Microsoft ITM
Keeping great talent in-house
Microsoft lacked a centralized way for employees to explore internal roles, so people often left for growth opportunities elsewhere. I led UI/UX design for the Internal Talent Marketplace, a platform built to keep that talent in-house by making internal mobility effortless.
- Role
- Lead Product Designer
- Years
- 2022
- Scope
- UI/UX Design, Strategy
Challenge
Moving internally within Microsoft was slow and difficult, so when employees wanted to grow, leaving was often easier than staying. The challenge was to make internal mobility fast and easy enough that employees could find their next role inside the company instead of leaving to find it.
Impact
$0k+ Saved
Per Internal Move
0% Lower
Attrition Risk for Employees
$0 Million
Saved in Hiring Costs per 500 Placements
Collaboration
As the lead product designer, I worked closely with product managers, engineers, and researchers, mapping how employees discover and act on opportunities and aligning the experience with both user needs and technical realities, then carried the work through to a clean engineering handoff.
Understanding the Need
ITM had to work for three different groups. Employees wanted a real path to grow without leaving, managers wanted to close skill gaps on their teams, and Microsoft wanted to cut the cost of attrition. The design had to serve all three.
Group 1
Microsoft Employees
Better ways to find new, compelling opportunities
Clear, credible, actionable path to achieve career and growth goals
Assurance that MSFT is the best place to prepare for the future
Group 2
Microsoft Managers
Help employees learn and grow
Analytics to understand, react to team skills gaps
Efficient approach to growing/acquiring needed team skills
Group 3
Microsoft Corporation
Reduce high cost of attrition
Analytics to understand organization’s skills gaps
Support perception that MSFT is the best place to prepare for the future
Group 1
Microsoft Employees
Better ways to find new, compelling opportunities
Clear, credible, actionable path to achieve career and growth goals
Assurance that MSFT is the best place to prepare for the future
Group 2
Microsoft Managers
Help employees learn and grow
Analytics to understand, react to team skills gaps
Efficient approach to growing/acquiring needed team skills
Group 3
Microsoft Corporation
Reduce high cost of attrition
Analytics to understand organization’s skills gaps
Support perception that MSFT is the best place to prepare for the future
Research & Planning
Working with engineering and business partners, I mapped how employees move from discovering opportunities to understanding fit and taking action. That work exposed breakdowns in how information, guidance, and actions connected, shaping a flexible system, organized around opportunities, career planning, and progression, that stayed clear and navigable for both employees and managers.
Initial Wireframes
These wireframes served as the starting point for the project, establishing the core structure and user flows. As feature requirements evolved during the process, the design adapted to meet changing needs while maintaining the foundational experience.
Design Directions
I explored three design directions that would work as both a Teams app and a web experience, each with different levels of visual detail: mild, medium, and spicy. I put all three in front of stakeholders and colleagues and collected feedback on each.
Choosing a Direction
I gathered feedback on all three directions from stakeholders and users, then sorted it into the positives and negatives for each. Weighing the positives and negatives side by side made the choice clear.
Mild
Positive Feedback
Familiar layout, zero learning curve
Easiest build, fully standard components
Negative Feedback
Looks too much like a legacy tool
Layout doesn't scale/resize as well
Medium (chosen)
Positive Feedback
Right balance of personality and utility
Scales well without breaking hierarchy
Translates cleanly between Teams/Web
Negative Feedback
Slightly more build effort than mild
Spicy
Positive Feedback
Most modern and visually distinctive
Strongest first impression in demos
Negative Feedback
Accessibility concerns with text over gradients
Hardest to maintain across both platforms
Key Experiences
Key Experiences
Home
Connects employees to relevant opportunities and career paths the moment they arrive.
Profile
Lets employees showcase their skills and experience to surface the right opportunities.
Discovery
Makes it easy to explore open roles, projects, and relevant learning opportunities across the company.
Search
A focused search experience for finding opportunities quickly.
My Career
Tracks career progress and shows current role alongside desired roles.
Career Path
Spotlights potentially relevant growth trajectories within the company.
Colleague Feedback
Feedback from leaders and partners I worked with on the project, shared during performance reviews.
A great attitude through the ITM project. These projects are often amorphous with limited boundaries to work within. You handled yourself well through the churn to deliver excellent output and build trust with your peers.
Principal Design Manager
Microsoft
I love your bias toward action, and the fact that you couple it with good work is fantastic. You’ve done a great job at the beginning making sure you are clear on what we’re doing, why, for whom.
Studio Director, MSD
Microsoft
