Where growth happens, trust must follow. In the enterprise technology landscape, this idea has become more than advice; it’s a survival strategy. As organizations race to the cloud and digital transformation reshapes every industry, the relationship between security and user experience now forms the foundation of sustainable growth. Few individuals reflect this convergence more compellingly than Favour Adeniyi, the 24-year-old Nigerian product designer at Microsoft, whose journey mirrors the promise and the challenges of a new global tech generation.
At the Heart of Enterprise Trust: Favour Adeniyi’s Mission
Favour’s story doesn’t begin in Silicon Valley or Redmond—it starts in Jos, a serene city in Nigeria’s central plateau. Her move to the United States to study Computer Science brought her into contact with the world of User Experience (UX) design, where psychology, empathy, and technological rigor combine. For Favour, product design quickly became not merely a career path but a means to merge creativity and logic. Today, she is a rising voice at Microsoft, shaping how global users first encounter the cloud through Microsoft Azure and Microsoft 365.
Why does this matter? In the era where “trust” is more than a buzzword, the technical and emotional architecture of enterprise platforms determines not only how companies acquire new users, but also whether those users will stay, grow, and advocate.
Designing for Both Growth and Security: Busting the Myth of Trade-Off
Too often, tech conversations treat security and growth as opposites: add more security, lose frictionless growth; prioritize growth, cut corners on user safety. Favour challenges that binary thinking head-on. She argues, “Security and growth can actually strengthen each other when done right. For example, one of the projects I led focused on ensuring enterprise accounts are secure the moment they’re created, with no extra steps or guesswork. That kind of clarity builds trust, and trust drives adoption. You can’t grow a product people don’t feel safe using.”
What does this look like in practical terms? Consider the “acquisition flows” for massive platforms like Azure or Microsoft 365. These are often the first touchpoints between a user organization and the Microsoft cloud. If security feels bolted-on or confusing, organizations hesitate or abandon the process. Seamless, default-secure onboarding, in contrast, not only saves time but also projects confidence. The result: higher adoption, lower churn, and reduced risk vectors—precisely the outcomes that both growth and security teams covet.
This approach is mirrored in best practices across the industry. According to a Forrester study, 87% of enterprise decision-makers cite “ease of secure onboarding” as a crucial factor when choosing a cloud services provider. Further, NIST’s guidelines for cloud onboarding repeatedly highlight user trust as the linchpin for successful secure adoption.
Understanding the Enterprise User: Complexity and Scale
Designing for enterprise users is not like designing for individual consumers. As Favour puts it: “Enterprise design is high stakes. The decisions you make can affect thousands of people within a single organization. You’re not just thinking about one user. You’re considering trust, compliance, fraud prevention, and scalability.”
This is an important distinction. Enterprise platforms face some of the world’s most sophisticated threats—from state-backed cyberattacks to elaborate phishing and social engineering targeting key infrastructure. As such, user flows must be designed for maximum clarity while maintaining robust compliance. In Microsoft’s case, this often intersects with adherence to international standards (such as ISO/IEC 27001 for security, or GDPR for data privacy).
Humanizing these systems—making them “feel more human and secure,” in Favour’s words—is about reducing cognitive load, clarifying choices, and preventing user errors before they become security liabilities. A misconfigured enterprise setting is not just personally frustrating; it can carry consequences worth millions in regulatory fines or lost reputation.
The Human Impact: From Jos to Microsoft’s Cloud
Favour’s journey is itself a testament to changing opportunity landscapes in global technology. Growing up in Nigeria, she didn’t see women like herself in senior design or technology roles. Moving to the U.S. to pursue computer science, she discovered UX design—a bridge between psychology, design, and software architecture.
Her experience mirrors a broader, industry-wide imperative: inclusion and diverse viewpoints are necessary for building systems that serve global, heterogenous user bases. “I want young designers, especially those from underrepresented backgrounds, to see that they can thrive in global tech. I didn’t grow up seeing many women from Nigeria in tech leadership roles, and I want to help change that,” she notes.
Microsoft itself has acknowledged—and acted upon—the business value of diversity and inclusion in building more effective technology. According to their 2024 Diversity and Inclusion Report, teams with greater diversity in gender, ethnicity, and background produced more innovative and robust design solutions.
Trust by Design: Strategies and Successes
So, what does “trust by design” look like in Microsoft’s cloud products? Drawing on Favour’s insights, several principles emerge:
No longer is security merely an optional add-on or ‘setting’ buried in administrative panels. Modern enterprise acquisition flows make robust authentication, identity management, and compliance part and parcel of onboarding. For Microsoft, this means default Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA), Zero Trust policy handshakes, and instant compliance posture scores as organizations create accounts.
As artificial intelligence increasingly drives everything from threat detection to workflow automation, the role of design becomes more complex—and more critical.
“Design is how we make AI accessible, trustworthy, and ethical. If we don’t get the experience right, people won’t adopt it—or worse, they could be harmed by it. That’s why designers have a critical role in shaping the future of tech. We’re not just visual stylists. We are builders of trust,” Favour argues.
This means:
Inclusive Design: Representation as a Catalyst for Better Tech
Favour’s secondary mission—mentorship and advocacy for underrepresented talent in tech—is not mere altruism; it’s part of a larger industry reckoning. Every aspect of enterprise design, from authentication flows to AI-driven recommendations, is shaped by the assumptions, biases, and blind spots of those who build them.
By mentoring young designers, speaking at global conferences, and spotlighting African tech talent, she contributes to a pipeline of future innovators who will not only fill seats but fundamentally reshuffle the perspectives that inform enterprise technology. Empirical studies have shown that diverse teams produce more secure and effective solutions in complex, high-stakes environments.
Potential Risks: Blind Spots and Barriers Still Remain
No progress story in enterprise tech is without its caveats. The very strategies that help millions come onboard safely can, if poorly implemented, introduce new risks.
The Path Forward: Lessons for Organizations and Aspiring Designers
Favour Adeniyi’s story is both inspirational and practical—a roadmap for organizations aiming to harness growth and security, and for individuals navigating nontraditional paths into global tech.
For enterprise leaders:
In enterprise technology, growth and security can no longer be pursued in isolation. As Favour Adeniyi’s work demonstrates, trust is the bridge—and design is the architect. From the first login flow to the last compliance audit, the user experience must inspire confidence and empower action.
The future belongs to platforms where secure acquisition is invisible, where compliance is intuitive, and where a young woman from Jos, Nigeria, can shape systems at global scale—not despite her background, but because of the unique perspective it brings.
By putting trust, clarity, and inclusion at the center, leaders like Favour Adeniyi aren’t just designing screens—they’re engineering the next era of enterprise growth. The lesson for every organization, and every aspiring technologist, is clear: where growth happens, trust must follow. And trust, above all, must be built by design.
Source: The Guardian Nigeria News Where growth meets security: A conversation with Favour Adeniyi, Microsoft designer building trust in enterprise tech
At the Heart of Enterprise Trust: Favour Adeniyi’s Mission
Favour’s story doesn’t begin in Silicon Valley or Redmond—it starts in Jos, a serene city in Nigeria’s central plateau. Her move to the United States to study Computer Science brought her into contact with the world of User Experience (UX) design, where psychology, empathy, and technological rigor combine. For Favour, product design quickly became not merely a career path but a means to merge creativity and logic. Today, she is a rising voice at Microsoft, shaping how global users first encounter the cloud through Microsoft Azure and Microsoft 365.
Why does this matter? In the era where “trust” is more than a buzzword, the technical and emotional architecture of enterprise platforms determines not only how companies acquire new users, but also whether those users will stay, grow, and advocate.
Designing for Both Growth and Security: Busting the Myth of Trade-Off
Too often, tech conversations treat security and growth as opposites: add more security, lose frictionless growth; prioritize growth, cut corners on user safety. Favour challenges that binary thinking head-on. She argues, “Security and growth can actually strengthen each other when done right. For example, one of the projects I led focused on ensuring enterprise accounts are secure the moment they’re created, with no extra steps or guesswork. That kind of clarity builds trust, and trust drives adoption. You can’t grow a product people don’t feel safe using.”
What does this look like in practical terms? Consider the “acquisition flows” for massive platforms like Azure or Microsoft 365. These are often the first touchpoints between a user organization and the Microsoft cloud. If security feels bolted-on or confusing, organizations hesitate or abandon the process. Seamless, default-secure onboarding, in contrast, not only saves time but also projects confidence. The result: higher adoption, lower churn, and reduced risk vectors—precisely the outcomes that both growth and security teams covet.
This approach is mirrored in best practices across the industry. According to a Forrester study, 87% of enterprise decision-makers cite “ease of secure onboarding” as a crucial factor when choosing a cloud services provider. Further, NIST’s guidelines for cloud onboarding repeatedly highlight user trust as the linchpin for successful secure adoption.
Understanding the Enterprise User: Complexity and Scale
Designing for enterprise users is not like designing for individual consumers. As Favour puts it: “Enterprise design is high stakes. The decisions you make can affect thousands of people within a single organization. You’re not just thinking about one user. You’re considering trust, compliance, fraud prevention, and scalability.”
This is an important distinction. Enterprise platforms face some of the world’s most sophisticated threats—from state-backed cyberattacks to elaborate phishing and social engineering targeting key infrastructure. As such, user flows must be designed for maximum clarity while maintaining robust compliance. In Microsoft’s case, this often intersects with adherence to international standards (such as ISO/IEC 27001 for security, or GDPR for data privacy).
Humanizing these systems—making them “feel more human and secure,” in Favour’s words—is about reducing cognitive load, clarifying choices, and preventing user errors before they become security liabilities. A misconfigured enterprise setting is not just personally frustrating; it can carry consequences worth millions in regulatory fines or lost reputation.
The Human Impact: From Jos to Microsoft’s Cloud
Favour’s journey is itself a testament to changing opportunity landscapes in global technology. Growing up in Nigeria, she didn’t see women like herself in senior design or technology roles. Moving to the U.S. to pursue computer science, she discovered UX design—a bridge between psychology, design, and software architecture.
Her experience mirrors a broader, industry-wide imperative: inclusion and diverse viewpoints are necessary for building systems that serve global, heterogenous user bases. “I want young designers, especially those from underrepresented backgrounds, to see that they can thrive in global tech. I didn’t grow up seeing many women from Nigeria in tech leadership roles, and I want to help change that,” she notes.
Microsoft itself has acknowledged—and acted upon—the business value of diversity and inclusion in building more effective technology. According to their 2024 Diversity and Inclusion Report, teams with greater diversity in gender, ethnicity, and background produced more innovative and robust design solutions.
Trust by Design: Strategies and Successes
So, what does “trust by design” look like in Microsoft’s cloud products? Drawing on Favour’s insights, several principles emerge:
1. Secure by Default, Not Bolted On
No longer is security merely an optional add-on or ‘setting’ buried in administrative panels. Modern enterprise acquisition flows make robust authentication, identity management, and compliance part and parcel of onboarding. For Microsoft, this means default Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA), Zero Trust policy handshakes, and instant compliance posture scores as organizations create accounts.- Industry Cross-Check: Google Cloud and AWS, Microsoft’s two major competitors, have likewise moved toward “secure by default” in both documentation and default configurations. Gartner research confirms that secure default settings reduce customer support churn and post-sale risks significantly.
2. Clarity of Experience
Security features that confuse rather than reassure are self-defeating. Favour’s design philosophy emphasizes clarity: “It’s not just about how something looks. It’s about building trust at scale.”- Best Practice: Microsoft’s Secure Score and Admin Center dashboards present a simplified overview of risk, with actionable improvements, readable summaries, and clear prioritization. Complicated jargon, extensive checklists, or ambiguous error messages are systematically replaced with plain language and step-by-step guidance.
3. Frictionless, Yet Secure Onboarding
One of the enduring challenges in enterprise SaaS is the tension between thorough validation and smooth user onboarding—a process that, if executed poorly, can jeopardize both security and revenue. By simplifying identity checks and automating compliance where possible, Microsoft’s teams provide “no extra steps or guesswork,” making security the path of least resistance rather than an obstacle.- Notable Success: Internal Microsoft studies have shown that reduced friction in acquisition flows correlates with up to 30% higher conversion rates for cloud tool adoption, while maintaining strict compliance and security baselines.
4. Humanizing the System
Enterprise users are not monoliths; they range from highly technical administrators to business managers who may have never configured a security protocol before. Favour’s empathy-driven approach seeks to bridge this gap, tailoring communication and interface cues based on user persona, access level, and role context.- Industry Trend: Recent developments in AI, such as adaptive UX and context-aware help (think Microsoft Copilot or Google’s AI-driven Help Center), point to the future of systems that preempt user confusion and tailor security guidance dynamically.
As artificial intelligence increasingly drives everything from threat detection to workflow automation, the role of design becomes more complex—and more critical.
“Design is how we make AI accessible, trustworthy, and ethical. If we don’t get the experience right, people won’t adopt it—or worse, they could be harmed by it. That’s why designers have a critical role in shaping the future of tech. We’re not just visual stylists. We are builders of trust,” Favour argues.
This means:
- Ensuring transparency in how AI-driven features work (especially those making security decisions)
- Providing explainability and override mechanisms so users can control and understand automation
- Designing ethical guardrails to prevent bias and unintended consequences in AI-powered tools
Inclusive Design: Representation as a Catalyst for Better Tech
Favour’s secondary mission—mentorship and advocacy for underrepresented talent in tech—is not mere altruism; it’s part of a larger industry reckoning. Every aspect of enterprise design, from authentication flows to AI-driven recommendations, is shaped by the assumptions, biases, and blind spots of those who build them.
By mentoring young designers, speaking at global conferences, and spotlighting African tech talent, she contributes to a pipeline of future innovators who will not only fill seats but fundamentally reshuffle the perspectives that inform enterprise technology. Empirical studies have shown that diverse teams produce more secure and effective solutions in complex, high-stakes environments.
Potential Risks: Blind Spots and Barriers Still Remain
No progress story in enterprise tech is without its caveats. The very strategies that help millions come onboard safely can, if poorly implemented, introduce new risks.
1. Over-Automation
While seamless onboarding and automated compliance checks boost adoption, they risk “automation blind spots”—situations where threats evade detection because the system assumes the default path is secure. Recent research from the Cloud Security Alliance flags automated onboarding as a growing vector for sophisticated attacks when not coupled with continuous monitoring and human review.2. Usability vs. Security Tension
Making security “invisible” to users improves convenience—but it can reduce user vigilance if taken too far. This is a delicate balance, exemplified by debates over features like passwordless authentication and single sign-on (SSO). Industry best practice involves active user education, “just-in-time” security nudges, and regular feedback loops, all of which Favour’s approach appears to embrace.3. Representation Gaps Persist
Though Microsoft and peers invest heavily in diversity, the tech pipeline for African and other underrepresented talent remains patchy. For every Favour Adeniyi, there are thousands more potential innovators lacking access, mentorship, or visibility. Systemic efforts—beyond individual advocacy—will be essential to close these gaps.The Path Forward: Lessons for Organizations and Aspiring Designers
Favour Adeniyi’s story is both inspirational and practical—a roadmap for organizations aiming to harness growth and security, and for individuals navigating nontraditional paths into global tech.
For enterprise leaders:
- Prioritize default-secure design in both customer and admin flows. Make the secure path the easiest, not the most burdensome.
- Invest in human-centric dashboards and clarity of communication, reducing jargon and making compliance self-evident.
- Regularly stress-test onboarding, acquisition, and compliance processes against real-world attack scenarios and user error.
- Start with what you have. As Favour says, “Start where you are. Don’t wait to feel fully ready or to have the perfect tools.”
- Blend your technical and creative skills; the best enterprise designers know how to speak both languages.
- Seek out mentors, share your work, and don’t underestimate the value of your unique background in solving complex problems.
In enterprise technology, growth and security can no longer be pursued in isolation. As Favour Adeniyi’s work demonstrates, trust is the bridge—and design is the architect. From the first login flow to the last compliance audit, the user experience must inspire confidence and empower action.
The future belongs to platforms where secure acquisition is invisible, where compliance is intuitive, and where a young woman from Jos, Nigeria, can shape systems at global scale—not despite her background, but because of the unique perspective it brings.
By putting trust, clarity, and inclusion at the center, leaders like Favour Adeniyi aren’t just designing screens—they’re engineering the next era of enterprise growth. The lesson for every organization, and every aspiring technologist, is clear: where growth happens, trust must follow. And trust, above all, must be built by design.
Source: The Guardian Nigeria News Where growth meets security: A conversation with Favour Adeniyi, Microsoft designer building trust in enterprise tech
