"One thing I want to emphasize is how important it is to be kind to yourself. You will make plenty of mistakes and you mustn’t punish yourself when you do."

Over two days at Microsoft Build 2022, we conducted 541 sessions in eight different languages, covering 7 different solution areas including Azure, AI, Security, and, of course, startups.

Working with a team isn’t always the smoothest sailing when it comes to trying to democratize people’s insights and ideas. I’ve found that generating the best ideas comes down to not limiting your and your team’s imagination, because sometimes those “bad” ideas are the ones that find the most success.

Skipping or not investing adequate time and energy in this phase can be detrimental to your product and your team as you look to deliver solutions. No matter how sure you are of the idea, no one wants to operate under assumptions.

Melody Meckfessel is the CEO and Co-founder of Observable, a data collaboration platform that aims to help everyone participate, explore, and make sense of the world through data. Read about how her quest to help people learn more with data led to working with Microsoft.