About
I’m passionate about making technology enjoyable and easy to use so people feel confident about themselves and what they can accomplish. I specialize in creating intuitive user experiences, expressing voice and tone, and developing and implementing content strategies. I believe in the power of using user research and other customer listening data points to design products and experiences that people love.
Here are quotes from colleagues about my work:
“Kirsten has been an amazing collaborator and partner to me over this past year, across a variety of workstreams: from feature naming -- working closely through the process to strive for simple, descriptive, self evident + guidance to support both marketers and in-product/UX, to messaging development where she partnered with myself (inbound PMM) and the outbound (GTM) PMM - having her involvement here resulted in tighter continuity between what people see in marketing and in-product messaging. I appreciate and value Kirsten's POV and how she communicates, she gets the importance of Brand's guidance on simple, descriptive names, has deep strategic knowledge in content design and has helped me to navigate challenging discussions across various partners with conflicting viewpoints.”
- Emily Pearce, Senior Manager Consumer Creators PMM, May 2024
"There are so many things that Kirsten does exceptionally well. She has easily been one of my favorite people to work with. Kirsten is really good at tying in the bigger picture for the work that we are doing. With her experience working across other Microsoft teams in the past, she has been able to bring that wisdom and insight into our current work and ensure that what we are doing is most effective. I also appreciate how much she values structure and process because it has really helped improve our team processes across various feature crews."
- Natalie Brown, Senior Product Designer, Microsoft, May 2023
Kirsten is a very thoughtful and easy to work content designer. I really appreciate how I give her the context of the project, she asks clarifying questions and she just gets the ask and where the project is going. She's the only content designer for the whole Designer product, so she's juggling so many things and yet understanding everything and quickly put great options on the table. Kirsten is very responsive and great to work with, even with the rushed requests from Designer."
- Mina Doroudi, Senior Product Manager, May 2024
"Kirsten, I so enjoyed working with you on publish UX in Designer. Not only did you offer great content UX support, but you think about scenarios and UX flows from a user perspective. It was so refreshing to work with someone who values and shares that perspective. You were so willing to jump in and brainstorm solutions to challenging UX problems with me on multiple occasions. I felt so comfortable sharing work in progress with you as I knew we could work to build the text strings and design together. You offered great candid feedback, shared great ideas, and I knew you always had my back when pitching something to the group that we felt was best for the customer."
- Anna Davies, Senior Product Designer, May 2023
"When Kirsten decides to take something on, you know it is going to soar! Her contributions in a very short time to the Content Design Community Learning Series has ensured that this critical center of gravity for our community not only stays on rails, but is able to adapt and adjust to changing needs. The sessions on AI that she organized helped her colleagues to better understand the landscape and ultimately enabled them to quickly apply their knowledge for increased impact in product.
Keep applying your considerable talent and creativity to evolve the content design discipline at Microsoft. Your impact over the years has been considerable--early voice work, rethinking in product learning, and now the community--I can't wait to see what you do next."
- Kate O'Leary, Principal Content Design Manager, May 2023
"Kirsten is a great storyteller and has a way of being inspiring with words. Not only do I appreciate her for her ability to spin up great copy quickly, but I also love her collaborative spirit, always willing to pitch in and help out the team, whether that is in writing, editing, brainstorming, or serve as a sounding board for new ideas. One example that comes to mind is her help around creating stimulus for headline research and providing multiple variations the team could take into research. She worked quickly to provide many great headline options that we were able to use to gather customer feedback. I also love the thought leadership in her voice and tone work that could drive cohesion and benefit multiple teams across the company. I am looking forward to working with Kirsten more closely as we bring Create to life!"
- Jennifer Lin, Senior Product Marketing Manager, Nov 2022
“What I really like is that you look at the whole UX, and really try to see the whole experience through the user's eyes. To be honest, many content designers I have worked with come in to fix a string or two when asked and don't look beyond it. I like that you have looked through the Figmas at flows that are not even the ones we're working on, and have asked smart questions about how to clarify those for users. I think your recommendations are generally great and you're a wonderful asset to the team."
- Ian Curry, Principal Product Design Director, December 2023
"First off, you were vital to the success of the Windows 11 launch in October 2021—touches of your UX writing pop for customers in key experiences in Windows 11. You led the massive Content Design project for Settings rejuvenation in close partnership with Windows PM and Design—this was in addition to two other areas you were already engaged in that crossed over with my team: Tips and Get Started apps. This Settings project included complex cross-team coordination with several Content Designers in Marvel/CSE (Tara Roth's org) and numerous page owners across Windows—Microsoft and our customers benefit from folks with your command driving a project of this scale and impact. The new rejuvenated Settings in Windows 11 has landed well with our customers and should help boost higher NPS for Windows.
In addition to Settings rejuvenation, you carried us through the content planning and execution for two experiences in Windows 11 that are part of the onboarding, discovery, and learning golden path: Get Started (onboarding/setup/FRE) and Tips (discovery/learning). You leveraged user research, customer feedback, and customer sentiment to inform your planning. You helped direct a team of Content Designers and partnered closely with the Windows Design team to raise the quality of our content to new heights. I simply can’t say enough here about how you lifted up both my team and me at some of the toughest times during our journey to Windows 11 launch. You help and help and help even when you don’t have to—you’re a teacher, coach, mentor. While you weren't on my immediate team (you did attend our weekly team meetings ), you were a huge influence on my team, and early-in-career folks on my team have benefited greatly from your coaching and support. And, even though you're now in another org, I know I can always turn to you for advice and guidance—you’ll be there. I’ve appreciated your willingness to ideate, co-write, co-design, and even commiserate over the last 2+ years—thank you. Overall, you continue to be a trusted, reliable Content Designer who exhibits Principal-level characteristics and skills—you create clarity, generate energy, and deliver success time and time again all while remaining customer-focused and inclusive in your partnering. I truly hope things are going well for you in your current role and org—hoping the team has put you on some projects that impact customers and leverage your leadership skills."
- Christopher Lohr, Principal Content Design Manager, May 2022
" Kirsten, you do a great job of thoroughly thinking through how content impacts the overall customer experience. You are willing to dig deep to determine the optimal solution, even if that means going through rounds of research that creates more work for you and takes extra time. I really appreciate your customer focus and desire to do what's best for our customers. I also think you are a talented and creative writer who can communicate to our customers in a way that aligns to Microsoft voice principles while also making the words relatable and interesting to read."
- Mary Miller, Principal UX Researcher, April 2022
" I think you're amazingly talented at WRITING - which is something that gets overlooked too often. The pages in Get Started got a lot of attention because of the engineering marvels and design/layout/look/feel, but nobody should forget that the words on those pages are the third leg of the stool and those words were all you. You had a broad impact on the project, across multiple divisions at Microsoft, and helped other people shine and do *their* best work, because the words in the experience worked well. You were a tireless partner - always making sure that the words were where they needed to be, when they needed to be there so that nobody was blocked."
- Minette Layne-Worthey, Senior Content Designer, November 2021