Break Into Tech with No Code, No Cost, No Limits

00:00:01 Mark Smith
Welcome to the copilot 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.

00:00:17 Mark Smith
Today's guest is from Bellevue, WA, where the future of work has been reimagined. 1 low code solution at our time. Our guest is Lewis, director of product management at Microsoft. He is leading the change on Microsoft's power up program, helping everyday professionals become low code developers for links are in the show notes for this episode. Lewis, welcome to the show.

00:00:42 Luis Camino
Thanks for having me, Mark.

00:00:43 Mark Smith
Good to have you on and the power up program is amazing. I think over 100,000 people have been through the program, pretty impactful before we get into it. Tell me about food, family and fun. What do they mean to you?

00:00:58 Luis Camino
Ohh food family. Fun food, love food. I'm a foodie love Italian food fun. Well, I like the beach. I like warm water and beach water and fun. You know what I I actually enjoy something completely non-technical. I like gardening. I like manicuring the garden right? Like not cutting grass. You know that's hard work, but just the the design and upkeep of landscaping and gardens. That's kind of my fun weekend.

00:01:33 Mark Smith
Epic. I get you. I've got a acre and 1/2. So and it's manicured. Like a park. So it's. Yeah, I'm bigger than.

00:01:39 Luis Camino
You have lines. The grass lines like you have a tractor. That you go through or.

00:01:44 Mark Smith
No, I have a robot. I have a robot mower.

00:01:46 Luis Camino
Ohh really? Yeah, look at that.

00:01:48 Mark Smith
Yeah. So everything the lines are 100% precise all at 90° angles, checkerboard pattern.

00:01:56 Luis Camino
Beautiful. Wow. Something to fire.

00:01:58 Mark Smith
Run silently all through the night, just silent through the night runs and all battery powered goes back to the charge station, goes out again. It takes about 48 hours to do a full cross cut pattern on that size area, yeah.

00:02:12 Luis Camino
Wow. Wow. Yeah, that's incredible. I have a Roomba. If it helps.

00:02:19 Mark Smith
It's the same type of technology just for outdoors, yeah.

00:02:22 Luis Camino
Dude, that's impressive. Wow.

00:02:24 Mark Smith
Yeah, it's amazing tech and it's like they're just at third generation of the device and big in America. This device I heard about it from American people and then imported one into New Zealand.

00:02:36 Luis Camino
How big is this thing? Like is it like 2 by 2?

00:02:39 Mark Smith
It's got 2 splitting blades and it's about that.

00:02:39 Luis Camino
Three by three or.

00:02:41 Mark Smith
Wide.

00:02:41 Luis Camino
Oh, OK.

00:02:42 Mark Smith
About 600 mil wide. I don't know what that is. In inches, yeah.

00:02:44 Luis Camino
OK. OK, wow. OK, I'm just expecting this. I don't know 1m wide by 1.

00:02:53 Mark Smith
Yeah. No, the company is my motion. I think you're getting buy on Amazon in the US emotion and it's called a luber. And you can get three different sizes based on the size of your lawn, all battery powered. You know, it's just using the latest in tech and it's just brilliant. Anyhow, we digress. What I'd love to do is talk about the power up program.

00:03:11 Luis Camino
OK.

00:03:13 Mark Smith
Can you tell me a bit about how it came about so a bit of history where it is now? Yeah. And then take us into what you're looking at bringing out next.

00:03:24 Luis Camino
Yeah. So we launched power up about two years ago now. We're really focusing on enabling career switches, right. I want to break into technology using local skills from the power platform, right. So that was kind of our mission. We I think in the first month we had. Over 30,000 or so sign ups when we launched it was impressive because honestly, we weren't expecting 3. So you know, the rest is history. Now, in typical Microsoft form. We've evolved. We continue to learn and so power up now is still a no cost learning Academy. We're calling it that now. We created it to help people now build real-world AI skills, right. And so fitting for your show, not technical background needed. Right. It's really designed to be super approachable, right? I mean, technology can be daunting. So whether you're just curious about AI, you're looking to apply it in your job. Up. Power up just gives you the tools to do that. It's hands on. It's flexible. Focus on what actually matters in today's workplace. For example, you know, using AI to solve real problems like, I don't know, automating repetitive tasks, right? Generating insights from data. I personally use it to get insights from our monthly cohorts. To improve and delight our program participants, so we do drink our own champagne, right and apply. It so that's a little bit about power up. And how it came about?

00:05:03 Mark Smith
How many people have been through it? Now so far.

00:05:05 Luis Camino
The latest counts? Ohh, we got it. I think we're now approaching over 120,000 or so. Yeah. Every month we launch a court. And so we have anywhere from 5 to 10,000 people. Join and not everyone finishes right? I mean it's, you know, life happens right. Cohorts run right now 8 weeks long and so it's a commitment, right. People life happens right. And so not everyone complete but there's that they do walk away with at least a basic understanding of the technology. And we hear it all the time. Hey, I couldn't complete it. Can you add me to another call or can you move me right I want.

00:05:49 Luis Camino
To continue life happen or. Hey, you know, I I'm really busy at work, but I just grab what I needed and now I'm applying it to us. That's successful, right? Whether or not you you.

00:06:01 Mark Smith
So it's an 8 week program and is it? Do they meet every week or what's the story? And I take it it's all by Microsoft Teams.

00:06:08 Luis Camino
Yeah, yeah. So every week we have a curriculum curated for you to get started, right and to complete. And so the idea is you're not alone. You're not learning alone, right. There's other programs out there that do this, really. The what makes us slightly different than other programs is that or AI courses out there is that power up. It's applied learning, right? You're gonna work on real projects, right. Which at the end, if you're adventurous, you can showcase, you know, a project. At the end of the course, and even earn additional program badges as a reward right? For showcasing that you know you were able to apply the skills you learned right? And and I think that that's really where folks get most excited about it can be daunting, right? There's a lot all the time. Where? Am I going to be able to do this? I really want to do this right, and so you gotta trust the process, but that's a unique differentiator for us, right. It's really practical in nature.

00:07:14 Mark Smith
Yeah. So tell us about the badging and how much you know that drives motivation. How do you deal with learner motivation? And because I know that you're not wanting to do like the gym membership scenario where you just get sign ups and you don't get follow through right because you want to see. Fuel transfer happen and obviously in this case it's free to sign up and so there's no cost to the course. How do you then keep people motivated? And does Badgers play a part of that?

00:07:42 Luis Camino
Yeah, that's actually part of the and some of their insights that we're constantly trying to extract out of learner behavior, right, fully anonymous, I should say, badging. It's a great motivator. There is some other elements that are, let's just call it people like to compete most. Some people like to compete, right? We there's some friendly competition, we have a leaderboard as an example, right? So you can figure out if you joined as a group at an enterprise, you know you can see Marcus 1st and Lewis last right. So you know that may motivate me to be like no I you know I got you mark right. I'm going to race to the top right. So there's some gamification.

00:08:16 Mark Smith
Yeah.

00:08:22 Luis Camino
Components there, but honestly a great motivator for folks is our mentor group, right? So we. Are a program another differentiator that is supported by a group of mentors? We have hundreds of these folks. They are the core success pillar for the program because they are the ones that volunteered their time. These are NDP's MBTS right super users in the community, right? They give their time to unblock a learner when they are stuck in an exercise, right so they can join. We have live Q&A calls every week. We're in three different time zones, so if you know you're stuck and you want to speak to someone. These mentors are there and we call them champs. They are there to help unblock and also teach. Yeah, because they want to give back. And so oftentimes these calls go from. I have this issue and then they're maybe like hey, maybe you wanna learn about this too, right? So you, you know, they even augment to it to them. And some of them even volunteer their weekends. Can set up special champ but sponsored calls where learners are like oh man, I want to join. That one right? Makes sense. I have another one that's running an all Spanish speaking. Wow, work right? There's no way we could scale that. And so we're so incredibly thankful and not humbled by their contribution. Yeah. So that's a great motivator.

00:09:56 Mark Smith
So in that Spanish example, do they convert all your training materials to Spanish, or is it still in English? The actual core training? And do you separate the core training? You talked about Q&A. How is the core training delivered that you're providing?

00:10:12 Luis Camino
Yeah. So my understanding again because they're kind of running this on their own and we're learning, you know, from their experience, we have a learning. Think of it as a learning management system, right?

00:10:24 Mark Smith
Yes.

00:10:25 Luis Camino
Built on top of our platform. Of course, right. And we call it the learner hub. And so in the learner hub, every learner comes in and and kind of goes through the Lesson plan. We have learning paths, we have courses and within these courses we have modules and the learners just kind of come in and complete these objectives. It's video based. So Yep, expert lead. Because we have incredible people building this curriculum for our part, for our learners, and to answer your question and does it get translated yet it's not localized, so it's English only. I found out it's an incredible. Budget. Ask to localize. Yes, in the 13 languages right. Primary languages and localized content on so. One of these days you know we'll get there, but right now it's English only and these folks are just kind of grabbing it and teaching and they meet on their own. And so they I'm assuming it's all in Spanish. Obviously. And then they kind. Of learn is this, that community feeling right? Like you're not alone. Right. And so that's the good, that's the motivator right there, right. With someone may be guiding you when you're stuck, you're still doing self-paced learning but you can raise your hand, right interact. You know people that actually.

00:11:31 Mark Smith
Yes.

00:11:41 Luis Camino
This is Alina. They met their significant other in one of these. Words. I have another one where a story where they an entire family, husband, wife, mom and dad and children, adult children. It's five of them. They joined us a family and they all kind of went through the curriculum. They added a smaller group and they did this together. I thought that was incredible. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. So you get to do it with somebody else.

00:12:08 Mark Smith
Ohh cool.So just looking at the curriculum, it started off obviously very platform low code centric. But am I right? My understanding is that you are now pivoting and creating a program that is more AI skill transfer focus.

00:12:23 Luis Camino
Yeah. And not just pivoting, it's expanding. I would say, right. I mean power.

00:12:27 Mark Smith
So you're still doing the power platform, but this is. A separate power up track.

00:12:32 Luis Camino
It's yeah. Think of it as a separate learning path right where your if you wanna, you know, continue to learn and upscaling low code. Right. Fantastic. We got you. Right where there's we wanna meet you where you are.

00:12:35 Mark Smith
Yes.

00:12:47 Luis Camino
Which is expanding the learning path to now include copilot studio right and how to build conversational and autonomous ages.

00:12:58 Mark Smith
Yeah, yeah, it's on the AI side of it, is it M365 copilot? So the whole prompting and researcher and things like that. And then copilot studio for building your own custom chat. Slash agent experiences do you go as far as foundry?

00:13:15 Luis Camino
Not yet. So part of the what's next? I think you asked me this question. What's next in for power up? So we're constantly building, right. Adding new content is. For priority, meaning new curriculum and for those that you know, we'll do a quick plug here for our power platform community conference happening in October in Las Vegas.

00:13:30 Mark Smith
Yes.

00:13:39 Luis Camino
If you happen to be there, you know, say hello. And for your listeners, please say hi. If you see us, we're gonna make some announcements there, curriculum wise, right and we believe. That, you know, there's a vast majority of folks that she's going to get started, right. Think of it like I'll refer to it as beginner introductory level 100 type course. Yeah. We want to deliver that. And yes, take it up to the 2300 and then maybe, you know, we'll start going into the 400 and maybe you can bring your own model. I don't know. We'll see the state. Yeah. For an announcement. PC. Yeah.

00:14:13 Mark Smith
Yeah. I like it. I like. Any success stories that you've had that kind of highlight to you that have come out of folks that have been through the program anywhere in the world because they take it it just so the audience knows this is any country, it doesn't matter where you're from, right? As long as you got an Internet connection, you can get on.

00:14:35 Luis Camino
The program. That's right, it's worldwide. So anybody can sign up and success stories there. You know, I've seen my share of very humbling stories where someone with. I mean, it's you. You forget sometimes, right? But, like, fast Internet people doing this in tethering on their phone or sometimes consuming curriculum on their phone, which I don't really advise for an optimal learning experience. But I have been told personally, hey, I did.

00:15:04 Mark Smith
Yeah.

00:15:11 Luis Camino
Is outside a warehouse on my mobile phone and I borrow somebody's laptop to complete and I'm incredibly thankful and and that to me is very humbling, very impact that you forget, right? Like access, you know, to Internet and devices what that means. And they've gotten jobs. And I'm not promoting that. Power up will get you. A job, right? But the stories of these folks just completing the program and then doing something, I always like to say that people already have skills, right? For the most part, if you're at a workplace, you're for instance.

00:15:35 Mark Smith
Yeah.

00:15:49 Luis Camino
Applying a skill right? What this program is intended to do now is preparing you for the future of work and also enabling you to do more right and be more productive, right? I have another person that asked me, hey, I kind of want to leave my job. I'm tired. I want to change careers. I joined your program. What can I do now? Yeah. And quick conversation about this. And as I started kind of peeling the onion a little bit, this individual had incredible skill set. In his domain. And yeah, I'm like, why do you want to leave that right like? I don't have this skill right, like I can build the solution, but I need to interview you, right? Like you're the see me, right? The subject matter expert. All you need to do now is. Pivot to apply what you learn inside your workplace right, and figure out what you can build and you know some people getting the rock right. Like I'm stuck. This for the past. Three years, right. I just wanna. Change, but you have amazing skills and so this program is aimed to just. Help amplify these skills, make you more productive and maybe innovate along the way right and do something else while still. Perhaps if you love what you do, still stay in your domain, right or area.

00:17:13 Mark Smith
Yeah, I've had a lot of feedback from as a lot of people that have been on my 90 day mentoring challenge then either go to do power up and. Have you know? Given very positive feedback to the communities I run or. People that have done it before coming to my program, but one of the things that I've noticed more and more is enterprise customers coming and go, hey, can we put 20? Can we put 30 people through the program, you know, from our business? Are you seeing that as well that enterprises are coming to you and going hey, we want to give. Value back to our staff and get more up to a certain level of. Let's call it digital literacy, because they can see the world of business is changing. Are you getting feedback from those enterprise organizations?

00:17:58 Luis Camino
Yes, yes, actually. So for companies, we do run a power up offering for enterprise that enterprises can sign up for. It's the cost is still free. There's it's always going to be free and they're coming in from multiple angles, right? Some of them come and say look.

00:18:16 Luis Camino
OK. We're new to this. We just need a way to train teams right, and we want to. Measure the progress. Great, right? I mean, we have reporting, right? We can tell you you know who completed it and who got a badge and who didn't, right, the enterprise level others are and you know I would say those folks that come in and say, look, I just want to obscure my. Team, that's how it. Starts, but when they find out that we are a practical. Curriculum, right? Like you actually gotta roll up your sleeves, learn by doing, and they hear that we have this showcase presentation at the end, right, that you know their employees can actually do showcasing their skills, right? For credit, it's incredibly impactful. We have enterprises. It's. I had been extremely successful at this. There, they actually don't even allow people to join unless they submit a write up us to like what it is that they want to transform. Whether it's AI transformation or digital transformation, you know. And then they get the approval, right. So I guess I'm assuming this is so that they can do it on company time. And the output. At the end of these cohorts, it's incredible. I mean, I can't disclose this obviously because of confidential. Since, but they put out solutions that I'm like blown away right after they complete learning, right? And so it's not. I watched something and then I went away and forgot about it. And now maybe I wanna two months on the road. I wanna rewatch it. No, they walk away doing something. Transforming something within the. Processes or workflows and. They're like, wow. We want more right and so hence why we're trying to figure out also how we expand on curriculum and other areas. But yeah, no, it's incredible. Enterprises are also benefiting.

00:20:11 Mark Smith
So for the enterprise, do you run a separate program for those enterprise customers like just tailored to them Or are they become part of the whatever cohort is going through at this time?

00:20:20 Luis Camino
Yes, great, great question. No, there was no way I we could we could scale. We're a I I tell my team all the time like you know we're. Mighty Tiny teen right and so scale is in our DNA. And so we run the same program we sent we a an enterprise learner will still leverage the same platform, same curriculum that delta really in here is and this is the skill component we have to partner together I call them. The enterprise core. Coordinators it is this individual that partners with us and you know, we give you a kit to a comms kid we you know, we are bored of you. We you know we we do train the trainer sessions right, they become an extension of. Our team, in other words. Right. And so they are managing their own course. They are basically saying. Yeah. Thanks, Louis. You guys run a monthly cohort. Fantastic. I wanna run it every two. Weeks. Or I want. To run it every two months. I. Have a company that runs it every three months. Fantastic, right? They're in control of that. So the tool itself as a coordinator allows you to configure that and it gives you some flexibility in curriculum, in particular the governance piece, right. I mean, we, we are partnering with the organization. We want to make sure that it is on board, personal development environments need to be enabled, right. The OP needs to be out there in a way that allows for experimentation to take place, right? Because it again, it's learned by doing. Right. And so. We partner with their enterprises to say to say hey, maybe you want to record a video. How did the governance at Acme, Inc right record it, give it to us with plug it in for for their instance and every learner that comes in must watch that video perhaps, or complete the learning objective. So there is some personalization?

00:22:04 Mark Smith
Nice.

00:22:06 Luis Camino
He's there. But all through the same learning. Platform.

00:22:09 Mark Smith
Superb. Yeah. If people want to get involved as a mentor or actually get on the program, what's the website? Your URLs? They need to go to.

00:22:16 Luis Camino
Great question. It's super easy hit to power up site AKA dot Ms. Power up, sign up. We'll take it from there. Our team will use the applications. Then they let's just single out like a learner and and and mentor both sign up on the same site. Then we'll we'll have. We'll trigger some journeys there to just follow up with you, tell you when the next cohort is or if we need additional information. If you're a mentor and then from there, it's just kind of onboarding and learning or or contributing.

00:22:48 Mark Smith
I like it and is that the same URL for the enterprise to get? Involved.

00:22:51 Luis Camino
Yes, it is sign up form is in. The middle for. A learner and if you scroll all the way to the bottom, there's a way for volunteers the mentors to sign up and volunteer their time.

00:23:00 Mark Smith
Superb, Luis, thank you so much for coming on and sharing about. The power program.

00:23:05 Luis Camino
I appreciate you. Thanks for the opportunity. Hope to. See you at PC.

00:23:09 Mark Smith
Hey, thanks for listening. I'm your host, Mark Smith, otherwise known as the NZ 365 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? Kaki day.