Her Story
About Laura
Laura Vitanza serves as Senior Product Designer at Microsoft AI, a role she has held for a little over a year since moving to Redmond, Washington. With 11 years in the field, her expertise spans tech design, UX design, front-end development, and learning design. Prior to Microsoft, she worked at Google on the Android engineering team and as lead designer for search and discovery at Google Play, as well as in product design at Meta and at LinkedIn Learning. She earned her Master's in Information Technology, concentrating in design and learning design, from Harvard Extension School, graduating with a 4.0, and was selected for a teaching fellowship there while working as an academic technologist. Her earlier career included web design and learning design at a technical college in Maine, following freelance work in theater and commercial production. Vitanza is involved in organizations such as Lesbians Who Tech and Allies, Harvard Climate Resource Group, Harvard Women's Group, and Women in Tech. She attributes her success to grit and a growth mindset, and she advises young women entering the industry to stick with it, demonstrate their capabilities, and maintain curiosity.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Laura
01What do you attribute your success to?
My success comes from grit and a growth mindset. I don't hear no, I hear what can I do to push forward? What can I learn? If someone can do it, we all start from somewhere, and it's just about finding a way to do it, pushing forward, and constantly learning. Being curious has also been key in tech.
02What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
Stick with it and have a growth mindset. As a woman, you often face more hurdles and have to work twice as hard to show what you can do. Show you can do it, learn it if you don't know how, put in the time, take a class, study. Be curious, keep getting better at what you know and learning new things. Keep putting your hand up.
03What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
We're in a new space with AI where everybody's coming with different skills. The biggest challenge is driving design and making sure the bar for craft stays high while ingrained in code-first workflows. Working cross-functionally with product managers, leadership, and engineers to drive the codebase compliance and visual craft. Teaching designers how to code and working fast at velocity.
04What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
Be kind, treating one another with respect, growth mindset, be curious. Things change, so find ways to keep living those values, integrate them, influence one by one through volunteer work or organizational work, bring people forward and keep equality moving forward.
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