Backup and recovery
Microsoft | Identity protection
PROJECT OVERVIEW
Backup and recovery
For organizations operating at enterprise scale, a single misconfiguration, accidental deletion, or malicious change can disrupt critical access, compromise security, and put business continuity at risk. Yet many lacked a reliable way to recover, relying instead on manual scripts, screenshots, or incomplete recovery processes.
I led the end-to-end UX strategy and design for Microsoft Entra Backup & Recovery, helping bring a new enterprise resilience capability from early product definition through general availability. Partnering with product, engineering, research, and security, I shaped the recovery experience and influenced key product decisions—turning complex technical constraints and customer needs into a scalable solution that gives administrators greater visibility, precision, and control when the stakes are high.
Role
Product designer
Focus areas
UX strategy, interaction design, cross-team collaboration
Project scope
End-to-end UX ownership, concept to GA
THE DESIGN CHALLENGE
When one mistake becomes tomorrow's headline.
A single misconfiguration, accidental deletion, or malicious change can disrupt access to critical systems, compromise security, and threaten business continuity. For enterprises, the consequences extend beyond technology to operational, financial, and reputational risk.
Yet many organizations lacked a reliable way to recover. Administrators relied on manual scripts, screenshots, or fragmented processes to reconstruct critical configurations, often under immense pressure and with little certainty about the outcome.
THE CHALLENGE:
Design an enterprise-scale recovery experience that gives administrators the visibility to understand what changed, the precision to recover only what's necessary, and the confidence to act quickly without introducing further risk.
UNDERSTANDING THE CUSTOMER NEEDS
Through customer research and collaboration, I translated complex recovery requirements into three guiding principles that shaped the product's direction. Each addressed a critical tension between restoring business operations quickly and avoiding further disruption.
01
Flexibility
Incidents can affect a single object or thousands of configurations. Administrators needed the flexibility to target specific changes or recover at scale without unnecessarily disrupting unaffected systems.
02
Visibility
Administrators needed to investigate what changed, compare configurations, and understand the consequences of recovery before committing to an action.
03
Control
When business operations are at risk, every decision matters. Administrators needed clear guidance, appropriate safeguards, and visibility into recovery outcomes without unnecessary barriers to urgent action.
Defining the recovery workflow
Designing recovery at enterprise scale required more than connecting a series of tasks. I needed to bring complex technical operations, critical decisions, and potential risks into one cohesive experience.
I structured the workflow around how administrators investigate incidents, evaluate changes, determine recovery scope, and monitor outcomes. Each step was designed to provide the right information at the right moment, helping administrators make informed decisions without adding unnecessary friction during critical situations.
PRODUCT STRATEGY + INFLUENCE
From insight to impact
01 / PRODUCT STRATEGY
Precision at scale
I helped define a centralized recovery model that supported tenant-wide recovery, specific object types, and individual objects—all within a single experience.
IMPACTCreated a scalable foundation for recovery across different incident scopes, giving administrators greater precision without fragmenting the experience.
Confidence without friction
02 / PRODUCT JUDGEMENT
I helped define a recovery experience that encouraged administrators to review changes before taking action, while preserving a direct path for urgent security incidents.
IMPACTBalanced safety with speed, giving administrators the information to make informed recovery decisions without introducing unnecessary delays.
03 / CROSS-FUNCTIONAL INFLUENCE
Managing risk beyond the interface
While defining recovery progress and error states, I identified inconsistencies between the UI and API. I partnered with product and engineering to advocate for shared terminology and clearer communication of recovery outcomes.
IMPACTHelped establish a consistent language for recovery operations across the UI and API, creating clearer expectations around progress, failures, and recovery outcomes.
FINAL DELIVERABLEBringing it all together
The final experience brings investigation, recovery, and monitoring into one centralized solution, replacing fragmented manual processes with a more intuitive way to restore critical configurations.
By giving administrators the ability to understand changes, target recovery, and track outcomes, the experience helps organizations respond to incidents with greater confidence and protect business continuity when it matters most.
01 / Investigate changes - Explore object differences before initiating recovery.
02 / Define recovery scope - Move between broad recovery and individual object selection.
03 / Monitor recovery - See progress, completion, and partial recovery outcomes.
See it in the wild
Microsoft Entra Backup & Recovery reached general availability in June 2026, bringing a critical recovery capability to enterprise customers. Explore the official launch, product documentation, and webinar to see how the experience helps organizations protect business continuity and recover with confidence.
Beyond the launch
Leading Backup & Recovery from early product definition through general availability was an opportunity to shape more than an interface. I helped define how organizations could approach critical recovery operations, influencing product direction and navigating decisions where customer needs, technical constraints, and business priorities intersected.
The experience reinforced something I believe strongly about product design: the most meaningful work often happens beyond the screen. It happens when you challenge assumptions, connect teams around a shared vision, and make difficult tradeoffs that ultimately shape the product.
I'm proud to have helped bring a capability to market that gives organizations greater confidence in their ability to recover, protect critical operations, and build resilience into their security strategy.