Microsoft Loop.

How might we hold incompetent assholes at Microsoft accountable?

Problem

HMW get rid of a toxic manager? Microsoft is a good ol’ boys club where older males hire and promote younger males to maintain patriarchal control. In May 2022, Microsoft managers moved a young, harassing, sexist, inexperienced male manager onto the Loop team, putting him in charge of a woman 20 years his senior who had more experience, education and tenure than he did. He started taking credit for other’s work, bullying young female designers, making sexist comments toward the older female design lead, and abusing his power as only a young white male at Microsoft can.

Actions

I helped rid Microsoft of this toxic manager by:

• documenting all instances of this manager’s harassing, discriminating behavior;

• researching EEOC regulations and employment case law;

• building a coalition of allies and advocates;

• working with feature crews to identify existing design tokens or create new ones when necessary;

• working with PM and partner design teams (Fluent, Office product teams, and M365 Expressions) to ensure Microsoft brand and UX consistency across all product endpoints.

• developing longer-term brand strategy and roadmaps.

Results

He was fired three years later.

Supporting Design Documents
Brand Book
Illustration Strategy
Design Specs with tokens