Microsoft Innovation Podcast

If there isn't a seat at the table, we build our own: How Women in Power is changing tech communities

• Episode 684

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https://www.microsoftinnovationpodcast.com/683

Danielle Moon shares her journey founding Women in Power, a community that grew from noticing just eight women among 80 professionals at a Microsoft event to a thriving global network of 930+ members in less than a year.

TAKEAWAYS
• Starting with vulnerability and a "just start" mentality rather than waiting for perfect conditions
• Building a community focused on connecting women across geographical boundaries who often experience isolation in their tech teams
• Creating mentoring rings, skill-building opportunities, and networking events worldwide
• Addressing the tendency for women to operate as "lone wolves" rather than leveraging collective strength
• Evolving beyond the Power Platform to emphasize soft skills that remain valuable in an AI-centered world
• Encouraging cross-learning between technical experts and those with relationship-building strengths
• Celebrating small victories while aiming for world domination

Whether you're a Power Platform professional seeking community or someone interested in building more inclusive tech spaces, this conversation offers valuable insights on creating tables where everyone can thrive. How might you apply these community-building principles in your professional sphere?

OTHER RESOURCES:
👉Women in Power (Platform): https://www.linkedin.com/groups/14423833/  

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Thanks for listening 🚀 - Mark Smith

Mark Smith:

Welcome to the Co-Pilot Show, where I interview Microsoft staff innovating with AI. I hope you will find this podcast educational and inspire you to do more with this great technology. Now let's get on with the show. Today's guest is from Austin, texas. She works at Microsoft as a Senior Specialist for Low-C, low code. She is the founder of woman in power platform. She is a firm believer in continuous learning and staying up to date with the latest advancements in the power platform ecosystem. You can find links to her bio and socials in the show notes for this episode.

Mark Smith:

Welcome to the show, Danielle hi, thank you so much for having me good to have you on and to do this little podcast after we met in Vegas in 2024, a wee while ago. Time is flying already now. I'm already considering if I'm going to Vegas this year for that round, as I plan out my year. But tell me before we get underway and understand your journey and what you've done, particularly in this woman in power space. Can you tell me about food, family and fun? What do they mean to you?

Danielle Moon:

Okay. So food is always the place that I love in the world of like breaking bread with someone, right, you can be virtually, and we've all lived this life for so long now it just feels like it's almost become the norm. But it's that moment where you actually get to sit down and you share a space because ultimately, you're going to learn even more about the person, right, how did they grow up? What are the refineries that they're going to see within their lifestyle of eating? So I just always think it's kind of fun, like you and I we met over drinks and that to me, is a little bit more exciting than, oh, another virtual interaction we get to say our normal piece or anything. It just brings everything together. So, yeah, food, family, family, wise oh that's a good one.

Danielle Moon:

I'm a big family person, Literally. We have four kids, so it's always chaotic here as well, as I have five siblings, so you add that mix and none of them. You know we all go big or go home kind of mentality. So we either have some that have had five kids or no kids, and bringing that all chaos together is just kind of what makes life go round. And then, on the fun side, I'm kind of a big camper with our family and everything. We do a lot of road tripping. Very old school. Get in the car, you know, go 28 days on the road, 6,500 miles. Our kids have seen every state except for Hawaii and Alaska at this point in time. And that was a big thing for us because growing up in Texas you get sometimes a tunnel vision of the world is just Texas and so we wanted, we wanted them to see outside of that space and to recognize so many different states. And now we're going to try and start doing international after that.

Mark Smith:

Nice, yeah, is this the last generation of big families?

Danielle Moon:

I think so because the number one thing I get from everybody is like, how do you afford this? And I'm like, oh, you got to be crafty. You know, we have two kids who want to play soccer that's a couple thousand dollars just for for soccer. Another one who wants guitar lessons or gymnastics. It's all of that. Stuff is very expensive, not to mention just straight groceries. We have three boys and a girl and our grocery bill. I am lucky if I can leave the grocery with less than $400. Yeah, easily believe that.

Mark Smith:

Yeah, Crazy right.

Danielle Moon:

Yes.

Mark Smith:

No, I come from a family of seven.

Danielle Moon:

Okay, yeah.

Mark Smith:

So I know that big, large family experience. I've only had three, so not one less. But I just wonder you know, you see around the world the decline in population sizing. If you look in Japan, particularly China, even now they're reducing down because the world's changing and the big families are just not there anymore, right?

Danielle Moon:

which is unfortunate, because those are like your built-in besties, right, like you can love and hate them so much, but that is the like people who always have your back, and I think it's just sad. When I meet, you know, like I have a couple friends who are little singledoms and I'm like how? And they're like, yeah, it's just me and the parents, like I'm the third wheel to a married couple yeah, yeah.

Mark Smith:

I'm like that has got to be interesting yeah, so so true, tell us about how you got into Microsoft this is a fun story.

Danielle Moon:

So I was in the consulting space and the person who hired me his name was Chris Simmons and we just kicked off right away. One of those people where I'm like I think we were separated at birth. We like to just rise each other. We have a lot of fun. Anyways, we were working together in the partner space and he called me up and he's like I got the call, you know, going to the mothership, and I was like I'm so excited.

Danielle Moon:

But, at the same time I'm gonna cry Because you're my ride or die when it keeps, you know, keeping me sane here. And he's like just give me some time and I'll figure it out. So about a year later I got the call that said hey, here's somebody that you should probably talk to very informal, see if it's a good fit. And it turned out it was a good fit and so I was able to get into the retail consumer goods portion in the enterprise space, which has been a whirlwind, because my background is oil and gas, so going from oil and gas to retail has also been a very interesting learning experience. So, but yeah, it was. It was very much somebody you know and that's something I always talk to. A lot of people is like your network is your strongest asset. Don't take a backseat to to your networking and your ability to know people.

Mark Smith:

Totally agree Women in Power. How did this come about? Tell me what it is first of all. What is it?

Danielle Moon:

Well, it's a never-changing event. So, women in Power I guess the origin story kind of tells you what it is. I was at a Microsoft event we call FAB Field Advisory Board, and it's really an amazing therapy experience where the field team gets to talk to the product team and we get to kind of say these are our wants and our needs, here's why we need them.

Mark Smith:

We get a lot of updates.

Danielle Moon:

It's an amazing, great time. This was an in-person event, so I was actually in Redmond, we went to a couple of days in there and, anyways, during this time there's about 70, 80 of us, I think, and at the end of it we're taking pictures and it's so exciting because everyone gets to see each other and we get into this huge picture.

Danielle Moon:

And I said, oh my gosh, let's get all the women together. And it went from the 70, 80 to like eight. And I was like, oh no, worse than that that, I will say, is that I didn't know every single one, right? And it's like, okay, there is only seven or eight of us, I should be able to pick you out in a crowd and I should at least know your story, know what you're doing in this space. And so I very much, as my chaotic world works, I said I'm gonna, I'm gonna start a community and we're just gonna try to actually get to know each other, network each other, understand the stories that we're trying to write so we can better support, because I think men do a really great job of networking and having those relationships. It seems very singular. Women are very used to being a lone wolf. I've made my space, I've worked really hard, I've had a claw to get to this point and we have a very innate need to just prove ourselves singular. And I was like we're not doing that. This is how it's coming across. And so Women in Power.

Danielle Moon:

I had a wonderful, amazing advisor mentor. He's going to love that I'm putting that out on him, but he can't get away from me. Dave Milton said so you said you were going to do this community. And I was like, yeah, yeah, and he goes. Where is it? And this was like April, and when I had this idea it was February.

Danielle Moon:

And I said, well, you know, I don't have a mission statement, I don't have all these other things like figured out yet. And he was like what is it the thing that you say? I'm like really just start, okay, bye. And I said, well, it could probably. Just I will follow my face. What if maybe nobody wants to do this? And I'm the only crazy person? And he was like you won't know until you try.

Danielle Moon:

And so, yeah, so I launched it and I wholeheartedly was like, if I get 100, because this is not just internal Microsoft, this is everybody If I could just get 100, how exciting and amazing would this be. And then those numbers just started going higher and higher and, like today, I think we're at 930 and its allies are in there as well. So it's just a space for us to have this ability to network. We started a mentoring ring, so we've had our first kind of mentoring set up. It was about three months. We're starting our second one. Then we also have some skilling that we're doing. We do panels so that women can talk to and see other women who are doing really well in this space. So yeah, so those are all the bits of it that we've kind of had fun with.

Mark Smith:

Good old Dave Top top. I've seen Susie in some of the photos and stuff recently. Susie and I mean I think Susie has the most cracking last name ever.

Danielle Moon:

Oh, I know.

Mark Smith:

Right that we've gone into AGI or Aggie, but when she first introduced herself, I tell you what that's an introduction that sticks with you, because I don't know, it's probably because of the timing we're in and stuff. Absolutely brilliant. Okay, so this space is amazing. Are you focused just on women across the us, or is it more global than that?

Danielle Moon:

we have representations globally. Yeah, we're pretty much everywhere at this point in time, which is amazing. There are a lot in the uk. I've definitely seen a lot stronger hold in the uk happening, but you know it's everywhere, which is great. And then we're starting to get kind of requests of like, hey, how can someone in austral Australia do more over here? How can we bridge, you know, some gaps? So that way it's not just a US focus, because I think sometimes we fall in that trap of just a US focus, and that's an area that there are some amazing women. There's a woman in Japan who her whole mentality is the wage gap is incredibly horrible there and she's like, if we can, she's the power platform has helped her actually succeed and having a very little wage gap in comparison to a lot of other women that she works with.

Danielle Moon:

And so she's like if we can get 100 women skilled up, we can have 100 women who actually could be making so much more and benefit from this. And so, yeah, there's, there's great little initiatives all over the place and we're just kind of connecting people up and saying like, hey, here's somebody who's really good at this skilling, oh, here's somebody who's running a lab or here's an event like. All of that is just kind of bringing it to the forefront, because the nice thing is that we have a lot of things happening.

Danielle Moon:

We don't have a lot of guidance on all the amazing things like Susie, you know, she and Dave and a couple of Amber and Roz. They've all been doing a couple of things around AI with this and so just making sure people understand, hey, this is available, this is free, take advantage of it. And then, of course, we also own some of the programming as well that we're working on.

Mark Smith:

Tell me about what stories are you hearing that have come out of it.

Danielle Moon:

It's coming up. It'll be a year. What in April this year you've been running, yeah it'll be a year in April.

Mark Smith:

Yeah, what's some of the feedback you're getting from the women that have got involved?

Danielle Moon:

A lot of them have said they've never actually felt like they had a community before, and so they love the fact that there's this amazing representation. The other big one is the mentoring. You know, I talk a lot about mentoring being such a huge piece as far as like networking as well. Right, it's, you've got to have the mentoring, you have to have a networking, and it's not just the tech. We're also getting a lot of stories coming out with soft skills. You know, hey, I didn't know I was coming across this way, or hey, can I get feedback on this? The tech is easy to learn, right? We have a ton of stuff out there for that.

Danielle Moon:

Where's the focus on some of the soft skills? Because one of the things that I like to kind of joke with is I work with some of the most amazing, brilliant people that I would never actually want to put in front of other humans, Because they're a nice little difference in how they come across. Right, they're not that smooth edge. They're going to be, you know, brilliant, but not human brilliant. And I think that's where a lot of women can actually come in and take over the space, because they have such a natural understanding of reading people and being able to do that kind of stuff lean into those soft skills. You know, and I said that's one of the feedback pieces we've gotten. The other is just excitement that there's that many people. I think a lot of us had this perceived notion that a lot of them I talked to they're the only woman on their team.

Danielle Moon:

And so their perception is this is just normal, and so when they see some of these pro developers that are coming in and being able to get a little bit more excitement around that and say, oh, I could have other women on this team like this is amazing, what do you guys do? How are you seeing the problem? And it's a different way of insight. So yeah, so I think a lot of it is just around mentoring, the networking and the excitement to have a space to call home.

Mark Smith:

With the mentoring. Are you providing any framework around it or are you just doing a peer match?

Danielle Moon:

So there is a peer match with it. That's going on. We're trying to automate that actually. So we're trying to drink our own cool lady or their own dog food, right, and so part of this is we're taking considerations. The first time we went through is very manual. This next time we're actually trying to automate a lot more of it so that your locations come into consideration. Do you not care if your timeline or your time zones don't match up? Some people are okay with having a 7pm conversation because they want somebody not locally to them, so we're doing more surveys, for sure, a couple of people who've given us feedback that I think we're going to implement in. But it's like forever changing. We're all learning. I like to say that we're leading with vulnerability because we haven't figured it all out, but we're just figuring like let's try, let's start starting and we'll go from there.

Mark Smith:

I like it. Do you have support from Corp?

Danielle Moon:

We have some of it. Yeah, there's definitely been some great leaning in. I think we've had, you know, sonia, who is the VP of power automate. She did a panel with us. She's been a great advocate. Susie's done some amazing stuff, roz, so we're definitely seeing a lot more leaning in. Honestly, it comes back to us having to make the ask. You know there's a lot of people who want to do some really big stuff. It's us learning how to make those ask and how to start driving the change. Now that we're almost a year old, there's so much more that we've been able to look back and say, okay, what's our next chapter going to look like?

Mark Smith:

How do people get involved?

Danielle Moon:

Right now we have the LinkedIn community. That's our main one. We also have the community on the community site, so that actually just got set up maybe a month and a half ago, that we're running our events through. And then we're working on actually getting more opportunities for people to do. We're going to start doing coffee chats so that anybody can come in, start just asking questions, start doing networking events. We're going to start doing that on a more regular basis. So the other thing we're trying to think out loud is there's a lot of extroverts, there's a lot of introverts, there's a lot of the mixture, you know. Within that, how do we appeal and make sure that we're getting all of those women to a comfortable space where they want to join, because it's easy to sign up, right, it's easy to say I have 930. But what we really want to do is make sure we're proving out that we have an active 930. So I think that's a lot of focus that we're going to be putting on for this next year.

Mark Smith:

Yeah, you said at the start that you didn't have the vision and the strategy and things like that, just to get going. What's your vision strategy purpose? I suppose, as you see it now, for women in power.

Danielle Moon:

Well, I think, with AI honestly becoming everything, we can't just stay within the power platform space. I think it means even more that we have to turn to that human element. So I see a lot of the women in power morphing into, like I said, some of those soft skills pieces. How do we make sure that we still have a seat at the table? And if there isn't a seat, how are we building those tables and making sure that there is one? There's a lot of great tools out there, a lot of those pieces that are going to come together, but I think part of it is definitely going to be AI-centered.

Mark Smith:

Yeah, interesting, interesting and any strategies in. I suppose, like you talked about the UK and my experience is the UK market is probably one of the biggest power platform communities I came across when I was living there. You know very robust and a lot of that's flown into Europe and obviously the US is large. But you know, do you plan to have you know pins on a map and that you're represented in these countries?

Danielle Moon:

Yes. So now that we've kind of have some establishment as far as people saying they're interested, we're now going to be leaning towards regional sectors, right, because I think that's again. It's you can have a virtual connection, but once you've sat down and you've had a drink or a meal or something like that, that's what really starts forming up these communities. So I am hoping that the beautiful thing of the Power Platform space as you know, we have this like subculture to us, right? We're a bunch of super nerds and so how do we tap into being part of the cool kids club and getting that representation? I think that means you've got to do something locally and you've got to have that good representation to start getting things to stick, because we want it to be multiverse too.

Danielle Moon:

So I have pro developers. That's an amazing great attribute, but I like to joke like I'm a personality hire. Right, I don't have the extreme technical depth. Now, can I solution architect? Sure, but I can't write code Like. That's just not my forte. I think we have this great ability to start bringing in pro developers, with people who have these soft skills and have them cross, learning from each other and putting them in the room and really helping, which is all what the power platform is all about. It's that fusion development. If we start thinking that way within our communities, I think we can skyrocket, because we can have a yin and a yang of yes, you're brilliant, you can code, but you can't talk in front of people. How do I give you a best buddy who can help you actualize that and be your hype team to push you to do those things? And that's one thing that I've already learned through the community is I've had some amazing opportunities to have speaking engagements and I immediately have that imposter syndrome of like I sell power platform.

Danielle Moon:

It's a fake job, right, and people are like no, like you're helping people understand that you change the trajectory of your career by getting involved with the power platform and it's wholeheartedly true If I had stayed just as a CRM person in the partner space, I would have not had the exposure I had and the fortitude to build the network that I have now, because I got into the power platform space. So, I want them to have that same opportunity.

Mark Smith:

Something you mentioned at the start. There was around woman being insular and you didn't know the eight other, the woman for that photo, and it's an interesting observation that I have seen with my wife who's 10 years in Google across three different countries. My wife who's, you know, was 10 years in google across three different countries, and I remember the country manager that she had in one country, who her perception was that she had got to where she got to because she ran with the boys she fought at the same level of game and didn't see the need to, if you like, empower other women. In other words, you need to. You know you want to have kids and and go out of the workforce. Well, that's your career choice.

Mark Smith:

And so there'd be this, sometimes this lip service from large corporations. Oh yes, we are open to women maternity leave and there'll be a job waiting for you when you come back. Blah, blah, blah. Reality is P&Ls, things like that. You know the male might stay in their career for that piece longer and it changes things, these type of things coming up in the community, and particularly, how can women support women to get ahead like that? We should all rise, if you like. It shouldn't be about. Well, I did it the hard way, so you're going to have to do it the hard way, or can I open a door for you that you know that type of thing?

Danielle Moon:

Well, I mean, that's a lot to unpack in there. It's one of those things where I was an oil and gas. You know, I was with the boys of the boys, old school club of Texas boys and I love them.

Danielle Moon:

There's an amazing space that if you do actually get to that level where you've proven out, it's not an easy space to be in, but it is kind of gratifying because you're like ah, I made it on my grit and my grace to be here. But what I've recognized through having women in power is that I never once said, looked around and said who else could join me?

Mark Smith:

at the table.

Danielle Moon:

I was just so excited to be the token, you know woman at the table that I wasn't thinking, oh, if I had somebody else who spoke or had mindset like me, I could win more arguments. That wasn't something that immediately hit and now, later in career, I'm realizing, man, I could have been doing so much more. I could have been driving so much more impact had.

Danielle Moon:

I not just been so happy to be a token woman at the table, and so I think that's also where some of this is coming in. Is you definitely have some women who are very sadly toxic because they're like I had to do it this way, so, like, until you bleed a little bit, you're not welcome at the table. Versus hey, I learned this, here's how you're going to want to approach it. You know, don't get these scars, they're not cute. Save your scars for another day in another lesson. If I can give you this, that's going to save both of us some time and effort, and then I can get you into the same room and now we can start sharing a story. Versus two of us trying to have the same narrative but not connected. It seems very confusing and discombobulated. Why don't we have a similar story? Why don't we have some of these things? And so part of definitely the women in power is you have some high ranking women who absolutely just fought tooth and nail to get there.

Danielle Moon:

How do we ensure that they don't keep that mentality? I tell people too, like I lived most of my career having only male mentors.

Danielle Moon:

The funniest part was I recently shared feedback that I had gotten that wasn't as positive as I'd like it to be, and when I told one of my old standing mentors, he was like, yeah, you know, okay, well, it could happen that way, and like it wasn't. I was like no, and I told one of my female mentors and she was like oh, so you're, you're assertive, cause I was, you know, like you weren't being aggressive, you were assertive in how you were saying that and I was like, yeah, the language change, just a simple change in that my male counterpart didn't pick up on.

Danielle Moon:

He was like, oh, yeah, he's like, but you're, you're confident, you know, and I'm like yeah. And I said, but I'm competent. And he was like, yeah, and I'm like it's not the same and I think also it's. It was a lot scarier for me to ask a woman to be my mentor because I felt more judgment of like oh, I've got to have my ducks in a row If I'm going to take up her time because I already know she's super busy. Versus I had no qualms of asking somebody. You know one of my male counterparts. As far as mentoring, advising, that felt natural just take, take a space. So that's another lesson I'm really trying to get women to understand. It's like it's the whole mindset If I go out with my husband, sure I'll look cute, it's a date night, so I'm going out with my girlfriends. There's another hour in the bathroom.

Danielle Moon:

I'm getting ready and having the right outfit so that I've got a good compliment on my shirt or my shoes or whatever. You're more fearful of being judged by those you know, peers, than I am of the other piece of it. It's just. I think it's a naturally. But how do we start leaning in to what seems natural and getting uncomfortable and being okay with being uncomfortable and saying, ooh, this is not how I'm wired, but how do I make a change? How do I stay aware of my wiring? Might need a little rework.

Mark Smith:

This is awesome Goals for 2025 in this respect.

Danielle Moon:

Oh world dominance. Is that too much?

Mark Smith:

That could be achievable by May.

Danielle Moon:

No, I think it's one of the things I would say. Our goal this year is have a couple of great success stories of women who put themselves out there, did the difficult thing, got a new job, got comfortable, being uncomfortable and leading in a different way. If we can have more of those shared stories to help continue the trend of you're not alone, how can I help you, how can I get you there that's our biggest goal, I think, is just take the 930 headcount, make them an active 930 plus headcount. Of course we want to get to 1,000 because why not? That's a fun number to say you have. But just see, growth in the community, I think is our biggest aspiration right now. It's just general growth, even if it's small. Let's celebrate those small pieces because we're very young in this mentality and how we want to go about things. So let's just celebrate those small things and just make it continuous.

Mark Smith:

I like it. Anything you want to add before I let you go?

Danielle Moon:

No, I think that's pretty much. That's all the fun I've got right.

Mark Smith:

Thanks so much.

Danielle Moon:

All right, well, thank you so much for having me. This is a lot of fun and appreciate all the good talk on Women in Power too.

Mark Smith:

Hey, thanks for listening. I'm your host, Mark Smith, otherwise known as the NZ365 guy. Is there a guest you would like to see on the show from Microsoft? Please message me on LinkedIn and I'll see what I can do. Final question for you how will you create with Copilot today, Ka kite?

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