Thursday, 30 November 2023

No longer a Microsoft MVP... I'm a Cloud Developer Advocate ☁️🥑

I'm no longer a Microsoft MVP after being one for the last 6 years.

I have joined the Microsoft Cloud Advocates team as a Senior Developer Advocate in April Dunnam's Power Platform advocacy team. I'm the newest addition to the team after Scott Durow joined in October and will be working alongside Gomolemo Mohapi, Shavonna Jackson and Daniel Laskewitz. 

What our team does

If you are wondering what Microsoft Cloud Advocates is all about, check out Waldek Mastykarz's blog post for a summary.

In our Power Platform team we engage with the technical communities focused on Power Platform to 

  1. Help educate and raise awareness of developing solutions with Power Platform through the form of different types of content - think videos, blogs, samples, learn live sessions during Microsoft events, present virtually or in-person at conferences and events, and much more.
  2. Relay feedback and concerns the technical community has to the engineering teams to help close gaps.

We have a number of avenues you can follow to learn about the Power Platform or keep up to date:

I am excited to represent this side of the world. I do want to shine the spot light on South East Asia, Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands. I am interested in connecting with the Power Platform community (if it exists) in the Pacific Islands so if you are based there or know someone, let's connect 🙂

Microsoft Cloud Advocates is a global team so I'll be based in New Zealand working remotely.

Goodbye to being a Microsoft MVP

Reflecting back on my Microsoft MVP journey

2010 was when I started with Dynamics CRM 4.0. I was fresh out of university and started out in the Sales team for a Microsoft partner here in New Zealand. I learnt everything I knew from former colleagues Sophie Khun-Hammond, Maryse Botros and Brent Wimmers. The internet was also another good source of learning - who can forget the original http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ for the documentation on Dynamics CRM 😁 and some of the people I followed during this period of the early years in my career were,

I had no idea I'd be meeting three of the people mentioned above years later at my first and only ever Microsoft MVP Summit back in 2019, and Aileen during my #EWorldTour when I stopped by in Singapore.

The "push" of encouragement

Along the way I learnt more of Dynamics CRM by trying, failing and succeeding. A lot of online content back then were blog posts and the videos posted on YouTube were of recorded webinars. There weren't any shorter intimate videos that zoned in on the "how-to" do something or troubleshoot. I wondered if I should start recording myself and uploading to YouTube. I used to be a tutor at university teaching 3rd year undergraduate students so why not try YouTube? At the same I was scared.

One day I commented on a LinkedIn post of Ben Hosking's, where he posted a video of him attempting to record a video and having fun being on camera, but also announced he was going to start posting videos. My comment was some where along the lines of how I've always wanted to do videos but don't have the courage to do it. Ben messaged me privately on LinkedIn and encouraged me to go for it. After mulling over it, in May 2014 I posted my first video on YouTube. (I just watched a couple mins of it and I have evolved since that first video!)

I followed his advice of having a blog site and a corresponding blog post to compliment the video. I then learnt that my blog post should be a mirror image of video in written format to cater for audiences who learn by reading. Over time my content improved.

I filmed after hours in the office of the Microsoft partner I used to work for and edit my videos and write the blog post after work and on weekends. This continued for a number of years. As Jukka pointed out in his recent blog post, I did it because I wanted to share my knowledge and was not expecting anything in return. I was passionate about what I did and my aim was to help at least one person. I was (and still am) not focused on the number of views or subscribers, I only want to help others.

I didn't promote my content in the early years. I was silent in posting videos because I was afraid people would judge my content in a negative manner. Plus as a much younger person stepping into a pool of respected experts, my level of confidence was low. I didn't join Twitter (now known as X) until 3 years later in 2017. 

One person who noticed my stuff was Natraj Yegnaraman and he would tweet my blog posts. I still remember when someone thought that my blog post Natraj tweeted was his but Natraj corrected the person in saying it wasn't his post, and attributed it back to me. Thank you Natraj for noticing a "nobody" back then.

The day I was awarded as a Microsoft MVP

I never thought about being a Microsoft MVP and it was not something I aimed for. The one time I did think about it was when Aileen Gusni was awarded in 2015. Being an Asian female myself, it was amazing to see someone who looked like me be awarded. In the back of my mind I thought if she is one, maybe I too can be an MVP one day.

Fast forward to 2017, Andre Margono, friend and community member nominated me to the Microsoft MVP Award program. I don't know if it's still the case now, but back then you received an email that informed you of being nominated by someone. After about 9 months from when I was nominated, in May 2018 I was awarded - 4 years later from blogging and posting on YouTube.

I still remember it. I was in the office and my project team was scheduled to do a UAT deployment that morning. Everyone else had gone out for coffee except for Ketan Chowhan, my former colleague at the time. 

I decided to check my emails while waiting for my colleague to confirm the UAT deployment was complete. I saw the infamous "Congratulations" email. I read it twice in silence and turned to Ketan, asked him if it was real. He took a look and said YES!!! And yeah celebrated that day with my Melbourne team in the office. I ended that memorable week by watching The Killers live in concert (which is still my favourite concert till this day).

At the time I was currently the only female in the BizApps category and shortly after Ashlee Culmsee, Alice Drummond, Lisa Crosbie, Amey Holden and more continued to be awarded in Australia.

Eventually I received my MVP Award kit and did an unboxing video ⤵️


The following year in 2019 I attended Microsoft MVP Summit which I'll never forget. Meeting like minded friends from around the world finally in-person was an amazing time, as well as meeting with the PMs.

Top: Myself, Mark Smith and Jerry Weinstock
Bottom Left: Guido Preite, Natraj Yegnaraman, Antti Pajunen, myself
Bottom Right: Guido Preite, Clément Olivier, myself, Julien Miquel, Tanguy Touzard

Curious about the Microsoft MVP Award program?

If you do want to learn about the Microsoft MVP Award program, Elizabeth Pappalardo who is currently the Community Program Manager for the South APAC region spoke about it at a virtual event.


Thank you, a new chapter awaits

And now I say farewell to the Microsoft MVP award program.

It's been one heck of a ride. I have mentioned the positives but behind the scenes there's a lot more that goes on. It hasn't always been smooth sailing and in all honesty - only those closest to you in your household recognize your true effort. My life from when I started my blog and YouTube journey back in 2014 is different to what it is now. I have my family to look after these days and have accumulated more responsibilities as I age - hooray for being an adult lol. (Btw - some people don't believe me when I say I'm near to reaching my 40s 😄)

In my career I "grew up" with a lot of well known figures from the CRM space, followed by Power Platform when it came into the picture in 2016. The width of the community grew and so did the go-to people for learning either tech. To mention a few who popped up as Power Platform matured,

Those mentioned above are now the Jukka Nirranen, the Clarissa Simpson, the Adam Vero, the Donna Edwards, the Jason Lattimer, the Roohi Shaikh, the Jerry Weinstock, the Daniel Cai, the Gus Gonzales for others now starting their journey with Dynamics 365 or Power Platform. I have a separate page on recommendations of others to follow so please take a look when you can.

To the NZ BizApps family: I hope that you will support the next female who is awarded in our country as I leave being the only female MVP in BizApps. I took a screenshot of the fam as a time stamp into history.


I now join the wall of former Microsoft MVPs.

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