For a decade now, Microsoft Elite has been turning challenges into results through an innovative approach that improves our products before they reach users. A select group of standout employees has had the opportunity to test our products before launch, making sure issues are identified and resolved before they reach the public.
Improving Microsoft products for 10 years
This year, Microsoft celebrates the tenth anniversary of Elite, its innovative program that lets employees be the first to try everything from Azure to Xbox, with the goal of identifying bugs, contributing ideas and helping improve products from the earliest stages of development.
Participants enjoy the process through gamification, climbing leaderboards and competing for attractive prizes, such as the coveted leather jacket with the Elite logo that goes to the highest-scoring participant of the year. Those who wear it become ambassadors of the positive impact this program has within Microsoft.
Diana McCarty has been leading the Elite program since its inception. She is a principal group program manager at Microsoft Digital.
"Elite allows us to adopt new technologies more efficiently and effectively," says Diana McCarty, principal program manager at Microsoft Digital, the company's IT organization. McCarty created Microsoft Elite in 2014 and has led the program ever since, convinced of its effectiveness. "It is an agile and repeatable approach to testing and troubleshooting that involves any Microsoft employee in improving our products. Elite participants can directly influence Microsoft's most important products or the niche areas they are passionate about."
Elite is a mutually beneficial relationship: product owners get testing and validation before launch, and Elite members enjoy being the first to try new solutions — whether software, hardware, video games, certification exams and more. The outcome benefits both other Microsoft employees and you, our customer. Everyone wins... especially whoever takes home the jacket!
A community that transforms the way we work
McCarty has had a front-row seat to Elite's evolution over these 10 years. She remembers how, in the past, teams such as Windows or Office had to find testers on their own, competing with each other to find people who would provide key feedback.
Her response was clear:
"We created a single space where employees eager to be early adopters could take part in different initiatives and give feedback. We make it fun and we reward quality participation. We also make it easy for teams to bring their products to this active community to debug issues, refine features and get ready for launch."
Nathalie D'Hers is a corporate vice president at Microsoft Digital.
Since then, Elite has grown steadily and today has 35,000 members, more than 15% of Microsoft employees. It has become an essential part of how we deliver IT services within the company.
"The constant stream of validation and feedback that Microsoft Elite provides is already part of Microsoft's DNA," says Nathalie D'Hers, corporate vice president at Microsoft Digital. "It means that every employee can contribute to making our products and services better than ever."
A platform designed to improve from the inside
Elite is designed as the central place for all employee-driven testing and validation. Its platform includes three key capabilities:
- Scenario publishing: Product owners can share specific scenarios to structure feedback efficiently and get all the information they need.
- Participant recruitment: Elite lets interested employees easily sign up for the programs they care about most.
- Feedback collection: Participants can submit comments, report bugs and take part in discussions within the platform. This interaction goes beyond surveys and generates valuable input.
Eileen Zhou, principal product manager and owner of the Elite program for Microsoft Teams' internal rollout, has a group ready to test new features and give immediate feedback, which improves the experience for the entire company.
"Elite makes the process of conversation and collaboration so much easier. We do not need to build systems for testing or feedback, it is all already there," Zhou says. "No matter which product is being evaluated, everyone follows the same processes and uses the same language. That is Elite. Everyone knows what it means."
Zhou credits much of the success in improving Teams to the accessibility and effectiveness of the Elite platform.
People first
However, the most important element of the Elite program is not the platform, nor the communication mechanisms, nor the way teams measure results.
What makes Elite successful is the people.
Eileen Zhou (from left to right), Sergey Shantyr and Karin Skapski are all enthusiastic participants in Microsoft's Elite program.
"What I like most about Elite is that it is about people helping people," says Taj Heniser, principal product manager for Microsoft Elite. "Our program managers and the participants trust each other, and there is a genuine desire to contribute and help in every corner."
Heniser speaks enthusiastically about how any employee can feel part of Elite from day one, and commit to Microsoft's success. "It is a community. The program owners recognize that Elite is vital to the health of our products, and they greatly value the participation. There is a constant sense of belonging and mutual contribution."
Sergey Shantyr has been part of Elite since its beginnings. He is a principal site reliability manager on the Azure Data team, where he works with Azure SQL Managed Instance. He is one of the top-ranked participants and was among the first to win an Elite award. In fact, he holds the record for most awards won: seven in total.
"Elite was one of the first things I discovered during my onboarding at Microsoft," Shantyr recalls. "It was fun and entertaining, and it became a good habit that I have kept up over these ten years."
He recalls with excitement the first time he won and received the leather jacket with the Elite logo. Every January, the winners in each major Microsoft region receive gift cards and exclusive Elite clothing, based on the points accumulated for their contributions. There are also awards for new members, for those who stand out with high-quality feedback and for those who actively strengthen the community.
But it is not the prizes that motivate Shantyr to keep participating.
"I feel like I am making a meaningful contribution to the company," he says. "We do not only contribute to the products we work on, we also contribute to Microsoft's overall success."
That feeling of contributing in a meaningful way is common among Elite members. The desire to add to the bigger goal — even when it is not tied to performance reviews or promotions — is what drives the program's success. And at the same time, it is what drives the success of Microsoft's products.
A collective effort to make Microsoft better
Karin Skapski joined Microsoft not long ago, and recently celebrated her first year as a senior cloud architect in Global Partner Solutions. Like Shantyr, she joined Elite during her onboarding process.
"As I took on my responsibilities, I had the time and the opportunity to take part in Elite," she says. "My main contribution has been in Microsoft 365. Early access to new features was one of the reasons I joined, but what made me stay was the experience with the program managers and how easy it is to interact on the platform. I love being able to improve the products I use every day, making them more effective and enjoyable tools for both employees and customers."
Products such as Microsoft 365 are among the biggest beneficiaries of the Elite program. Before reaching customers' hands, Microsoft products go through testing, bug fixing and fine-tuning carried out by employees who know every detail.
Elite is a key part of the Customer Zero strategy at Microsoft Digital. We use our own products internally before releasing them to the public. This allows us to identify bugs, optimize performance and ensure high standards of quality and usability.
Elite program managers such as Heniser work alongside participants like Skapski and product leaders like Zhou to make sure Elite adapts to the needs of everyone involved in this early-improvement approach.
Zhou has led multiple initiatives through Elite, including scenarios for Microsoft Teams and Microsoft 365 Copilot. She appreciates the constant engagement of the participants.
"I always get great input from Elite," she says. "Sometimes there is even more participation than we expected!"
Zhou recalls the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, when the entire company was working remotely. Teams became the center of communication and many key features were released during that period.
One of the great benefits of being part of Elite is early access to new features. At that time, the program was flooded with new members eager to test features they had been looking forward to.
Heniser remembers it well too.
"We were working with Eileen on a video backgrounds scenario in Teams," he says. "We had 8,000 new members in a single night. It was crazy, but it was also incredible to see the enthusiasm and the willingness of employees to help."
That level of participation was key to validating remote work experiences during the pandemic, which allowed millions of Microsoft users to adapt quickly and efficiently.
Real and measurable benefits
Elite gives product managers like Zhou complete feedback on the products and features being tested, including metrics, sentiment surveys, bug reports and dashboards that bring all the information together in an easy-to-use format.
The result: fast, actionable feedback that helps shape products and ensure they respond to real user needs.
"Elite has helped our teams validate experiences with tremendous agility," McCarty says. "It has been key for Microsoft products to keep up with the fast pace of business and technology in recent years."
The future of Elite
Elite has had a profound impact on Microsoft over the past decade. From validating key experiences during the shift to remote work, to providing early feedback on revolutionary technologies such as Copilot, the program — and especially its participants — have proven their value again and again. Their input has not only improved products, it has also sustained productivity and innovation at critical moments.
"If you look at how the program has evolved over these 10 years, you will see something very meaningful," McCarty reflects. "Elite's impact on our products and on our business demonstrates the power a single person holds within a company like ours."
Microsoft Elite is about to take the next big step: harnessing the potential of Copilot, realizing the power of generative artificial intelligence and becoming an even more scalable and consistent platform to support the new generation of Microsoft products and services.
And at the heart of all of this are the people: the team behind the program, the product managers and the Microsoft employees who devote their time and talent to making everything we do the best it can be for you, our customer.
