Automattic Women: Michelle Langston
Welcome to Automattic Women—conversations with some of the remarkable women working all over the world to design and develop Automattic software and make the web a better place. Today’s interviewee is designer Michelle Langston.
Automattician Michelle Langston after completing a dragon
boat race.
Welcome to Automattic Women—conversations with some of the
remarkable women working all over the world to design and develop Automattic
software and make the web a better place. Today’s interviewee, Michelle Langston, is a Tar
Heel-born-and-bred web designer and developer who built her first site at the
age of 14. At Automattic, Michelle’s a Creative Technologist who works from her
home in the Bay Area.
Who are you, and what do you do?
At Automattic, I work on a team that helps interesting
people, organizations and projects have an excellent experience with their
WordPress websites. I currently lead one of the sub-teams that is responsible
for launching new websites. My team does everything from building relationships
with our partners to seeing a website project from initial discovery, design,
and development all the way through launch.
What’s a typical day like for you?
There is no typical day! As a team lead, my job is to make
sure my team members have what they need to be successful in their roles. On a
given day, I may be meeting with team members for our regularly scheduled 1:1s,
checking on projects, and handling other team administrative tasks as needed. I
also collaborate with my fellow team leads for the other sub-teams on overall
team processes and strategies.
What drew you to Automattic and what keeps you here?
What drew me to Automattic was the chance to do what I love,
which is building websites with WordPress and exploring all of the things that
WordPress can do! I joined Automattic in 2011 as a Theme Wrangler, back when
remote work was a relatively new concept. The fact that the work was remote was
also a major draw.
What keeps me at Automattic are first and foremost, my
colleagues. I could not ask for better team members! Next, I appreciate the
care that Automattic takes for its employees, and the flexibility that we get
when it comes to building work into our unique life situations, which I feel
has been a great gift!
Finally, this company is a dream company for introverts like
me—I’m so grateful to Automattic for believing in me and my potential as a team
lead, even though I’m an introvert!
Michelle relaxes during a tour of Frank Lloyd Wright’s School of Architecture in Arizona—a trip that was part of an Automattic Design Team meetup in 2019.
Michelle relaxes during a tour of Frank Lloyd Wright’s
School of Architecture in Arizona—a trip that was part of an Automattic Design
Team meetup in 2019.
What’s your favorite non-work activity?
I love paddling with my local dragon boat team. I got into the sport in 2012 shortly after moving to the Bay Area, and I have never looked back. It’s turned into not only a fun, regular source of exercise, but also a group of friends of all ages that is almost like a second family. We paddle together, laugh together, travelled to races together, celebrate together, and have endured hard times together.