Darsh Thakkar Email & Phone Number

New York, Ny, Us

Redmond, Washington, Us

Redmond, Washington, Us

Leading Community and User Profile experiences on Microsoft Teams consumer.• 𝗟𝗲𝗮𝗱 𝗣𝗠 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗧𝗲𝗮𝗺𝘀 𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗺𝘂𝗻𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗲𝘀: Led products for community owners, personalization, and user profiles in Teams consumer platform for free meetings, chats, and communities without enterprise accounts. Improved W4 retention of community owners from 2.5% to over 8%, increased active community owners (size >2) from ~32K to 100K+, and grew engaged communities from 17K to 45K+. Scaled user base from zero to 1.31M MAUs and 400K MEUs post-launch in Dec 2022.• 𝗘𝗻𝗱 𝘁𝗼 𝗘𝗻𝗱 𝗖𝗿𝗼𝘀𝘀-𝗙𝘂𝗻𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗰𝘁 𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗮𝗴𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁: Collaborated with UX researchers, legal counsel, content strategists, data scientists, engineering, UX design, accessibility (a11y), privacy, and marketing—ensuring cohesive development across all features. • 𝗘𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻: Ran regular 20+ A/B experiments for metric-based growth in OKRs with ~65% success rate. • 𝗠𝗮𝗻𝗮𝗴𝗲𝗱 𝟮𝟱+ 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗰𝘁𝘀:• Community Owner Tools: Creation & editing of details, Request to Join Community w/ notes, Manage Join Links, Pending Invites Tracker & reminders, Post approval mechanism, Post community creation checklist & Welcome Bot, Feed-Based Safety Features for contextual removal and blocking of members.• Personalization: Community Banner Image, Website Link, Per Community Nicknames, Avatar.• Community Roles: Moderator & custom Roles, @mention & badging of Roles, celebrating role promos. • AI: Copilot Live Content Suggestions for Teams Communities, auto-generating posts based on live events and community data.• User Profiles: LinkedIn integration in profiles, contact info UX based on privacy levels, Shared communities, Report a user.• Information Architecture: Enhanced Community Overview for improved navigation and aesthetics, Streamlined Teams Mobile content filtering with pill-based UX, Improved responsiveness with redesigned contextual loaders.

Redmond, Washington, Us

• 𝗘𝗺𝗽𝗼𝘄𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗖𝗿𝗼𝘀𝘀-𝗙𝘂𝗻𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗧𝗲𝗮𝗺𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵 Operational 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗰𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗜𝗺𝗽𝗿𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘀: Led initiatives to eliminate bottlenecks by empowering feature crews, allowing PMs to focus on high-impact work. For instance, introduced PM ownership of feature tracking and OKRs, with engineers handling telemetry and dashboards. Enabled designers to own accessibility (a11y) specs from the first pixel, ensuring inclusive products from the outset.• 𝗘𝗻𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗧𝗲𝗮𝗺𝘀 𝗘𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗽𝗿𝗶𝘀𝗲 𝘃𝗶𝗮 𝗖𝗿𝗼𝘀𝘀-𝗧𝗲𝗮𝗺 𝗖𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗮𝗯𝗼𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻: Leveraged insights from Teams Consumer and Communities to improve UX for Teams Enterprise, implementing features like chat avatars and simplified messaging inspired by consumer-grade experiences. For instance, drafted and collaborated on the product and UX proposal for Music in Teams Meetings, winning an internal hackathon and integrating it into Teams Business planning. Additionally, several IA changes.• 𝗖𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗿 𝗔𝗰𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗸𝗲𝘁 𝗙𝗶𝘁: Devised activation strategies for HuddleUp (sports business community), Microsoft Recruiting (networking for interns and new grads), and Cofolios (product design community). HuddleUp and Microsoft Recruiting now use Teams Communities as their primary platform, growing to over 10K members and expanding to Fortune 500 companies. Cofolios tested Teams Communities but does not use it as their main platform.• 𝗙𝗮𝗰𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘁𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗰𝘁 𝗜𝗻𝗻𝗼𝘃𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 “𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗰𝘁 𝗝𝗮𝗺” 𝗦𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀: Organized and ran weekly Product Jam sessions for 1.5 years with the VP of Product and leads from Design, Engineering, Content, PMM, and PM teams. Created an informal space for brainstorming moonshot and operational product ideas. Managed operational efficiency and curated topics for each session, with over 25-30 ideas incorporated into product improvements.

Redmond, Washington, Us

Redmond, Washington, Us

Part of founding team of Product Managers for Microsoft Teams Consumer – a pioneering initiative launched in May 2021 to expand Teams into consumer communications. Gained hands-on experience in product management, stakeholder alignment, strategic planning, leadership, and storytelling while launching and scaling a consumer-focused product.• Led user research and conducted interviews to explore community use cases, particularly for non-profits and university students. Successfully onboarded 1000+ genZ users to gather feedback on 50+ feature requirements, driving key product insights.• Established and launched Featured Communities on Teams, activating 8 internal communities and engaging 20+ Microsoft MVPs to increase participation and gather feedback. This initiative significantly boosted community engagement and informed product improvements.• Redesigned Teams mobile chat settings, enhancing feature discoverability and user productivity. The redesign resulted in a 25% increase in chat feature discoverability and a 12% boost in productivity metrics, based on A/B testing post-rollout in Q1 2022.• Developed MVP "Pinning" feature across Teams platforms, a top-requested feature. Defined PRD requirements and collaborated cross-functionally to deliver a unified UX, resulting in a 15% increase in user engagement within the first quarter of launch.• Spearheaded MVP build for Teams Desktop Info-Pane, a critical productivity and information architecture feature that became the primary UX entry point for Copilot in Teams messaging. Initially launched for Teams Consumer, it was later adopted by Teams Enterprise.• Managed a team of 7 Microsoft Garage interns during a 3-month project to develop frontend and backend systems for Teams Desktop location services, delivering a successful consumer-facing solution.• Coordinated weekly product jams with PM LT, collaborating with 20+ PMs and designers to generate 50+ new product ideas, directly influencing the product roadmap.

Remote, Us

Leading a team of 18+ talented Researchers, Designers, Engineers, Marketers and Program Managers to drive a community of 7k+ aspiring, young and seasoned Product Managers. Launched Product Buds Fellowship by guiding PM on Fellowship - 30 students cohort based 10 weeks fellowship to learn and practice Product Management.

Remote, Us

Responsible to derive activities to solve user problems and engage community members proactively. Additionally responsible for making sure community members are able to learn and get more actionable information about Product Management practices, recruiting, and skills.- Grew the community to 2200+ members within 10 weeks with a week over week 6​2%​ engagement rate, provided actionable info to aspiring PMs through projects, workshops, book club & more, by working with an interdisciplinary team of 12 product management enthusiasts.- Orchestrated 21 live webinars, iterated on user feedback leading to​ ~1100 unique​ attendees, 7 partnerships & 1 acq. offer.- Owned the ideation & execution of product case-studies initiative, resulting in 506 participants with 70% weekly engagement.- Led monetization plans to establish ad campaigns, acquired 4 sponsors ($1k) by negotiating ad presence on media platforms.

Remote, Us

Helping out aspiring Product Managers to develop Product Sense through Product Case Studies discussions, workshops and events.

Atlanta, Ga, Us

Concentrated on User Experience, Data Science, and Web Dev projects. Hands-on coding, design, and research exposure for creating prototypes.• Transforming the UPS referral program by redesigning the UX of tracking leads. Driving a 30% increase in engagement (~$9M revenue/yr).• Collaborating with a cross-functional team to create a drone delivery dashboard that'll reduce delivery costs ~ $250k/day in peak season.

Atlanta, Ga, Us

Working for UPS Advanced Technology Group as a returning Intern. Involved in projects that UPS can adopt in the near future.• Secured $100K budget for prototype testing of asset tracking products ($32B industry), PRD & strategy devised from 20+ research sessions.• Maximized $5M/yr in savings by devising Machine Learning solution with Data Scientists for drivers to save 12 sec/package retrieval in package car.• Identified 4 pain point themes for autonomous delivery from package car - drones & robots by devising UX testing plan for 5 product testing sessions.• Conducted Stakeholder sessions and prepared a pitch for the business team for a 10-15 B2Bcustomers. Spearheaded the research plan creation of an initial 3 months timeline.

Atlanta, Georgia , Us

Student Job-Prep Platform Year-long research project to improve the job-prep experience.Conducted 24 user interviews, 3 focus groups & surveyed 150+ users followed by data analysis to identify & prioritize pain points.Designed prototype backed by UX research to achieve 83.1 usability scale. Adopted for further research.

Atlanta, Georgia , Us

GTA for the Grad and PhD level class CS 7450: Information Visualization under Dr. John StaskoHelping facilitate and teach a graduate level class by teaching Information Visualization concepts and programming to a class of 70+ students.

Atlanta, Georgia , Us

Graduate Teaching Assistant for the course: Introduction to Information Visualization (CS 4460) Responsible for one-to-one interaction with undergrads of a class of approximately 100 students in teaching them information visualization concepts and programming to develop meaningful visualization (Storytelling as well as Exploratory) using tools like Tableau, Qlik as well as D3.js.Grading of Assignments, Student projects and helping the faculty of the course.

Atlanta, Georgia , Us

Understanding Online Product Design Innovation Communities using Data ScienceAim was to analyze factors that lead to a successful product idea and visualize this in aninsightful manner. Carrying out extraction and subsequently thorough curation of ProductIdeation data. The project is in Data extraction phase, which involves heavy amount of Data Scraping.

Atlanta, Ga, Us

[Exposed to Product Management role and responsibilities]Interned at UPS, Advanced Technology Group in Atlanta which focuses on projects that UPS can adapt in near future.● Led project design, dev. (Python, JS, SQL) & testing of a data viz dashboard for 400+ users providing insights in n/w planning.● Optimized n/w planning time by 40% leading to ~$9M/yr in revenue streams. Awarded “ATG Director’s Choice Intern Project”● Conducted 20+ user & stakeholder interviews to define feature prioritization leading to shortening MVP delivery time by 40%.

Atlanta, Georgia, Us

Worked on aspects of User Experience Research, Design, and Engineering for The Home Depot.• Collaborated with The Home Depot Management on an industry project to increase the efficiency of Associate tasking. Identify pain points and improve ground store associate experiences.• Led devising a research plan to interview 20+ associates and do an analysis of research data via means of coding and affinity mapping to shortlist and prioritize user pain points.• Conducted design brainstorming sessions with the team to solve curated pain points, came up with design ideas, and holding a focus group session with 15+ stakeholder individuals to identify which design idea to prioritize.• Created high fidelity interactive prototype in Adobe XD - tackled the pain point where associates didn't have enough domain knowledge and had to ask for help - solution: knowledge base application and virtual collaboration with knowledgeable associates.• User Testing of prototype via qualitative semi-structured interview which included user tasks, think-aloud session, and usability survey. 88% on the SUS scale.• Presented curated case study to UX group leadership to give the conclusion of the project and subsequent handover to The Home Depot team.

Pullach Im Isartal, De

• Pioneered design and development of a workplace management system for Group HR dept. to track and manage ~5,000 employee workplaces using GUI. Tools used: C# and JavaScript.• Accelerated on-boarding process of new project teams by more than one week by implementing SharePoint workflow methodology. Customized the system to eliminate manual overhead.• Worked closely with head of software dept. to organize and advocate training of the system for ~200 HR employees.

Ahmedabad, Gujarat, In

Vadodara, Gujarat, In

• Analyzed mortality data of 60,000+ citizens for city government to get insights which were used to modify government hospital policies. Defined data pipeline for the project from scratch. • Mapped out data attributes from ~80 to ~40 attributes by conducting interviews with doctors. Translated ambiguous requirements from the client to targeted research questions.• Applied Principal Component Analysis (PCA) for dimensional reduction following regression and neural network architecture in Python to forecast patient traffic for next 120 days.

Evanston, Il, Us

Lead a team of around 150 people to procure~$70,000 through Socio-Cultural events for humanitarian causes such as "Rotary - Teach India Mission".Corporate Sponsorship, Event, Team, Marketing and Logistics Management

Spearheaded development of the first iteration of the website to offer informational content and call to action to increase online sales.Created Product Marketing Strategy and Customer Experience modification proposals for Laptops and Smart TV systems to increase company sales. Carried out Product and Customer Research about specification and application requirements for retail customers as well as for customer groups.

Master Of Science - Ms, Human Computer Interaction

Master Of Science - Ms, Human Computer Interaction

Bachelor Of Technology - B.Tech., Computer Engineering

Higher Secondary, High School/Secondary Diplomas And Certificates

Minor, Enterpreneurship And Finance