VMware

Categories: data science, information visualization, interaction design, product strategy, user experience research

Date: September 2015 – February 2018

Skills: product strategy, prototyping, iterative design sprints, scouting ahead, interaction design, visual design, contextual user research, information visualizations, simplifying the complex.

Background

I was a user experience research intern at VMware during my Masters degree in the summer of 2012. I had really enjoyed my time there and relished in how much I had learned about the technical methodologies of user research and how to communicate the value of research to product stakeholders. I had great mentors that literally showed me how to earn researchers as seat at the proverbial product table. However, I felt that, as a researcher, I wanted to have deeper involvement in how my research findings would be interpreted in the final design. Ultimately, I chose to go to a smaller design team at Goldman Sachs and I had the chance to wear both the researcher and designer interchangeably. 

Highlights

In the spring of 2015, I was offered a job I couldn’t refuse from my former manager at VMware: to lead the prototyping wing of the user experience research team. Her idea was to leverage a group of researchers to walk a product team through iterative, highly exploratory round(s) of design work with the express purpose of testing out a design direction before committing to a full product lifecycle development process. She needed someone who had solid research fundamentals, proven design experience, and the ability to execute: She said I was her woman.

Probably the best part about taking this job is that it feels like I can’t fail – literally. I win no matter whether our designs are a success or a failure. If our product ideas resonate with customers and they are pleased with our product direction, we win! If our product ideas fall flat and we find out we’ve misunderstood some critical part of their work flow, we win because we’ve learned a better way to serve our customers!

The next greatest part about this work is that through these design sprints, I’ve had the opportunity to see first hand and participate in crafting the product strategy for some of our core products. In their own ways, each of the products I was involved in supporting was making some guess, taking some position on the future of virtualization software and of VMware. My role was to help mitigate the risk of the proposition they were taking – help scout and forge a path for a product team to take. I feel honored and privileged to help support, inspire, and craft the visions of so many of the brilliant engineers I work with at VMware. 

And lastly, not only have I participated in helping various product teams articulate their visions for VMware’s future, but I’ve also had a hand in expressing one of my own. VMware hosts bi-annual hackathons and an annual R&D offsite conference to help encourage all of the staff to be thinking of the next greatest idea. I’ve used each one of these events as another opportunity to iterate and refine an idea or experience I’m hoping to created. As of 2017, i’ve attended two of the annual offsites with four of my ideas – several of which were developed at the hackathons – being showcased to an internal audience of 1,500 engineers. My prototypes and product visions have also been showcased at two VMworlds, our customer facing annual conference. 

I’m incredibly grateful for the work I was able to do at VMware because I was energized by my amazing colleagues, motivated to support my product teams to succeed, and inspired to think creatively about the future of how technology is delivered to end-users by our large enterprise customers.