Program Manager Internship
June - August 2013
Redmond, WA
Overview
I spent a twelve-week summer internship at Microsoft as a Program Manager Intern on the Apps for Creative Expression team, working on Movie Moments, a Windows 8.1 Modern App.
- Collaborated with designers and program managers to design and create functional specs for new styles (themes for users to customize and caption their videos)
- Worked with development and test teams to implement and test styles over the course of my internship, planning implementation in two-week sprints
- Collaborated across teams to design and prototype a new mobile application: Created mockups using PowerPoint Storyboard and solicited feedback across mobile teams, then used XAML/C# to implement a front-end prototype to demonstrate the user experience
Preparation
To prepare for this role, I read the following books and articles:
- The Design of Everyday Things by Don Norman
- The Mythical Man-Month by Frederick Brooks
- The Elements of Typographic Style by Robert Bringhurst
- PM at Microsoft by Steven Sinofsky
- Zen of PM
Projects
- Design, spec, and implement two new sets of styles for Movie Moments
- Design and prototype the front-end user experience for a new mobile application
What I Learned
- The role of the PM as product owner and bridge between designers, developers, and testers
- How to create a functional specification for a feature and communicate the spec with my team
- The considerations involved in making decisions within a large organization
- Importance of communication and proactiveness within and across teams
- Value of front-end prototyping in interaction design
- Basic XAML/C# for prototyping Windows Phone applications