Angela Herbold, on a break from her busy schedule at Microsoft Corporation, visited the Graphic Design Program, School of Art, Arizona State University. She lectured during class from 10-12 March 1997. Angela talked to the sophomore, junior, and senior class. She gave both individual critiques and group lectures to the students.

Angela graduated from the undergraduate program in 1993. She is currently a Product Manager a Microsoft in Redmond. Her main products are Encarta and Bookshelf. Her primary activities include overseeing designer, software developers, and editors.

She views herself as a 'user advocate' between the audience and designers. It is important that the audience understand the software interface or the ease of use of their products.

She compared her role as Product Manager to that of an architect to structural engineer to building. Angela's design team will come up with ideas and present them to the software developers. Their role is to implement the ideas, if feasible. She is also in-charge of team morale, the budget, and hiring new personnel.

Freelance people work through an agent and are paid between $15.00 and $17.00 per hour. More experienced people might make up to $20.00 per hour for contract work. She looks for highly motivated people when interviewing prospective employees. Angela talks to the person before looking at their portfolio to get a sense of their personality. She looks for someone who is excited about her product group and is willing to research that before the interview.

Their products are mostly developed for the multimedia market (CD's) with an online link for product updates. Her experience as a print-based graphic designer helped her land the job at Microsoft the first year out of ASU. She has adapted to the multimedia side of graphic design through hard work and training while on the job.

It was a pleasure to have Angela Herbold speak to our graphic design group.
I think it was highly motivating for them.

Tel: 206 703 0735
Fax: 206 936 7329
Telex: 160520 Microsoft BVUE
Internet: angelah@microsoft.com