Today's episode is a Simply Tech LIVE interview featuring my co-host, Ali Mazaheri, and our guest, Ed Essey. Ed is the Director of Intrapreneurship & Incubation in the Microsoft Garage, a program that delivers and drives a culture of innovation, and is largely responsible for coming up with some very creative Microsoft AI products that exist today in the market. One of which is Video Indexer, a media AI technology that makes it easier to extract insights from videos. The product has won numerous design and innovation awards including the 2019 National Association of Broadcasters or NAB product of the year, and Video Indexer brings together everything from facial detection to visual content moderation. It's a really cool way to see multiple AI models working within one solution, and a great example of the types of ideas that can be brought forward by very intentionally designed innovation programming.

Ed is a titan in the world of innovation, and has spent his entire career focused on creating new things at start-ups and in the enterprise, as well as hiring people who can do this very well while creating programs that bring new ideas forward. Ed's been at Microsoft for almost 19 years, and brings with him a BS Degree in Computer Science and Engineering from MIT.

We talk today with Ed deeply about how organizations are typically approaching machine learning and advanced technologies with focus on scale and optimization, but why the true focus should be on purpose. We talk about innovation as a culture, and get into some depth around Ed's recent project experiences, including on AI solution for families of children with Epilepsy, to unlock real human experiences and proximity. This is a discussion around AI and it's most important sub component, Empathy.

Items we discuss in the episode:

[6:04] How Ed and the Garage are helping families of children with epilepsy

[8:09] How Microsoft Garage fosters a culture of innovation

[10:50] How putting empathy in action caused a huge cultural shift in Microsoft and how it impacts customers and employees

[13:18] Functional programs at Microsoft Garage that Ed is proud of and have helped move projects forward

[15:39] How the Microsoft Technology Center leverages technology and bring team members together despite the pandemic affecting the human-to-human element

[18:29] How people view innovations and how Ed perceives of innovation as an ecosystem

[21:36] How building technical solutions without working with customers first and building empathy, is just premature speculation

[30:10] Ed's take on underfunding versus overfunding ideas and how he looks to address this

[35:16] Ali and Ed's thoughts on the idea of interoperability and open source community

[40:28] How Microsoft handles privacy data

[42:26] How to apply empathy first in any company

Memorable Quotes:

[8:30] "Our motto is ‘doers not talkers.’ Instead of talking about it, we always try to create situation that actually get people in the experience."

[10:40] "If it's truly brilliant, I hope I can make it real."

[17:21] “Yes, you kind of lose that human-to-human element but you can still leverage technology with the power of AI to bring all team members together."

[22:59] Data are people too but actually data are people first.

[38:15] "So many of the best projects come from a few people working on adjacent spaces and see what others are hacking on and decide to merge their ideas together."

Resources:

How to contact Ed:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/essey/

Ed Essey's Blog: https://edessey.com/

Full Interview on YouTube: https://youtu.be/UrU9Hx4dvZI

Microsoft Garage - https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/garage/

Derek’s LinkedIn Profile - https://www.linkedin.com/in/derekwesleyrussell/

Derek's YouTube Channel - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCN1c5mzapLZ55ciPgngqRMg

Video Indexer - https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/services/media-services/video-indexer/

Microsoft Kaizala - https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.microsoft.mobile.polymer&hl=en

Microsoft Launcher - https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/launcher

Reid Hoffman's LinkedIn Profile - https://www.linkedin.com/in/reidhoffman/

GitHub - https://github.com/

Books

Talking to Humans by Giff Constable - https://www.amazon.com/Talking-Humans-Success-understanding-customers-ebook/dp/B00NSUEUL4#ace-g7448806443

Testing with Humans by Giff Constable - https://www.amazon.com/Testing-Humans-experiments-informed-decision-ebook/dp/B07JGQ2GYR

Thank you for listening!

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