Maria Figueroa Email and Phone Number

To be completely honest, I don't think I ever saw myself working in the tech industry, which is funny because I now work at Microsoft and I absolutely love it. When I got the offer, I did wonder why I got there, considering there are very qualified people out there. But then I remembered that during my many interviews I would always highlight my two biggest passions: learning and helping people. And that is exactly what I bring to work every day: my enthusiasm for learning and helping plus empathy to understand others, and flexibly to adapt to different environments and changes.As a Technology Specialist, I was living and breathing the Office 365 platform. I was able to educate my customers on the value of the solution and express what it could enable for them beyond the cool features. I learned how to actually listen to what they wanted and needed. And while it took some dialogue for me to uncover their needs, I was able to unblock pain points and then match those with the technology capabilities.After my first year, my manager recommended me to be the Product Manager in a new initiative created to change the way we sell in my region called the Digital Pod. With this team, I am creating a solution accelerator for IoT Connected Products to help my customers innovate in partnership with Microsoft. My main contribution here has been building the messaging and positioning materials to equip our sellers with the right resources to have a Connected Products conversation with any stakeholder in the customer's organization. To my day to day role I decided to add another passion of mine, which is creating an inclusive environment for all. To do that, I started the Latinx Employee Resource Group at the Microsoft Chicago office. Through this organization, my team and I are able to generate a sense of belonging and establish a strong community for LatinX talent at Microsoft and in the Chicago area.