Creating scripts and graphics for Microsoft Build and Ignite videos

Creating scripts and graphics for Microsoft Build and Ignite videos

As a product marketer, I’ve supported video production and scriptwriting for Microsoft Ignite and Microsoft Build, both of which are flagship conferences hosted by the company. I played a crucial role in owning production for videos about Microsoft Copilot, Microsoft Edge WebView2, and accessibility features in Microsoft Edge. I was responsible for scriptwriting, creating low-fidelity mock-ups of graphics, hosting dry runs with speakers, and bringing together the product truth, script, and graphics into a cohesive final video.

During my time on the team, I was involved in pre-production and overseeing post-production for on-demand videos on the following topics:

• How Microsoft Edge and Microsoft Copilot with commercial data protection enable organizations to support security and productivity

• Why Microsoft Edge WebView2 makes it easy for developers to make hybrid applications that leverage the best of web and native technologies, so much so that it’s being used internally by the Microsoft Teams team.

• A preview of new accessibility features in Microsoft Edge that were designed with the goal of making the browser more accessible and intuitive for everyone.

Responsibilities

• Create engaging on-demand videos about the value of Microsoft Edge WebView2 for bringing the best of web and native technologies and Copilot’s security and manageability features

• Ensure that on-camera talent felt comfortable and confident in their delivery

• Create graphics that effectively communicated key concepts and held viewer’s attention

Making complex things simple with scriptwriting

When writing scripts for these videos, I work with engineering and inbound product marketers to ensure that I understood the key features and value proposition to highlight in the video, especially for content that focused on new feature announcements. When working with engineering, my goal was to make complex things simple and break down technical concepts. For example, in the Copilot video, our video began by breaking down the challenges that organizations face because they want to ensure that their organization is safe while still embracing new tools like generative AI. From there, we proposed Copilot as a path forward. 

Hosting dry runs to improve speaker confidence

In addition to writing scripts, I also host dry runs so speakers can practice the script. I also advised speakers on best practices for varying their intonation, using hand gestures in an additive way, and maintaining an engaging presence on camera. Through these dry runs, I iterated on the script to make it more conversational and match each speaker’s style, and it helped them feel more confident once we went into the studio to film their segments.

Mocking up graphics

To ensure that our design team had graphics concepts that matched product truth, I used PowerPoint to mock-up screen graphics using icons and text, and I would provide direction on how to turn these mockups into motion graphics. By mocking up these graphics and providing feedback on iterations, our designers can focus on bringing these concepts to life and following Microsoft guidelines.

Portions of our video also showed new features in action, and I provided feedback to the design team to ensure that each graphic used an approved fictitious company and user profile and that steps in the user flow were clearly marked and written out on screen. This way, event attendees and viewers would recreate these user flows with relative ease.

Final on-demand videos

Ultimately, I was able to work with designers, engineers, and video producers to create videos that highlighted the benefits of Microsoft technology and explained key concepts in a visual and engaging way. I also ensured that the videos on YouTube had SEO-optimized titles and descriptions with clear CTAs to event content.

In addition to supporting these on-demand videos, I also ghostwrote event blogs about Microsoft’s vision to bring Microsoft Copilot with commercial data protection to more organizations and new Copilot feature announcements.

Reflections on creating on-demand videos for Build and Ignite

Working on these videos taught me a few things:

• Iterate, iterate, iterate: Every graphic, script, and thumbnail went through many rounds of iteration. We ensured that even amid changes, our graphics and script aligned with product truth. We also used each review as an opportunity to assess how well the content would resonate with a technical audience, transitions, and opportunities to simplify concepts.

• Always have a back-up plan: When working on one of our videos, we had finalized the video, post-production, graphics, script, and all. We then found out that the product name was changing, and we worked with our post-production team to update existing graphics with the name and screen to dub any voiceover with the old name and minimize disruption to the flow of the video. This experience taught us the importance of anticipating any potential changes and risks up front, which we do now by recording alternate takes of lines, creating modular graphics that we can update if needed, and assessing level of confidence with engineering and inbound product marketing

• Practice makes progress: For speakers, it was helpful to have dry runs and dress rehearsals as a form of accountability. This way. speakers would prep for these sessions and treat them like the real thing, which helped us provide more directive feedback on not only their content, but also their delivery and gestures.

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