Cortana Productivity Assistant

CORTANA

Delivering voice driven digital assistant experiences at Work and On-the-Go.

Microsoft AI, Cortana / 2017 - 2019

ROLES

// Led various productivity experiences for enterprise and on-the-go user context
// Domain lead in Calendar experiences
// Contributed in the integration of experiences to devices
// Contributed in product positioning and direction (2017)

Cortana, Digital Assistant for Life

Cortana is Microsoft’s intelligent digital assistant that helps you make more out of your work and your personal life. Just like a real-life assistant , Cortana helps you from personal tasks from home automation, playing your favorite music, to productivity tasks like making sure you don’t forget that commitment you made to your boss and setting up an important followup with your client.

Since its humble beginnings from the Windows phone in 2014, Cortana has been bringing delightful new experiences to over 150 million Windows 10 users monthly. From 2014 to 2017, Cortana expanded into various platforms and endpoints like Xbox, Edge, and apps in Android and iOS.

A 2017 audit of all Cortana touchpoints

The Recalibration

When I joined the newly formed Cortana Core Design team in 2017, the product was lacking consistency in branding, interaction model, and experience without a clear direction. Cortana needed to find it’s unique value to stay competitive.

During the first couple months, my team and I explored and delivered product strategies that eventually set the product focus and team direction.

“The challenge is, exactly what would we be able to do in that category (digital assistants) that is going to be unique?"

Satya Nadella, 2019

“The challenge is, exactly what would we be able to do in that category (digital assistants) that is going to be unique?"

Satya Nadella, 2019

Cortana at Work and On-the-Go

I am currently creating experiences that leverage Cortana’s unique position in the productivity and enterprise space, with access to various data sources like M365 substrate, Exchange, and Bing. Some of the core areas I have delivered on, or currently leading, includes calendar experiences, first party hardware integrations, "Play My Emails", on-the-go experiences, and more.

"Hey Cortana, set up a meeting with Alex tomorrow"

Imagine having real personal assistant to help you at work. What would be the first thing you would like to deligate? If you are like most busy professionals, you would probably ask them to manage your calendar and meetings.

I led the design of unique calendar productivity experiences - driving research, scenarios, concepts, design and implementation - for Cortana across multiple endpoints.

Cortana's advanced calendar creation experience in Windows 10 (and other endpoints)

"Hey Cortana, Join my next meeting"

Are you always running late to meetings and forgetting to consider travel times? (It’s ok, we all do) Worry no more- Cortana has integrated with Microsoft Teams, the biggest and fastest growing collaboration platform, to help you. You can simply say “Hey Cortana, join my next meeting” to join meetings on your PC and mobile apps.

"Join My Next Meeting" Experience in the Invoke speaker (and other endpoints)

(Left) Surface Headphones (Right) Harman Kardon Invoke

Cortana in devices

Cortana experiences are also integrated into expanding portfolios of first party and third party speakers and audio devices. Most notable are the Harman Kardon Invoke speaker (2017) - the first Cortana flagship device that the team worked on- and the recent Surface brand headphones and earbuds.