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Betsy Norton-Middaugh
Group Program Manager
Microsoft
Redmond, WA

 

I am currently managing an internal production support team for employee compensation and benefits software at Microsoft. I stumbled into software almost 15 years ago after getting a sociology undergraduate degree and then starting a masters degree in business administration (MBA). As part of my MBA program I took a class in software project management where I found that I loved researching what a client wanted, designing a solution that would meet those needs, and working with a team to make that solution a reality. After I finished my MBA I got a job in a small mortgage software company, then moved to Microsoft. In my software career I've done requirements analysis, user interface design, usability testing, and project management. I love figuring out what people need to have to make their jobs easier and how software can be designed to meet those needs. Software development requires intense teamwork from a diverse group of people. It is very satisfying to me to bring those diverse talents together to create something far better than what we each could have created by working individually.