Modern Workplace as a Service

The vision story of Microsoft Managed Desktop service.

OVERVIEW

Modern Workplace as a Service is the code name of Microsoft Managed Desktop. At Microsoft, we use stories as a customer-centered approach to help align our priorities and vision for what we hope to accomplish. The Modern Workplace as a Service story created a long-term vision for Microsoft Managed Desktop service, which guided its product semester plans.

TIMELINE

2017 July - Story Design Kick-off

Story Design: Modern Workplace as a Service

2017 Sep. - Story Review (EVP Review)

The story was reviewed by Terry Myerson, the EVP of Microsoft.

2017 Oct - 2018 H1

Product Development

2018 H1 - 1st Semester

Microsoft Managed Desktop, V1 Release, 3000 devices targeted

2018 H2 - 2nd Semester

Microsoft Managed Desktop, V2 Release, 3rd party partners entered

MY ROLE & THE V-TEAM

During the story design phase, I was the lead of the UX v-team. My main responsibilities were to plan and manage the entire design and research project by collaborating with the people from different teams across Microsoft, and to design the IT management experience which lives in the Azure portal. After the story review, I became the solo lead designer supporting the product team to ensure the success of their initial releases.

UX Lead

Hui Liu

Research

Alpa Dave

Brian Oakley

Matt Brodsky

Video

Samuel Webber

Matt Peltier

Kurt Rauffer

Alex Fromm

Carin Panganiban

Clarke Freeman

Store

Darlene Wong

Daniel Krenn

Patrick Little

R. Scott Randall

Supisa Nishimura

IT Support

Vaibhav Jain

Sarah O'Connor

OOBE

Clarke Freeman

Gary Liao

Gary Lund

John Aronson

Azure AD

Joel Williams

Jodene Eikenberry

James Hwang

Sedora DeBondt

Storyboard

Kyle Wendt

Fluent Design

Chang-Ling Wu

Jason Reynolds

Supisa Nishimura

Store for Business

Jess Bombacie

Sherry Ruden

Security Center

Carin Panganiban

Cloud book

Eddy Jung

Yash Misra

Intune

Tyron Shallenberger

Contents

Dani Halfin

Onboarding

Courtney Comfort

Darlene Wong

Jess Bombacie

BUSINESS MODEL

We will improve IT processes for businesses by providing

BUSINESS OPPORTUNITY

TARGET USERS

UX PROCESS

UX PROCESS: 1. STORYBOARD

In the beginning of the story design process, we created a storyboard to showcase how we think the end to end scenarios look like.

UX PROCESS: 2. TACTICAL RESEARCH

We conducted a round of fast studies to learn how IT Pro Decision Makers perceive the Modern Workplace as a Service concept by showing them our storyboard design.

STUDY FOCUS

Do the mWaaS storyboards communicate values that resonate with IT Pros?

What aspects of the mWaaS storyboards are IT Pros most or least excited about?

What do IT Pros view as barriers to this type of concept?


WHO

6 participants that are experienced IT Pros in companies with 500 or more employees have been recruited for this study.  The participants are a mix of decision makers and those that have experience managing client endpoints in their organization. 


HOW

6 IT Pro decision makers will take part in 1-hour remote sessions via Skype.  During the sessions, they will be shown early mWaaS storyboards and asked to provide feedback on the concept and scenarios depicted in the storyboards.  

UX PROCESS: 3. STORY DESIGN

Based on the validated storyboard (the end to end scenarios), we created high fidelity mockups for each scenario.

UX PROCESS: 4. STORY REVIEW

The story was reviewed by Terry Myerson, the EVP of Microsoft.

VISION VIDEO

UX PROCESS: 5. DESIGN FOR V1 RELEASE

After the story review, we started working on the V1 release.

UX PROCESS: 6. TACTICAL RESEARCH

In the design iteration process, we conducted fast studies to test the design, primarily focus on learning what the usability issues are with the enterprise onboarding experience?

STUDY FOCUS

What are the expectations of the mWaaS service?

What are the general impressions and common misconceptions of the mWaaS enterprise onboarding process?

What are the specific usability issues with the mWaaS enterprise onboarding process (v1)?


WHO

IT 7 professionals from companies already piloting the mWaaS product or familiar with the mWaaS offering.


HOW

In this study, we utilized remote usability studies to evaluate mocks ups exploring how an IT department will get onboarded to mWaaS and interview the participants regarding their general impressions of the mWaaS service. The 7 remote usability studies were conducted between Monday August 12 and Friday August 17th, 2017 in the UXC usability labs in Studio D in Redmond, WA.

PRODUCT RELEASES

 2018 H1 - 1st Semester

Microsoft Managed Desktop, V1 Release, 3000 devices targeted

2018 H2 - 2nd Semester

Microsoft Managed Desktop, V2 Release, 3rd party partners entered