The geek in question: Latika Kirtane

The job title: Product Manager, Internet Explorer 8

I understand you've recently crossed over from the engineering side of the tracks to the marketing side.
I've wanted to be in computer science since middle school. I grew up with the Internet and remember logging into dial-up and getting charged by the minute, and getting yelled at because I spent 40 minutes on the Internet while I was updating my Geocities Web site. I got my Computer Science degree in 2005 and started at Microsoft as a Program Manager intern over on Windows.

After I got hired on, I spent two and a half years working on Windows. But I'd see these marketing campaigns like "The Wow Is Now," and I was like, "Who comes up with this stuff?" I was really curious about the marketing side of things, and it's been eye-opening to get to see how the marketing team prepares for a product launch.

Which of your geeky engineering skills have you brought over to the product marketing side of the tracks?
There's a fundamental understanding of how things work that marketing tends to gloss over because they are more focused on delivering the 30-second spiel and the elevator pitch. But I think that in order to produce a convincing and effective elevator pitch, you need to truly understand how the product works inside and out. I've been told that when Microsoft was much smaller, Marketing and Engineering sat in the same building, on the same floor, and there was a lot more communication. I believe that both the teams need to work together hand in hand and I feel really grateful that I can communicate directly with the engineering team.

So wait: did I see you in the now-infamous Songsmith video?

How did that happen?
Last summer, the Songsmith researchers put out a call for a usability study. The pitch in the mail was "Do you like to sing but can't write music?" and that's the story of my life. I love to sing but I definitely lack the ability to play a musical instrument. Well, I can play the flute, but you can't really do that and sing at the same time. I went to go try out this piece of software, and I was totally in love with this product. I got to meet the two guys Dan and Sumit who were working on it and they are so passionate — they love what they do. I got a random ping from Dan and Sumit a couple of months ago saying, "Hey, our code base is closing tomorrow, do you want to come record some things, we have to have a default voice in the product. Can you come record something for us today?"

So if you buy the product and you don't want to record something yet, I'm one of the two sample voices. Then they were like, "oh, and we're filming a video and do you want to be in it?" It was amazing to see how these two researchers brought the idea to implementation, and now they're owning the marketing for it. People have all sorts of opinions on whether that was a good idea or a bad idea, but it was fun. The whole video took maybe three hours to film. The original video is four minutes or so, but they edited my little barista segment into a separate video and threw it on YouTube just for fun. They didn't promote it anywhere … but it turned into this viral thing. I think there are something like 30,000 views at this point?

What's the feedback been like?
As fate would have it, I just happen to be in the main screenshot for the full length video, it's my little "leaning over look" face. So, that screenshot has circulated everywhere — my friend called me and said, "You're on the front page of Gizmodo!" I had so many friends on Facebook and stuff who sent me messages, asking "Was that you? I thought it was you, oh it is you." It was really hilarious. The YouTube comments have been hilarious too, like, "Girl needs to lay off the tanning bed." Or like, "Oh, her voice is so soothing."

So, what's next?
Who knows! Maybe I'll try out for American Idol now that I'm "the Songsmith girl."

Latika's Links: • Latika's Youtube channel: youtube.com/user/onlyelkay • Latika's team blog: blogs.msdn.com/ie • Latika's favorite charity, Be a Slumdog Millionaire: mscen.org/