Micah Laaker

Career highlights

As a product design executive, I’ve built products, platforms, operations, organizations, & careers to solve complex customer problems at scale respecting user data, organizational complexity, tech constraints, & businesses’ constant need to evolve. Further, I’m passionate about the planet & its people.

Elevated user identity across all of Google

2019 · Executive sponsor / Director, UX

Successfully delivered company-wide program aligning identity display & privacy controls across Google apps for CEO keynote at Google I/O.

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Unlocked the strongest usable security in industry

2013-2019 · Director, UX

Built Google’s global 6-site 85-person UX team (research, design, content, program, accessibility, & frontend engineering) to improve Account, Security, & Privacy surfaces across all apps & platforms.

Tamed Google’s untamed software process

2021-2023 · Domain Lead / Director, UX

Aligned Google’s $100M+ design-to-code toolchain for improved handoff, product cohesion, & x-org collaboration. Prior, teams made their own choices.

Rebuilt Google’s product building blocks program

2021-2023 · Domain Lead / Director, UX

Expanded Google’s modern UI components adoption program to drive predictability for users & ecosystem coherence for key actions (share, help, buy, feedback, contacts, account, etc.).

Setup self-serve solution for (visual) storytellers

2012 · Chief Product Officer

Launched scalable multi-marketplace publishing platform for 1000s of creators to sell on Amazon, Google, Apple, Facebook, etc.

Rewired the Internet’s homepage for apps

2008-2010 · Director, PM & UX

Led Yahoo!’s product & platform program to launch Zynga (& other 3rd-party) apps across network; guided development of new APIs, canvases, a Notifications platform, & overhauls to core apps.

Foretold the EU’s online data privacy nightmare

2004 · Director

Directed the multiple award-winning Pizza Privacy film for ACLU exploring dark data collection/sharing practices.

It remains the ACLU’s most downloaded and requested content.

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Improved launch quality by designing with data

2004 · Creative Director

Developed live-data-powered prototyping to scale, design, & deploy 150+ artist & label websites for Island Def Jam Music Group (incl. Kanye, Ghostface, Mariah, & Bon Jovi).

Set the course for the (technical) course setter

2002 · Author

Published one of 1st Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) how-to books, used by Google & others to implement the graphics standard in today’s browsers.

Took the title for ground-breaking music video

2001 · Art Director

Scripted and co-directed the IDSA Award-winning rotoscoped music video for hip-hop pioneer MF Doom’s first single, which shipped with every CD.

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Bridged entertainment’s Golden Age & Online Era

1998-2000 · Art Director

Led design for 1st online comics portal by Marvel’s Stan Lee, & designed & illustrated Disney Channel’s first online trivia game.

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I’ve helped some of the greatest brands (like Google, Yahoo!, Def Jam, Disney Channel, Marvel Comics' Stan Lee, and the ACLU) build teams, scalable products, and technical infrastructure to meet their customers’ needs… whether those customers are consumers, businesses, developers, creators, or employees.

Across employers, clients, and years, I’ve focused primarily on:

  • People: both customers and colleagues are critical audiences needing focus
  • Platforms: tools & infra provide unique methods to scale and evolve solutions
  • Progress: products need to evolve, unknown risks always emerge, and the experience must always improve

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Micah Laaker profile