Heather Perriam
Business Solutions & AI Practice Lead | Power Platform & Copilot | Accessibility & Inclusion Debt
Brixham, United Kingdom
Actions
Heather Perriam is Practice Lead for Business Solutions and AI at Trustmarque Ultima, where she leads a practice specialising in Microsoft Power Platform. With a background in solution architecture, she helps organisations connect technology decisions with business needs, from application delivery and governance to Copilot and AI adoption.
Her speaking brings together practical technical experience, leadership and a persistent question: who are we leaving out, and what is it costing us? Through her work on Inclusion Debt, Heather explores how accumulated barriers affect organisational performance, trust and innovation, positioning inclusion as a business strategy.
Heather speaks about Power Platform, Copilot Studio, accessibility, governance and careers in technology. She draws on her experience as an architect, practice lead and hiring manager, alongside her own experience of ADHD, to make these subjects relevant to the people building, leading and using technology.
Originally from the United States and now based in Devon, Heather supports women in technology and mentors people developing their technical and consulting careers. Her aim is to leave audiences with ideas they can put to work.
Area of Expertise
Topics
When Technology Overwhelms: Designing Copilot Experiences People Actually Want to Use
As organisations become increasingly AI native, many workplace AI experiences still assume users arrive confident, focused, and ready to experiment. In reality, people are often overloaded, distracted, anxious about technology, or struggling with constant context switching before they even open Copilot.
In this session, we will explore how small design decisions in Microsoft Copilot and Copilot Studio can dramatically shape how people experience AI at work. Through real examples and live demonstrations, we will look at how prompt design, conversation structure, accessibility choices, agent behaviour, and language can either increase cognitive load or help users feel supported and capable.
Drawing from real world projects and lived experience, this session focuses on designing AI experiences for real humans rather than ideal users. We will explore practical techniques for creating Copilot experiences that are clearer, calmer, more inclusive, and easier to trust without sacrificing capability or technical quality.
Poorly designed AI experiences do not just frustrate users. They reduce adoption, increase avoidance behaviours, and create friction across the workplace. You will leave with practical approaches you can apply immediately to build AI experiences people genuinely want to use.
Inclusion Debt: The business cost of leaving people out
“It’s the right thing to do” doesn’t always get a budget approved. So how do you make the business case for inclusion when decision makers want to talk about performance, cost and risk?
Start with what exclusion is already costing them.
Hiring for familiar backgrounds can leave teams missing skills and perspectives. Development opportunities that repeatedly reach the same people can leave capability unused. Technology designed around a narrow set of users can create workarounds, slow adoption and require expensive fixes.
These decisions accumulate. This session introduces Inclusion Debt: a business strategy framework for making those costs visible and helping organisations decide where to act.
Through practical examples spanning hiring, employee development and technology delivery, we’ll explore how apparently convenient decisions can create longer-term costs. We’ll look at how to connect those decisions to outcomes leaders already care about, including retention, productivity, innovation and customer trust, without pretending every impact can be reduced to an exact financial figure.
You’ll leave with a practical way to move the conversation beyond good intentions and build a business case for addressing the barriers holding your organisation back.
**Learning outcomes**
- Recognise how Inclusion Debt can accumulate through hiring, development and technology decisions.
- Connect exclusionary practices to business costs, risks and missed opportunities.
- Use the framework to prioritise action and explain the case to decision makers.
From Developer to Architect: Interviewing and Career Progression Best Practices
Breaking into the tech world is one thing but navigating your career path within it is another. In this session, we’ll explore the different journeys across three key roles in the Microsoft Business Applications ecosystem: Developer, Consultant, and Solution Architect. Each role demands unique skills and interview approaches, and knowing how to position yourself (or guide a candidate) can make all the difference.
From a hiring manager’s perspective, I’ll share insights into what interviewers look for in each role, how interviews differ between technical, consulting, and architectural positions, and the signals that indicate when someone is ready to take the next step. We’ll also look at best practices for candidates to prepare, common pitfalls to avoid, and practical tips for charting a career progression, whether you’re a developer looking to grow into consulting, a consultant aspiring to become an architect, or simply deciding which role fits you best.
Expect real-world examples, practical frameworks, and guidance that will help both candidates and managers make informed choices about role fit and career growth.
East of England Power Platform Summit Sessionize Event
London All Day D365PPUG - November 2025 Sessionize Event
Please note that Sessionize is not responsible for the accuracy or validity of the data provided by speakers. If you suspect this profile to be fake or spam, please let us know.
Jump to top