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Case Study · Microsoft SharePoint

Designing the conditions for global publishing at scale

Role
Product Designer
Timeline
October 2021 – Present
Scope
Sites, Pages & Authoring · Microsoft 365
Microsoft SharePoint interface
Key Outcomes
42%
Reduction in prototyping time
62%
Growth in page creation through AI-assisted authoring
99%
Layout fidelity across templates
46%
Reduction in formatting support tickets

Fragmented processes across six time zones

SharePoint's publishing experience touched teams across India, China, Ireland, Canada, and Seattle, six time zones, dozens of stakeholders, and no shared language for how design decisions got made.

Incomplete requirements arrived late. Design handoffs to engineering were inconsistent. Rework was the norm and timelines slipped as a result. The challenge wasn't the product, it was the conditions under which the product was being built.

Seattle team trip
Team collaboration

Three principles to create the conditions for alignment

01
Clarity
Everyone should know what is happening, what is needed, and by when. Ambiguity isn't a design problem, it's a systems problem.
02
Visibility
Decisions should be documented, traceable, and accessible across geographies. If it isn't written down, it doesn't exist for teams twelve time zones away.
03
Empathy
The process must respect time zones, workloads, and different communication styles. Design systems serve people before they serve products.
SharePoint process

What changed once the process did

−35%
Design-to-engineering rework
−50%
Cross-geo handoff delays
+40%
PM confidence in timelines
+30%
Early issue flagging

Faster feature delivery wasn't a separate win, it was a direct result of that same process shift, alongside notable gains in team morale and psychological safety across all geographies.

Feature

Advanced Image Editing

Brought cropping, filters, and markup directly into the SharePoint web part, eliminating the need to re-upload assets after adjustments. Authors can now finalize imagery in context, within the page, without leaving the editing experience.

Feature

Enhance Stream to SharePoint Video Experience

Video updates needed a better way to land.

  • Teams wanted to spotlight recordings without burying them in long pages or scattered links.
  • Creating a polished, shareable video experience took too much manual layout work.
  • Video Page templates make it easy to publish branded Video Pages from SharePoint or directly from Stream, turning recordings into clear, shareable storytelling pages.
Stream to SharePoint video experience
Feature

Real-Time Accessibility Checks

Integrated accessibility validation directly into the editing flow. As authors build pages, the checker flags heading structure, missing alt text, link clarity, table accessibility, and contrast issues, before publishing, not after.

SharePoint accessibility checker
Feature

Enhanced Templates Experience

Redesigned template discovery to reduce friction between intent and execution. Guided layouts give authors a starting point with structure already in place, driving a 22% year-over-year increase in template engagement and significantly faster page creation across the organization.

Enhanced Templates Experience video cover
Modern page templates
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Rolling out AI-powered tools across a global team without losing clarity or trust? Let's design the system that makes it work.