Strategic Alignment Under Pressure
While leading a team of designers and front-end engineers at Teradata, I learned that our partnership with Microsoft—centered on building the first application for their new Fabric platform—was at risk of falling apart.
Over a single weekend, I brought together key stakeholders across both organizations: the CTO and fellows at Teradata, principal architects, and Microsoft’s Fabric leadership, including their CTO. My goal was to align everyone around a shared vision fast enough to keep the opportunity alive.
I created a set of rapid “dirty mocks” that approximated Microsoft’s Fluent 2 design system, using them as conversation starters to bridge feasibility concerns across both companies. These early visuals became the anchor for high-stakes cross-functional dialogue.
Within a week, we landed on an approved workflow that balanced near-term viability with long-term ambition. It included a realistic launch-ready use case alongside forward-looking features to guide our shared roadmap beyond the MVP.
That alignment paid off: Microsoft’s CEO announced Teradata’s AI Unlimited as the first partner app at the 2024 Ignite Conference. This success directly catalyzed our next major milestone—a strategic partnership with NVIDIA, embedding AI Unlimited into their Foundry ecosystem.
High-speed collaboration, grounded vision, and trust between design, engineering, and executive leadership made it possible.
