VP, Marketing | 2x Head of Product and Industry Marketing in Enterprise SaaS | 2x Mom
Funny thought I had over the weekend: Do you remember the times when technology had a profound impact on you? I remember 3 times vividly: The first time I saw the internet! I was a graduating senior who'd just gotten accepted to Cal. My techie brother said: "Hey, let me show you something cool. Have you ever heard of the world wide web?" 🤣 and proceeded to type www.berkeley.edu. I distinctly remember the large hero image of Sather Gate load (I wonder how long that took 🤔) and I thought: "Whaaaat....?" It wasn't until more than a decade later.... The second time was when I was an expat working in Vietnam. It was a couple years after Facebook and Twitter became mainstream. I had created accounts and used them to connect with the tech community in Saigon. I started attending tweetups, and met Tim Ferris at one because we chased him down to meet us after he tweeted he was visiting. 🇻🇳 The third was during my first tech job. I implemented Marketo as a first time head of marketing. I was BLOWN away by how it automated my webinar program and I fell in love with Marketo's foldering structure, tokens, and cloning. It changed my work life! I loved it so much I went to work for Marketo next! Just a Monday musing... seriously, think about it: When did technology have a profound impact on you? Would LOVE to hear your stories. 🙌
Ben Child
1mo
1- the first time I played a CD and heard digital audio (1983) 💿 2- my very first email sent while at WordPerfect/Novell (1994) ✉ 3- first time I saw a 3D program at Viewpoint Data Labs (Softimage/3DS Max) (1995) — the artists were digitizing clay models with a digital arm into SGI stacks and that's when art/computers connected for me 👽 4- the first time I experienced autopilot and self driving in an electric car (2018) 🚙 5- the first time I used ChatGPT/Midjourney and saw AI-produced video from Sora (2024) 🤖
Blue Flores
1mo
Here’s a recent one. Disposable cameras. I’ve enjoyed carrying one around lately and instead of taking pics on my phone, the little yellow kodak allows me to capture only special moments. It’s forced by the amount you have left… you only get one shot. Your fingers have to be out of the way and you try to get the right frame, then *click*
Kirsten Jepson
1mo
Being able to edit simultaneously using a shared drive (google). Significantly reduced version control issues and sped up the creation of "final" documents sooooo much! Plus - enhanced collaboration!
Robert Karel
1mo
Love this question Christine Tran! Really aging myself here, but I had a finance internship for a company in the late 80’s when I was in college and saw a fax machine work for the first time. Blew my mind! Just as much as it blows my mind that the healthcare system still requires the use of faxing today!
Dave Corlett
4w
I distinctly remember the first time I saw a mobile website on iPhone that looked exactly like the desktop version of the site. It was a sports site I used pretty much every day on desktop. Then I got an iPhone, opened it up on the browser and it blew my mind. Immediate thoughts: "this is the future"..."this will change everything"
Fractional CMO/PMM/GTM , Player/Coach, & Trusted Advisor | AI/ML, Data & Security Expert | Energize & Align Teams, Attract Key Audiences | Beat Competitors, Cement Your Position as a Visionary, Dominate Your Market!
1moThe Internet was definitely game changing for me as well. I remember my family looking to me to provide them insight into this "new" network which was destined to change how both people and businesses communicated and operated. I was very fortunate to work at multiple companies where the Internet proved to be a key differentiator between them and their rivals which helped them leapfrog their competition. While I could easily mention a ton of other truly revolutionary technologies and agree with your picks, I would also add master data management and AI and ML. I remember working on CDI (customer data integration) while at Cisco which was the precursor to CDP platforms which many companies use today. We used those systems to provide a single trusted source of customer data. As time progressed, I got involved with related technologies like PIM (product information management) systems and was fortunate enough to work at a company that was a pioneer in Data Governance as well as Multidomain Master Data Management. With respect to AI/ML, I remember working with those technologies back in the early 2010s. I was head of marketing at an innovative startup and knew that would change how we worked forever.