(FORTUNE Magazine) – When she opens her front door at 6:30 a.m. to three male representatives of the financial press--your correspondent plus a two-hunk photo team--Julie Herendeen realizes she has made a mistake. "I should have bought new sweats," she says calmly as strobes start to flash. In truth, her sweats look just fine. But on reflection, this Harvard MBA, 30, fluent in Japanese, might have prepared for FORTUNE's onslaught by hiding her student-loan invoice (balance: $3,459.65) and stocking her fridge with something other than takeout cartons and processed cheese. Oh, and more milk, please: By the time everyone has prepared his or her coffee, no milk remains for Julie's Frosted Flakes. She'll eat at her desk, not for the first time. She heads for the shower. Emerging in a pinstriped pantsuit, she radiates crisp, steady competence. That vibe lasts all day.

As the group product manager launching Netscape Navigator Personal Edition 2.0--a "browser" program that helps mere mortals find stuff on the Internet--Julie needs all the competence she can muster. Like a brand manager at Procter & Gamble, she is answerable for her product and must orchestrate the work of engineers and marketers who mostly don't report to her. Bringing new software to market is like trying to outrun an avalanche. Buggy code and shifting specs account for only half the aggravation. There's more: late or balky code from contractors; routine legal hassles with allies like Apple, Julie's former employer; retailers that run out of Netscape products; endless decisions about pricing, manufacturing schedules, sales incentives, promotion. Should Netscape stamp the Navigator box with gold foil for an extra 18 cents per unit? Ask Julie.

As the shipping deadline loomed, the whole world seemed to be looking over her shoulder. Netscape dominates the browser market and fascinates Wall Street: With its stock recently at $48 a share, more than three times what it sold for at its initial offering last August, this stripling company is worth $4.1 billion. Julie, who joined four months before the IPO, got stock options plus a salary FORTUNE estimates at $80,000 to $100,000. So don't sweat those student loans.

To chronicle the "life" of a Silicon Valley marketer, we followed Julie from dawn until 10:30 p.m. Our conclusion: No matter how much Julie makes, Netscape is getting a bargain.

REPORTER ASSOCIATES Anne Faircloth, Melanie Warner