![]() Drawing inspiration from the viral Welcome to the Internet meme by Jason Heuser, Lemson created a graphic for a PowerPoint presentation that showed the cat (which Lemson says is a female) on a unicorn holding a flag adorned with the Microsoft logo. The whole ninja cat buzz was kind of accidental, Lemson explained in a blog post. rex, “it effectively becomes unstoppable,” Lemson said. “You’ve seen that meme, right?” (I hadn’t.)īut if you put grabby arms on a T. The original ninja cat rode a unicorn, but Lemson explained why the T. The stuffed ninja cat in Lemson’s office is mounted on a Tyrannosaurus rex, one of the many steeds the character can be found riding on in toy form, on stickers, emblazoned on other gear, and even in desktop themes for Windows. Lemson created ninja cat in 2014, and it has been affectionately named Microsoft’s unofficial mascot. rex, Lemson’s favorite of all the ninja cat steeds. ![]() Since then, ninja cat-with its message of playfulness, unity, and pride-has been embraced as an unofficial mascot by many Microsoft employees. A gift from a coworker, the toy is more than office decoration: it’s ninja cat, the character Lemson created in 2014. ![]() “Oh, just let me move that,” she said, grabbing a stuffed animal off a chair in her Redmond office. It seemed best to just play along and pretend I knew what she was talking about. Puns, internet memes, historical references, tech jargon, and sci-fi references all fly out of her mouth, rapid-fire. She’s funny, and, frankly, a little hard to keep up with. Her endearing jitters manifested throughout our interview, with several dropped pens and frequently shifting body postures: legs crossed, legs propped on a box, sitting on legs. It’s apparent that Lemson hates the limelight. “I am not obsessive I’m excitable.” The making of a ninja cat “I get passionate about whatever it is,” she explained, her face flushed. She’s not frenetic and doesn’t keep busy just for the sake of it. ![]() She’s crazy busy and yet somehow radiates a steady energy. She later moved over to the mobile division, then operating systems, and now is a senior director of program managers in Surface. Lemson started as a tester on the Outlook team and then moved to program management for Microsoft Exchange Server. ![]() “More like a bull in a china shop,” she said, laughing. Even so, she’s less interested in being on trend than she is in having a “helluva lot of fun.”Īfter 19 years and roughly 10 roles at Microsoft, Lemson is a visionary, a kind of social instigator, and a tech artiste-something of a corporate pioneer who blazes her own trail. Her antics and adventures have helped rouse employee spirit and cultivate social media intrigue. KC Lemson’s superpower is a sixth sense for finding zeitgeist moments at Microsoft, time and time again, somehow without even trying. I get the sense that standing at her sit-down desk, racing to tackle just one more thing, is par for Lemson’s course. The day I met with her, she stood hunched over her desk, typing rapidly. Lemson is the mastermind behind Microsoft’s ninja cat meme-a beloved grassroots movement that unified employees-as well as many other company moments and memorable missives. Because the best way to overcome being socially awkward is to announce it and just own it so that people understand when I’m weird.” “Don’t forget, I’m totally socially awkward so that should totally come across in the story. That’s not my observation she told me that about herself in an email. ![]()
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