What has been your business/work highlight of 2024 so far?

Seeing the incredible AI powered capabilities we have been working on for Microsoft Teams, such as of course Copilot but also personalised voice isolation, speaker recognition in Microsoft Teams Rooms, and IntelliFrame for Teams Rooms, shipping and being rapidly adopted by our customers.

Who is your business hero and why?

I will name two heroes; one is Zig Serafin, my former boss and now CEO of Qualtrics, as he has incredible dedication, work ethic, and customer focus, and the other is my current boss, Lan Ye, the CVP for Microsoft Teams Calling, Meetings and Devices, as she is just brilliant and an incredible mentor for me.

What’s the biggest business mistake you’ve made and what did you learn from it?

I have in the past made job / role changes motivated primarily by a desire for career advancement, and my learning from those has been that really the most important thing for me is who I work for, and how aligned I am with that person’s values, priorities, and leadership style.

What’s the most inspirational book you’ve ever read and why?

The Better Angels of Our Nature, but Steven Pinker, which I found from one of Bill Gates’ book lists. I found it inspiring to see a data-based analysis of how our world continues to improve overall, with violence declining (dramatically) and prosperity increasing (overall).

What’s the biggest challenge you face in your role in 2024?

Providing a set of tools our customers can count on for absolutely mission critical needs. Microsoft Teams Rooms are now business critical to many of our customers, and Teams Phone is relied upon for in some cases life critical scenarios. We need to both platforms to have the highest possible reliability, including meeting our recently announce 99.999% uptime SLA for Teams Phone, while continuing to also innovate at a rapid pace.

What technology will have the greatest impact on your business this year and why?

Likely the same as many others, AI, in all of its forms, is having incredible impact; across audio and video AI for devices, and generative AI with Copilot in Microsoft Teams and across Microsoft 365.