Lowdermilk, T: Customer-Driven Culture: A Microsoft Story

Travis Lowdermilk is a UX Researcher, Designer, and author of the Customer-Driven Playbook. He has been building software experiences as a researcher, designer, and developer for over 15 years. Now he works with product teams at Microsoft and students, from all over the world, helping them integrate customer development and design-thinking into their products.

In his journey to help others bring customer empathy into their product making, Travis has had the opportunity to work with numerous teams; helping them shape their culture toward collaboration, creative safety, and customer-driven innovation.

Monty is the Principal Director of User Experience Research for Microsoft's developer tools and platforms division. He has 30 years of industry experience in product design and user research management. In recent years Monty has been at the forefront of the formation and adoption of "lean" customer, product, and business development best practices within Microsoft. A primary theme running throughout his career has been the development and utilization of team-based techniques for uncovering innovation opportunities, exploring creative concepts, visualizing solution alternatives, and evaluating/refining candidate solutions.

Prior to joining Microsoft Monty co-founded and served as Vice President of User Experiences for ChannelPoint, an internet startup focused on the sale and management of financial services products. Prior to his tenure with ChannelPoint, Monty managed product design and usability for Sun Microsystems systems administration division. Monty holds a Ph.D. in Human Factors Engineering from Old Dominion University.

Monty lives near Microsoft's main campus in Redmond Washington with his wife Amy. His five children, now grown, and six grandchildren are the pride of his life and his never-ending fountain of youth. He holds a Ph.D. in Human Factors Engineering from Old Dominion University.