Impact

  • Established a product vision for the future of Edge – Identified an opportunity outside my core responsibilities, built alignment across disciplines, and helped set a browser-wide product direction.

  • Reduced long-term implementation complexity – Challenged custom browser treatments that required ongoing engineering maintenance, creating a path toward a simpler and more scalable architecture.

  • Strengthened the relationship between Copilot and Edge – Reframed first-party AI experiences as a natural extension of the browser rather than a separate destination, reinforcing a more cohesive product experience.

Takeaways

  • Great opportunities don't always come from your roadmap.

  • A compelling vision needs a business rationale, not just a design rationale.

  • The highest-leverage work often reduces complexity rather than adding features.

Skills

  • Design envisioning

  • Product strategy

  • Executive buy-in

Team

  • Myself, self-directed

TODAY

1 / 2

These containers cause problems

In theory, differentiating web content from the browser chrome makes sense. But it requires engineering work to modify and maintain from the Chromium build that we inherit.

For instance, when an OS changes the corner radius on the app windows, our build breaks.

TODAY

2 / 2

The side pane doesn’t feel native

The current design treats the first party Copilot side pane the same as web content: in a container with a drop shadow. Looks like any other website.. especially when we change the browser theme.

PROPOSED

1 / 3

Web content is now full-bleed

No more custom containers to maintain. This example doesn’t illustrate it best haha but notice the top left of the web content and bottom right.

I’ve also cut the drop shadows in favor of a simple stroke.

PROPOSED

2 / 3

First party surfaces should feel like it

I rebuilt the Copilot side pane using browser theme tokens so it inherits the same color as the browser chrome. Now the native AI assistant flows seamlessly from the toolbar.

PROPOSED

3 / 3

Not just the side pane

There’s some other first party pages that would benefit from this simplified treatment. Look at the new tab page. A clean welcome from the browser. This could be applied to browser settings pages also.

Status

  • Web container simplification is underway, with results estimated early 2027.

  • Engineering resourcing and brand considerations are being made for browser-themed Copilot surfaces.

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