Hello Everyone
It's great to be back with a new Monday-Community-Interviews. From time to time on Mondays, we publish interviews with community experts who help the community to grow and, who have impressed us. We write about their achievements and introduce them to the community. This is our small way to say thanks, honor the members for their contributions to the community, and present the people behind the scenes.
Today I want to present to you, Priya Agrawal.
I would like to introduce you to a person who is a well-known person in Azure MVP Community and Microsoft Azure Community Champions Program. She represents Azure product groups in the MVP Program. She is a well-connected professional that always takes time to support anyone in her network.
Tell us about yourself – What you do and your professional background
What is your underlying philosophy/ mantra for work?
I believe professions like Program/ Product management, Innovation is the key. I define it as something simple/ fundamental yet impactful and sustainable, and regularly investigate what those could be for the programs I’m leading. It helps businesses as well as leaps in career growth.
What are your top picks for Program Management meta skills?
In my experience, below are the top meta-skills for mid-sr. roles in Business/ Program/ Product Management:
- Strategy – Building solid short & long-term plans with rich data/ insights
- Communication – Clear, crisp communication catered to the audience type
- People Management/ Influence – Lead with empathy and data
Tell us about your role as the Azure Product group Lead for the MVP Program
I represent Azure product groups in the MVP Program and am responsible for healthy & regular engagements between MVPs and Azure product groups for the stakeholders’ win-win.
Product groups seek unbiased Advocacy, early product feedback, and community assistance from these Microsoft NDA-bound technical expert communities. And in turn, the community members receive the prestigious MVP award, the opportunity to shape the future of Azure products, networking opportunities with Microsoft product groups, Azure subscriptions, and more.
Learn more: Microsoft MVP Award
What is the Community Champions program in your words?
Microsoft Azure Community Champions program recognizes Azure technology experts who contribute to the Microsoft Q&A by providing quality answers to the technical questions. It is a thriving community of 200+ members who range from Microsoft full-time employees to Microsoft MVPs, Suppliers as well as other external experts.
Along with hands-on learning and creating an additional impact, for the voluntary contributions made by members, they can also receive exciting rewards and recognitions which include monthly gift cards, being featured on Microsoft branded social media & leaderboards, considerations for Microsoft MVP award, Microsoft NDA with Private Preview access and more.
Learn more: Microsoft Community Champions program | Microsoft Docs
Tell us about your role as the PM lead for Community Champions Program
Microsoft Azure Community Champions Program has been my baby in the sense that I led the initial planning and pilot, and have been successfully leading the program for almost a year now. It is a thriving community of 200+ members already contributing to a significant proportion of answers on Microsoft Q&A.
The focus right now is on advocating for the program and in parallel creating stickiness for current members to contribute.
I would like to call out it’s a team work and we set of fantastic engineers as part of the program v-team who help lead and operationalize various efforts within the program.
What is (are) the most satisfying aspect of your roles?
As I mentioned the word Innovation before, I feel blessed that the roles empower me to think through different problems, and opportunities and solve them. There’s never a dull moment!
Plus the fact that I regularly keep a tab on measuring impact and see progress vis-à-vis efforts is very encouraging as well.
How do you manage work-life balance?
What would be your guidance for aspiring Program Managers/ Product Managers?
For working professionals looking to switch from a different role, I would suggest seeking special PM projects within your organization to get hands-on learning and experience. This is also an opportunity for you to see if you seem to enjoy such roles.
You could also explore the options to do dedicated courses/ education which oftentimes also provides a platform for related job opportunities.
Cheers and best wishes
Thank you so much, Priya for leading Azure MVP Program and Microsoft Azure Community Champions Program, and also helping the community and the MVP members at the Microsoft Q&A! It was great to hear from you directly and nice to know more about you.
Everyone, please join me in thanking Priya for the advice she gave us, and for all, she does for the Microsoft community!
