher at the Academy of Art in San Francisco, has been drawing from a very young age. He started off…

To get my job as a writer for the Windows Insider Program at Microsoft, I did a writing test with an interview they’d already conducted with an Insider about one doctor’s mission to improve the pregnancy care of women in Nigeria. I built a simple webpage in WordPress so I…

One of the biggest reasons I took the job at Health Alliance was the opportunity to run their social media. While they had a Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and LinkedIn before I got there, none of them were really being maintained. At most, Facebook and Twitter were getting a post a week. Customer…

When I arrived at Health Alliance, their blog was outdated and neglected. I updated it with a more modern theme and design, organized the content into clear pages, categories, and tags, and went through to rewrite every single post to make the content informative and bring it up to our web…

When I arrived at Health Alliance, I developed our web content style, based on Yahoo! style, as a basis to build our brand’s voice. From there, I rebuilt our content across every single page of our websites with clear, straight-forward, and friendly language to make insurance and its confusing terms easier.…

Medicare Website Just as I did with the main website, I rebuilt our brand’s voice on top of our new web style across every single page of this site. I wanted clear, friendly, and easy to scan content for our older members. Organization, consistency, and strong calls to action were…

Health Alliance used to send partner communications (to providers, brokers, and employer groups who have our insurance) in many different ways. For example, providers had resource pages on our main website, Medicare website, Medicaid website, and they can create accounts on our login site, YourHealthAlliance.org, as a provider or office manager.…

Health Alliance started using Exact Target and then MailChimp to bring emails up to speed over my time there. I designed our emails’ initial aesthetic style and helped establish our responsive code base, and then I went on to customize the design and the code, as well as writing the…