Dec 2020 — PresentMicrosoft · Remote
UX Researcher 2 · Microsoft — CoreAI
- Owned end-to-end research for emerging AI product areas in Azure PaaS — including agentic workflows, multi-cloud developer tooling, and AI-assisted deployment — where user needs and product direction were not yet established, defining what to learn and driving the research agenda without a fixed roadmap.
- Designed and executed 15+ mixed-methods studies per year at varying fidelity: from foundational generative research with developers to rapid concept value tests and same-week evaluative studies that unblocked product decisions.
- Led a multi-study research initiative on AI platform selection and agentic orchestration, interviewing 20+ developers across industries. Findings directly influenced integration of Azure AI Agent Service with AutoGen and Semantic Kernel and shaped the product strategy for Durable Functions as a runtime for agentic workflows.
- Designed and tested a new developer deployment platform, identifying that developers trust AI for code generation but not production deployment. Recommendations on cost transparency, human-in-the-loop controls, and governance pre-checks were adopted into the product roadmap.
- Conducted competitive analysis of AI developer ecosystems, synthesizing how developers select platforms based on performance, cost, security, and integration — directly informing Azure’s competitive positioning.
- Partnered closely with product managers and engineers to translate research into concrete product requirements, presenting findings and actionable recommendations to senior leadership and cross-functional teams.
- Initiated and led recurring cross-team research programs (“Builders Show and Tell” series), bringing product teams directly into contact with diverse customer voices and fostering a culture of evidence-based decision-making.
- Built custom research tools and prototypes using GitHub Copilot and AI-assisted workflows to accelerate synthesis, prototype testing, and insight delivery.