NI-versary celebration with Chris LaPietra, Senior Product Manager

Happy 7-year NI-versary!  🥳

Let's dive into your career journey: How did you start at NI and where are you now?

Hi, my name is Chris LaPietra, Senior Product Manager and I joined Native Instruments 7 years ago. 

My journey at NI started by relocating to Berlin from Canada, to take on the role of Product Manager for MASCHINE. This role was focused on Hardware products, which was a new challenge for me coming from Software, but I was up for it. 

When I arrived I was given the product goal to ‘defend the market leading position’, so from the first day, I had the opportunity to focus on what makes MASCHINE special, and how to improve it. Since then, working alongside a team of incredible Designers and Engineers we have delivered an entire generation of MASCHINE products to the market. These products have continued to defend our market leading position until today. More importantly, they are loved by the customers by bringing joy into their music production process, which is often lost when working solely with computers. 

Today, I'm the Senior Product Manager leading all of NI’s music production hardware products, with some very exciting and innovative products in the pipeline.

What are you most proud of in your career at NI so far?

I’m extremely proud of the MASCHINE MK3, which was my first product since arriving in Berlin in 2015. I was fortunate to take it through all phases of product development, from the very beginning researching the customer needs, through design, engineering and mass production. MASCHINE MK3 is a feat of engineering excellence when you consider the technology inside, and leads the market with impeccable style thanks to the beautiful industrial design language. It provided a solid foundation for the rest of the product family, Mikro MK3, and the newest addition MASCHINE+, which has incorporated even more state-of-the-art embedded technology inside the same overall dimensions of the MASCHINE MK3.

"If you can find passion in your job and work with inspiring people, it really makes your job not feel like a job."

What makes working in the music industry so special?

I’ve always been passionate about music, from playing guitar from a young age to DJing and producing music for most of my adult life, so this job combines my career in technology and my passion. If you can find passion in your job and work with inspiring people, it really makes your job not feel like a job. Sure it’s still intense at times, but at least when you enjoy what you do it creates a pleasant mental attitude towards it, which then flows into other aspects of your life.  

Create your music career.