Kaitlin McKinnon

Cohort 13, Master of Communication in Digital Media
Senior Video Producer at Microsoft
Kaitlin McKinnon on LinkedIn

To start, if I approached you at a mixer and asked what you were up to and enjoying these days personally and professionally, how would you answer?

Professionally, I’ve been enjoying experimenting with different video formats and delivery systems, and finding new ways to expand my team’s creative range within our branding. Working at Microsoft comes with a fair amount of structure and constraint around branding and creative assets, so it’s been refreshing that our team’s growing video work with GitHub has opened up a whole new library of fun, social-ready assets to draw from. When we livestream a tech event, we’re streaming simultaneously to YouTube, LinkedIn, TikTok, and X (formerly Twitter), which makes it interesting to track where our viewers actually are. It helps us adjust and improve how we reach our audience based on topic and time zone.

Personally, I’ve been enjoying sketching with ink on a sketchpad. My life is primarily on screens, so it’s nice to go analog and have a hobby that’s creative, but lets me slow down and be present. Lately, I’ve been sketching portraits of friends. I love sketching human faces.

The Fall 2026 alumni newsletter theme is storytelling in all its various forms, a topic near and dear to Comm Lead. What is your professional relationship to storytelling and how and when did you become involved in the craft?

My team specializes in what we like to call “edu-taining” video content. We help viewers pick up new skills and Microsoft technologies in a way that’s actually engaging. We’ve produced dozens of tutorial series covering everything from C++ and Python to other languages and topics, and we make a point of having our software developers teach on camera, so people can learn directly from the folks behind the code.

The storytelling really comes from the “why.” We feature the same on-camera developers regularly, so viewers start to recognize familiar faces and get to know their journeys in tech. It helps build a real connection. We also film vignettes with customers, showing how they actually use our products, while pointing viewers toward free resources to keep learning.

Growing up, I was a huge movie buff as a teen. I loved how a good story could make you feel something. That’s part of why I find this work so meaningful now: hearing the stories behind the code, and seeing how developers build things that genuinely serve their communities.

Can you share a bit more about your current work in video, perhaps by sharing a project you’ve been working on lately that you’re particularly excited about?

My team co-owns over fifteen Microsoft-owned YouTube channels where we create and publish content from across the company. One of my favorite aspects of what we do is that the resources are free. No paywall; a low barrier to entry so anyone who wants to learn, can!

These are our top three most successful channels:

• VS Code YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@code 
• GitHub YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@GitHub 
• Microsoft Developer YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MicrosoftDeveloper 

Some of my favorite kinds of content we create include giving viewers a holistic picture of who the people are behind the projects. One of the our past shows I helped produce was “CodeStories.” Most recently, our team partnered with a documentary filmmaker who chronicled the history of VS Code.

To aspiring storytellers, what are some evergreen elements of memorable storytelling that you espouse?

Especially in this new age of AI, people are craving authenticity more than ever. Even inside a company as massive as Microsoft, there’s real power in being intentional about preserving and showcasing the humanity behind the story. We’re smart as an audience; we can sense that uncanny-valley, overly polished content from a mile away. So the way to stand out isn’t to compete on production value. It’s to lean into what’s real. Keep it raw, keep it human, and trust that authenticity will cut through.

Finally, we always like to ask: what’s a favorite piece of content—anything goes!—you’ve been hooked on lately you think Comm Lead alumni might enjoy?

Oh gosh—I have to admit: fall is hands-down my favorite season. I might be one of the rare Seattleites who’s actually thrilled to see less sun. And I absolutely love Halloween. It’s just such a fun, cozy, spooky time of year.

I recently caught the new “Resident Evil” in theaters, and I’m still thinking about it. For anyone who loves video games, it’s a total feast for the eyes—but honestly, you don’t need to be a gamer to enjoy it (Full disclosure: I’m not a gamer. But the friends I went with were fans of the game and loved it too). The film gives audiences the protagonist’s point of view, almost like a first-person shooter, which makes it feel wonderfully immersive. Without sounding too pretentious about it, it’s really just a fun horror thrill ride from start to finish. 😀