It all began at IBM

My introduction to Dynamics 365 and the Power Platform was born from a completely random decision from the gods at IBM who on my first day as a graduate technical Consultant assigned me to the Microsoft service line. At which point I thought I was destined for a career of spreadsheets and word documents. After a not so pleasant stint on a PMO forecasting role as a poorly trained spreadsheet monkey I was thrown into my first Dynamics project. I was given two weeks to master dynamics before I landed on customer site as a ‘Dynamics Consultant’.

It was a project was one of epic proportions - a large transformational programme which was the biggest of its size in the UK insurance sector and a huge endeavour for a relatively small and less mature organisation. I started as a business analyst and proceeded to wear every single ‘hat’ for that project over the next few years - development, data modelling, customisations, testing, designing, support and so on. One might call it a baptism of fire and it was by no means an easy ride however the sheer amount of experience gained and knowledge obtained was incredible.

The more a leaned about Dynamics, the hungrier I became to know more. I geeked hard on weekends to get myself certified and set up lunch and learn sessions to fuel the knowledge sharing in my companies practice too. The feeling of family, community and never having to struggle alone made it all worth it.

Time to grow up?

Fast forward a few years, the market for Dynamics is going strong, my experience is ever growing and curiosity got the better of me. I decided it was time to either

a) grown up a bit and buy a house

b) move to Australia. It’s a no brainer really....

Moving abroad with a big global company should be simple but I’m my experience - it’s really not. The demand for Dynamics experience in Australia was huge so instead of waiting around for the dinosaurs to make a decision I found myself a much much much smaller consultancy to join in Australia. Two phone call interviews, three months and a visa later me and my two boxes of worldly belongings set out to ‘down under’.

You should write a blog…

Many times in my career I was advised to start a blog or write articles. Every time this started a negative circular dialogue in my mind like so:

‘what on earth should I blog about?’

‘No one will care’

‘I don’t know anything worth blogging about’

‘No one will read it anyway, what’s the point?’.

Until one day when studying for a Dynamics exam I got lost down the rabbit hole of understanding ‘Relevance Search’. With the help of Dr Google, experimenting and community documentation I made myself an expert and this was my first proper article.

I made a conscious decision to shift my mindset to create a more positive dialogue -

‘this article is a way to solidify my learning and a byproduct of the amazing stuff I have learnt/built’

‘If this helps at least one person then it’s a success’

I got such a kick from all the positive responses and encouragement. I mean sure it didn’t change the world but that’s ok. It was well received and I felt proud of myself, that was a god enough excuse for myself to carry on. The further I spread my network and got involved in the community, the more ideas I had for things make and features to discover than I ever had time to do.

Settling in

My first few months came as a bit of a shock. No processes, absolutely no support network and the most horrendous feeling of isolation. I was left wondering what on earth I had done to get myself into this mess. Then one evening I was cajoled into going to a Dynamics user group meet up by a fellow disgruntled colleague. I got my first real taste of the Microsoft community and I have never looked back since.

Maybe it’s an Australian thing or maybe it was because I was a lost soul on the wrong side of the planet in need of belonging (probably both) but the fellow consultants, customers and Microsoft-ies I met made me feel so welcome, valued and necessary.

Getting to know the Power Platform

Around this time was the rise of the mighty power platform as we now know it today. It was a period of monumental change and great uncertainty but also endless possibility. This reignited my curiosity for learning, so surrounded by like minded individuals who were all out there to help each other I jumped on board the power platform roller coaster.

Power platform life is not without its challenges, especially in the early days. Things were fixed overnight by unannounced patches, then torn down in flames the week after by new features. I still bare the scars to this day from the early canvas Power Apps building experience which nearly sent me running for the hills to Salesforce. The thing that made me stick around was a magical little thing called ‘Flow’. I was empowered by a tool that despite my lack of coding expertise allowed me to craft seamless automation between so many systems way beyond the realms of a dynamics workflow. It opened doors for me that I had never even been close to knocking before. I was able to deliver projects end to end without grappling for a developer to bail me out. I was hooked.

Seeing the benefits

I landed myself a slot at the local Dynamics user group sharing a monthly ‘ top tip’. I started finding more cool exciting stuff to write about, so much that I had to start keeping a list. Then with the encouragement of a very amazing lady I accidentally landed my first ‘proper’ speaking event at Summit Australia. Around the same time I also tore my hamstring which left a large running shaped hole in my life and absolutely no excuse left to avoid the task at hand. I blindly took a deep dive into the world of Marketing. What I discovered was a world of inspiration and heaps of fuel for my power platform passion.

Gaining all this knowledge and exposing myself to confronting challenges of networking and public speaking proved highly beneficial to my work also. I had access to so much more support than ever before and sometimes just knowing this is a huge confidence boost in itself. Difficult conversations felt easier, hard problems seemed more manageable and my customers were consistently impressed with my work.

Ignored Advice

Its funny now to look back on my six month in Australia performance review. The two prominent outcomes were as follows

1. My boss suggesting I should work towards becoming an MVP - I laughed in his face because “I would never be able to do that, it’s just not me”

2. Telling my boss that I wanted to learn more about/specialise in Marketing - He in my face and told ‘don’t waste your time, it’s absolutely rubbish’...

And here I am - an MVP in Business Applications with 70% of my contributions being in Dynamics Marketing -oh the irony!

The best is yet to come

I guess you could say this is a story about the power of learning to believe in yourself, sounds pretty simple right? It’s not. My journey so far would not have been possible without the support, encouragement and occasional ass kicking from the amazing people in my life along the way. Never underestimate the power of community and the value of belonging - the Microsoft family is quite simply a wonderful place to be and our door is always open. For me this is just the beginning - the best is yet to come!