For nearly two decades at Microsoft, Laurie Pottmeyer has been synonymous with community. She built and scaled the first Skype for Business and Microsoft Teams technical communities, launched and later led the Microsoft 365 MVP program — guiding individual product PM leads across M365 — and created spaces where authentic dialogue shaped the products millions now use every day. Her leadership went beyond technical forums — she championed initiatives such as Women in M365 (formerly Women in Teams) and organised pioneering gatherings like the Microsoft Teams Airlift.
To mark her transition into new adventures, we reached out to our own Microsoft community and invited them to share the questions they most wanted Laurie to answer. What follows is a conversation shaped not just by our curiosity, but by the voices of the marketers, MVPs and community leaders who have been inspired by Laurie’s work. Together, we asked this Original Thinker: what community really means, how is it changing in the age of AI, and what lessons endure after a career spent at the heart of Microsoft’s most influential communities?
Juliet Stott, Bright Star: After nearly two decades shaping impactful communities at Microsoft, what has “community” come to mean to you?
Laurie Pottmeyer: For me, community is where empathy meets strategy. It’s incredibly powerful when you think about it in those terms. Community isn’t just about a collection of people; it’s about creating a space that feels safe, transparent, and honest. When you establish that, trust forms — and trust is the real currency that lets you get meaningful work done together.
It can be two people or two thousand — the numbers don’t matter at the start. What matters is that someone has the passion to bring people together, and another person sees the value in joining them. That’s how all communities begin. From there, the circle widens as others see the energy, feel the connection, and want to be part of it. Over time, for me personally, community has gone from being a professional responsibility to something much deeper, almost like family. It’s not just a role I held at Microsoft; it’s part of who I am.
Pippa Jackson, Bright Star: How has the concept of community changed over those 18 years? And what’s remained the same?
Laurie: In the early days, communities were very product-driven. At Microsoft, we had this mindset of “build it and they will come” — we’d release a product with bells and whistles and assume people would naturally use it. Community was often about explaining features or helping people adopt them.
But over time, especially through programmes like TAP (Technology Adoption Programmes), we realised we needed to flip that. Community became less about the product and more about the people. It wasn’t enough to push features; we had to listen — really listen — to what users wanted, why they wanted it, and how they worked. That shift from product-centric to people-centric was huge.
Of course, the foundation hasn’t changed: community has always been about human connection. What’s different now is the expectation that technology companies co-create with their users. We saw it accelerate during COVID, when feedback became vital — the way people used Teams changed overnight, and we had to adapt. That responsiveness is only possible because communities exist as feedback channels, and because we take them seriously.
Jo Hollings, Bright Star: With AI tools like Copilot on the rise, how do you see the role of human connection evolving in communities?
Laurie: This is such a fascinating moment. On the one hand, AI brings incredible opportunities. It can scale community efforts, make knowledge more accessible, and even provide personalised recommendations. For community managers, it can ease some of the burden of organisation, data analysis, or even summarising conversations.
But I’ll be honest — it’s also a little scary. Think about content creators in our communities: AI can now write a blog post for them in seconds. But if everyone does that, where’s the authenticity? Where’s the voice? The danger is that we lose the human texture that makes communities feel real.
And in forums especially, I worry about authenticity. If someone posts a question and the response comes instantly from an algorithm, is that community? People don’t join communities to be answered by bots; they join because they want to feel seen and heard by other humans. So, for me, the role of AI should be to support community — act as a bridge, not a substitute. The heartbeat of community is still people. When I think about what makes me feel connected, it’s not speed, it’s being truly heard. AI can’t replace that — at least not yet.
Simon Doy, iThink 365: If you could go back, what one lesson would you share with your younger self at the start of your career?
Laurie: I’d tell myself to stop waiting for permission. For too long I was cautious, asking for approval, making sure everything was okay before I acted. My best successes came when I stopped doing that — when I just went ahead, trusted my instincts, and said, “I’m doing this. If it’s a problem, tell me.”
A great example was the Microsoft Teams Airlift. We’d always had one MVP Summit a year, but I thought: why not more? Why not bring people together in different places, more often, so they could connect more deeply with our product teams? So, I just did it. We held one in Amsterdam and one in Redmond, and it was transformative. It gave partners and MVPs a new level of access and transparency, and it gave us feedback we couldn’t have gathered any other way.
It was expensive, sure, but the impact was enormous. The quality of those face-to-face conversations was something you simply can’t replicate online. And it reminded me that sometimes the bold ideas — the ones you don’t wait to get signed off, but just make happen, — are the ones that have the greatest impact.
Jarmo Kussinen, Fresh Intranet (Advania Group): From a blank sheet of paper, how do you start building a community?
Laurie: Honestly, that sounds like my dream scenario. But the first step is always clarity: why are you building this community? What’s the purpose? Without that, you can’t measure success.
Then, start small. Don’t try to be everything to everyone. Pick a focus, build around that, and show up consistently. Communities grow from trust, and trust is built on three things: consistency, responsiveness, and transparency. People need to know you’ll be there when they walk into the room — whether that’s a physical room, a Teams call, or an online forum.
And you don’t need to have it all figured out on day one. Sometimes grassroots beginnings — a handful of people meeting informally — can grow into something powerful. In my own journey, what made the Teams community thrive wasn’t glossy launches or advertising, it was trust: showing up, listening, and being honest.
David Bowman, Fresh Intranet (Advania Group): What are the attributes of a thriving community?
Laurie: For me, the measure of a thriving community isn’t the number of members — it’s the depth of engagement and the impact of the interactions. I knew the Microsoft Teams MVP community had reached a turning point when conversations started happening without me. That’s when you know it’s working — when people don’t need you to broker every connection, because they’ve built the trust and relationships themselves.
A strong community leader doesn’t have to be the technical expert. I can’t code — but I built one of Microsoft’s most successful technical communities because I focused on people. I knew who to connect, who to listen to, who could answer which question. My job was to be a connector, to build trust, and to create the conditions where relationships could flourish. That’s what sustains a community in the long run.
Sari Sionoja, Sitra (Microsoft MVP): What are three key things to keep a community engaged?
Laurie: Engagement comes down to showing up, being consistent, and being transparent. But beyond that, you sometimes need to shake things up. People get used to formats — and that’s when participation can dip.
One example: at MVP Summit, instead of doing the usual keynote where leaders present slide after slide, I asked one of our MVPs to moderate. They collected “spicy” questions directly from the community and put them to leadership live on stage. It changed the entire dynamic. Suddenly it wasn’t one-way; it was conversational, authentic, even a little risky — and that made it far more engaging.
That’s the lesson: give people something money can’t buy. Give them a platform, give them access, give them a chance to shape the conversation. That sense of ownership and authenticity is what keeps communities vibrant.
Jarbas Horst, Fresh Intranet (Advania Group, Microsoft MVP): What’s been your greatest community experience?
Laurie: That’s a tough one, because I have so many. Speaking to 2,000 people at European Collaboration Summit was surreal — the biggest audience I’d ever had, and a massive case of imposter syndrome for me. But the one that stands out most isn’t a single event — it’s the feeling that I can go anywhere in the world and find a community family waiting for me.
I’ve had dinners with MVPs and their families while travelling, I’ve shown my kids the power of these global connections, and I’ve experienced first-hand how something that starts with technology can turn into friendships that feel like family. When I left Microsoft and read the hundreds of comments on my LinkedIn post, it struck me how many lives and careers had been touched through these communities. That’s what makes it my greatest experience: not one moment, but the collective impact.
Juliet Stott, Bright Star: Finally, what advice would you give to anyone wanting to start a community? What does success look like?
Laurie: Success isn’t about size; it’s about impact. You could have thousands of members but little engagement, or you could have fifty people who are deeply connected and shaping outcomes — and that’s far more powerful.
Start with your purpose: why are you building this? What’s the value for the people involved? Then, be patient. Communities take time to build. They need consistency, transparency, and trust. They need leaders who show up and who listen.
If you do those things, success will come — not in the form of numbers on a dashboard, but in the form of stories: people saying, “I found my people here. I grew here. This changed my career. This changed my life.” That’s the true measure of a thriving community.
Want to know more about how to start building your community?
