← Selected work

Case Study — 06 / Platform Strategy

Horizontals for Viva

Bringing Copilot to life across Viva by designing for the suite, not a single product.

Role

Design Lead

Year

2023–24

Tools

Figma, M365, Research

Deep dive

View the Viva D&R deck ↗
Microsoft Viva × Copilot
Designing across the suite, not around a single screen.
Discover
Connect
Embed
Reach

01 — Context

One suite, many entry points

Viva had the reach. The challenge was helping people feel it.

I helped bring powerful, relevant Copilot experiences to products across Microsoft Viva. Rather than optimize one surface in isolation, we looked across the suite to understand where AI, discoverability, and reach could reinforce one another inside the flow of work.

Lens
Product view
Suite view
Opportunity
IntentOne taskShared signalsMeet people where they are
ValueFeature utilityConnected helpMake Copilot legible
ReachSingle entry pointFamiliar pathwaysRemove dead ends

So what

The opportunity was bigger than one feature: make Copilot feel findable and useful wherever work already happens.

02 — Framework

Design horizontally

Four questions kept the suite connected.

Where does the user already have intent? What is the smallest useful Copilot moment? How can the experience travel with people across products? And what makes the value legible without teaching another system? Together, these questions turned a collection of surfaces into one platform opportunity.

01 / Intent
Start where people already need help.
02 / Context
Make the next step feel native to the product.
03 / Connection
Let value travel across the suite.
04 / Clarity
Explain the value without adding work.

So what

The horizontal view made the seams visible—and gave us a better place to design from.

03 — Proof

Discoverability

The best Copilot experience is the one people can actually find.

We mapped the moments where people were already looking for help, then explored how Copilot could appear with enough context to feel relevant—not like another destination competing for attention.

Signal → Copilot → next step
User intent
Relevant help
Keep moving
See the work in the deck ↗

So what

Discoverability is a product behavior, not a navigation problem.

03 — Proof

Reach

A suite only feels powerful when value travels with the user.

We looked for connective tissue across Viva and the wider Microsoft 365 ecosystem: shared signals, familiar language, and clear handoffs that could help Copilot reach people without asking them to start over.

A connected path through Microsoft 365
Viva
Copilot
M365
Shared language + familiar handoffs = less starting over.
See the work in the deck ↗

So what

Reach is less about adding entry points and more about removing dead ends.

03 — Proof

Embedded moments

The most useful AI often feels like part of the product you already know.

The work explored how Copilot could be embedded within M365 in ways that respected the surrounding experience: visible enough to invite use, quiet enough to preserve focus, and consistent enough to build trust across the suite.

The right amount of presence
Copilot in context
A useful suggestion, without taking over the room.
See the work in the deck ↗
Pattern
Find
Connect
Use
Discoverability
Reach
Embedding

So what

Embedding Copilot well means designing the relationship, not just the feature.

04 — Guardrails

One suite, not one-size-fits-all

Consistency should make the suite clearer—not flatten it.

A horizontal strategy can easily become a generic layer pasted everywhere. The guardrail was to preserve the distinct job of each Viva product while giving Copilot a recognizable point of view: useful context, familiar language, and a clear reason to appear.

If we...
We risk...
So we...
Flatten every productGeneric AI layerKeep local meaning
Add more entry pointsMore places to searchDesign clear pathways
Hide the logicLow trustShow why it appears

So what

Shared patterns create trust only when they leave room for product-specific meaning.

05 — Craft

From empathy to opportunity

The work connected an empathy-driven workflow with a deep technical understanding of the product.

We moved between customer needs, platform constraints, and emerging Copilot capabilities. That back-and-forth helped us find opportunities that were both meaningful to people and plausible within the Microsoft 365 ecosystem.

01
Listen to people
02
Map the suite
03
Find connective tissue
04
Prototype the opportunity

So what

The strongest concepts came from holding human need and technical reality in the same frame.

06 — Reflection

What I learned

The suite is the canvas.

Looking horizontally changed the question from “where should Copilot live?” to “how should Copilot connect the work people already do?” That shift opened up better opportunities for discoverability, reach, and useful embedded moments—without asking any one product to carry the whole experience.