Mike Thomson Email & Phone Number

Redmond, Wa, Us

Bellevue, Washington, United States

Partnered with product managers and developers to deliver the core Avatar run-time engine.• Owned a cross functional program to successfully release ‘Legs’ for Avatars in time for Connect.• Owned the delivery and support of the key Avatar core engine SDK components. • Developed/Owned new workflow processes for Avatar teams around product features and bug management.• Developed/Owned the group wide performance plan and execution effort to improve the end-to-end Avatar experience in Horizon Worlds.

Redmond, Wa

Product manager and technical program manager covering Firmware for a 0-1 AR product covering all CPUs (Core OS: Comms, graphics, audio, and SLAM) and sensor development (IMUs, cameras, display, and audio).• Developed new agile workflow initiatives to improve overall development execution and traceability. o Product owner/Scrum Master for four teams and trained others to scale the process.• Owned four XFN technology workstreams consisting of firmware, software, and hardware.o Managed the gathering of requirements and the MVP milestone definitions.• Owned the overall release of one device of the overall product.o Owned the relationship with manufacturing, component teams and defined MVP requirements.• Owned the communication of status and escalation of issues to stakeholders.

New Projects.

Product manager and technical program manager for the firmware/software on the Surface Pro keyboard.• Owned day to day execution and delivery of all firmware and software components.• Owned requirements gathering from the leadership team, EE, external suppliers, and manufacturing.• Owned partnerships with external ASIC suppliers delivering hardware and firmware into the product.• Owned the communication of status and escalation of issues to stakeholders.• Developed new agile processes for the Surface group which provided greater visibility to the leadership team.

Bellevue

Coordinated with the executive leadership team to finalize business alignment and strategy.• Defined business strategies for the WWA program to recognize an additional $100M+ in new program revenue.• Owned the cross-group worldwide rebranding launch to remove “Amazon” from “Works with Amazon Alexa”.

Kirkland, Wa

Recruited by the VP of Mobile to own the development and release of a new company initiative involving automotive cloud services and mobile technologies.• Went from a PowerPoint deck to product portfolio strategy involving mobile, automotive, and cloud services in two months to support the next multimillion-dollar services initiative.• Developed a cross-group Agile/Scrum process in Jira to track dependencies, commitments, and to report out status.o Provided a greater level of visibility across the company than had existed prior to my work.• Owned the definition of the product MVPs and final deliverables.• Owned the SDK interface definitions for mobile and server platforms.

Seattle, Wa

Hired by the VP of PMO as the Product Owner of a new million-dollar Chrysler Uconnect project.• Created the project plan and detailed app requirements for the MVPs. Collaborated with executive stakeholders to secure commitments on all deliverables.• Owned the strategic business and technical relationships for the delivery of a billing service, a mobile app, and Uconnect Infotainment Apps. Owned relationships with Sprint, Chrysler, Continental, Harmon, and third-party software SDKs such as Pandora.

Appointed by the Windows Embedded GM to lead the Automotive Commercialization team.• Owned the relationships that contributed $50M+ in revenue and a ~70% market share.o Management of companies like Ford led to additional business opportunities on MyFordTouch.• Defined the strategy and vision for a team of 50 people including developers, QA, and program managers in locations including Redmond, Japan, Taiwan, and Germany.• Defined the Test Suite MVP to address gaps in partners’ QA strategies.• Owned all partner escalations. Developed strategies to address issues and negotiated with the GM for additional resources when necessary.• Owned and managed a $4M+ budget for all resource and investment strategies.

Promoted up through the ranks from IC to Principal GPM because of my relationship-building superpower, business aptitude, and technical skills. Owned the E2E platform strategy, the $14+M operating budget as well as being recognized as the platform SME.• Led a team of 40 TPMs/PMs including 5 managers and increased WinCE market share from 52% to 60%+.• Collaborated with the sales and product marketing teams to define the portfolio north star.• Created requirements tracking processes and tools to enable efficient platform planning, delivery, and reporting.• Defined operating system platform APIs in areas such as the kernel, GUI, and Multimedia.• Owned the Developer Tools strategy and engagement models.• Built the outsourcing strategy for work on maintenance areas of the OS.• Created and led a team to develop the first HD DVD player based on WinCE.

•My group was responsible for the direct commercialization support of the major automotive partners for Windows CE and Microsoft Auto.•This was a developer support service wherein my team helped the partners integrate MS technologies, release QFEs, create new technologies and fix partner related technology issues. The successful result of these engagements can be seen in products released by BMW (Series 1&3), Ford (Sync & My Ford Touch), Fiat (Blue & ME), Chrysler (Uconnect), Mini, and McLaren.•I was selected to take on this role because of my innovative style, partner management skills, and technical abilities. As the Manager, I lead a team of 50 people including: Developers, Testers and Program Managers. My team was located across several regions including Redmond, Japan, Taiwan, and Germany.•As the Manager of this group, I created and managed the budget of all partner contracts. I contributed to the technical discussions with partners, developed the support model for each partner, and managed all escalations by the partners. My goal was twofold: to ensure that no unknown escalations would hit the desk of the General Manager and partners could successfully release their products.

•As a Group PM in Windows CE, I was responsible for coordinating the direction of the full product. My team of 4 Lead PMs and 16 PMs owned every feature of WinCE from start to finish. •My team had to coordinate with the development team, work with marketing and sales, understand the ecosystem, work across groups on features, and are the face of the customer.•In addition it was my responsibility to ensure that the product was delivered on time and with the right quality. I would oversee the day to day management of the features being developed for a given release in addition to scheduling, release criteria and bug management.•As a GPM, I owned and contributed to the definition of the WinCE SDK for ISVs and OEMs as well as the tools necessary to support the SDK.

•This was a strategic companywide initiative that included several internal partners with Toshiba as the key external partner. Our team was responsible for the successful delivery of key technologies for the first Toshiba HD DVD player as well as technology for the xBox HD DVD experience.•While acting as the Lead PM for Windows CE, I conducted an investigation into the feasibility of HD DVD on WinCE that was approved.•I was responsible for the budget and resource plan to establish a team in Redmond and Japan to deliver HD DVD on WinCE. I became the Group PM for the project.•As the GPM, I was responsible for the relationship and coordination of our joint development efforts across Microsoft for HD DVD as well as with the external partnerships.

•As a Lead PM in Windows CE, I was responsible for my individual contributions as a technical PM, the career growth of my 6 person team, and the total contributions of my team to the product. •Going from IC PM to Lead PM, my areas of responsibility grew to include: Kernel, file systems, database, registry, Window Manager, GDI, DirectX, International support, DRM, and browser. •In addition to contributing as a PM, I was also tasked to contribute to the development team by adding key technologies including Address book, Pocket Outlook Object Model as well as an email engine. These were developed in C using the Windows CE SDK. During this time, I also contributed directly to some OEM devices through code changes necessary for their devices.•Some of my key contributions during this period included MUI, performance tools, and D3D Mobile.•As a LPM, I was responsible for the planning and the day to day delivery of technologies.•As an LPM, I contributed to the definition of the WinCE SDK for ISVs and OEMs as well as the tools necessary to support the SDK.

•As a Program Manager in WinCE I was required to know our OEM customer’s needs and create an SDK so that ISVs could support the OEMs with new applications. In addition, I had to understand the full ecosystem where the product was sold. I had to coordinate across Microsoft on technical discussions, engage with Marketing and sales teams and drive partner/customer meetings.•I was responsible for the overall direction of the product in the following areas: Kernel, file systems, database, registry, Window Manager, and GDI. •One of my key contributions during this period included real-time support for WinCE.•As a PM, I contributed to the definition of the WinCE SDK for ISVs and OEMs as well as the tools necessary to support the SDK.

Bachelor, Computer Science

Master'S Degree, Computer Science

Masters in Computer Science