SWE Distinguished New Engineer
Nicole Woon
Microsoft
For deepening her subject matter expertise while concurrently managing strategic directives; for creating professional development programs to improve the SWE experience; and for impacting workforce culture through intentional diversity initiatives.
Nicole Woon is a program manager on the OneDrive and SharePoint team at Microsoft in Redmond, Washington. She owns SharePoint features end-to-end — from ideating and documenting feature requirements for the website-based collaboration platform, to building prototypes and testing, to releasing features and listening to customer feedback — and collaborates globally across disciplines to bring new functionality to customers. She also spearheads the team’s craft initiative, proactively raising the bar for releasing high-quality user experiences. Woon regularly presents technical sessions at conferences and assists customers in building their modern SharePoint portals.
Woon was initially recruited by Microsoft at the SWE annual conference (WE13) and joined in 2015 as a SharePoint support engineer in Boston. She worked directly with enterprise customers to troubleshoot technically complex SharePoint issues, often managing 10 to 15 high-priority escalated cases simultaneously and leveraging a deep understanding of SharePoint, Windows services, PowerShell, and other Microsoft Office products.
She also worked as a program manager on Microsoft’s People application, a user’s address book across devices. She was the accessibility subject matter expert and helped the application achieve product compliance and usability. While on the team, she published a patent related to storytelling of user-created content.
Her interest in improving work culture inspired her involvement in activities that attract talent, accelerate career growth, and retain employees. Within Microsoft, she was membership co-chair for Women of WDG (Windows and Devices Group) and Connected Women’s Groups. She organized meetings with women’s group leads across four engineering divisions, coordinated lightning talks for member engagement, and hosted executive board trainings. Woon also mentors interns, onboards new employees, and contributes to the company’s efforts to increase diversity and inclusion within its workforce.
A life member of the Society of Women Engineers, Woon is currently on the SWE Magazine editorial board and Society nominating committee. Her SWE involvement began at the University of Pennsylvania where she eventually served as section president. Under her leadership, the section surpassed numerous records, including new member recruitment and event attendance, and was recognized with the Society-level Outstanding Collegiate Section – Gold Level award. She served as collegiate director on the FY15 board of directors and has contributed to various committees and task forces related to collegiate engagement and conferences. She has also been involved with the Boston and Pacific Northwest sections, focusing on professional development programming and serving as a mentor, panelist, and invited speaker.
Woon holds three degrees from the University of Pennsylvania, where she was enrolled in the School of Engineering and Applied Science and the Wharton School as part of the dual-degree Jerome Fisher Program in Management and Technology. She received a B.S.E. in bioengineering, a B.S.E. in management, and an M.S.E. in mechanical engineering.
She enjoys trying new restaurants, playing trivia and board games, and traveling to new places domestically and internationally. Thus far, she has traveled to 43 states and 25 countries.