How it started
Microsoft Education wanted to deepen its connection with school and district decision-makers. Awareness wasn’t the problem — trust and relevance were. Educators and IT leaders often saw Microsoft through the lens of products, not partnership. They understood the technology, but didn’t always feel the company understood them — their daily pressures, timelines, and evolving needs.
The opportunity was to close that gap: to create a more human, consistent experience across marketing, sales, and support that met people where they were and built confidence at every stage of the journey.
What we did
We began by listening — conducting interviews, workshops, and surveys with educators, IT professionals, and administrators to understand not just their decisions, but their experiences. We conducted ethnographic studies, observing classroom behavior to see how instructional technologists discover solutions. What made them interested? What made them hesitate? When did trust build or erode?
By mapping behavioral and emotional patterns, we uncovered moments when communication felt misaligned with need: information overload during evaluation, lack of follow-through post-purchase, and inconsistent handoffs between sales and support. Our a-ha moment? We saw that trust broke down not in the message, but in the moments between them.
We distilled these findings into actionable customer mindsets and journey maps that helped Microsoft see its audiences not as segments, but as relationships in motion. Each phase — from curiosity to renewal — was redefined around what customers needed most: clarity, continuity, and confidence.
How it’s going
Program 11’s resulting personas, messaging recommendations, and peer-to-peer content and distribution tactics informed a series of guides we created for lead generation and relationship building.
Microsoft used these insights and content to realign around the customer experience — ensuring every interaction reinforces trust and relevance, not just reach. Marketing now anticipates where decision-makers are in their process; content, sales, and support share a unified narrative that helps educators feel understood and supported.
As a result, Microsoft’s education experience feels more personal, less transactional. The brand shows up consistently, speaks with empathy, and follows through — turning what was once a purchase decision into an ongoing relationship built on trust and shared purpose.
Sam Reich, Marketing Director, Microsoft
