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Interface is a podcast where we connect technology and culture through conversation. Interface is brought to you by EMPOWER at PROS. EMPOWER is dedicated to attracting, developing and retaining Black talent at PROS. PROS helps people and companies outperform by enabling smarter selling in the digital economy.
Ep. 307 - Reginald Campbell
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Jennifer: [00:00:00] [00:01:00] Hello, I'm your host, Jennifer Plummer, and I'm joined with Sierra today and Matthew is still on vacation. So he'll be in the next episode. Today, our guest is Reginald Campbell, engineering director at Etsy. He is an experienced engineering executive with a demonstrated history of working in the e commerce, entertainment, government, insurance, and internet industries.
Skilled in automation, development, cloud, and SRE Reginald has a bachelor's in information technology, computer science, and a master's in instructional systems from Florida state university. Reginald's resume includes leading an engineering team that continuously improved product performance [00:02:00] and reliability by automating engineering and development tasks at CNN.
Managing a group that delivered automated cloud services, monitoring and CI CD solutions at Survey Monkey and is currently directing development and engineering teams that support Etsy's foundational services. Welcome to the podcast.
Reginald: Thank you for having me. I'm excited to be here.
Jennifer: We're going to have fun.
Siara: a resume you have there, Reginald. Very excited to chat with you today.
Jennifer: Absolutely. And so we usually start out with, um, um, Um, you know, kind of, you know, how did you decide that this was the path you wanted to take, um, and kind of what are some of the steps that, you know, you took to become, you know, an engineering director?
Reginald: When I first started, I had no clue what I wanted to do. I just was looking for a job. Like I started when things were kind of like now where things were [00:03:00] really rough. Um, so it's really just getting into tech. And I, my first few jobs, I was just learning what was available around me. Cause I feel like my. My field view, my vision of what engineering and IT was, was very limited. So as I went further into my career, I started to just dabble more and learn more. And then eventually. I started to realize, okay, I like doing these aspects of engineering and that kind of just pushed me towards the path and eventually you just kind of go move on and on.
But yeah, I had, I'm being very trustful. I had no idea. I was very just like, I'm just trying to learn as much as I can.
Siara: in your childhood, were, you know, did you have a lot of exposure to technology, or was it something that you found in high school, college?
Reginald: You know what? Um, in childhood, yeah, I, I was, um, introduced to like the [00:04:00] Pentium desktops. Um, I got into gaming way back then, but in college, um, you know, I was definitely more hands on with just hardware. I remember actually building my desktops and swapping out hardware and upgrading components, and I did that for a few years, and I kind of learned from there. I think, you know, I was using Windows Vista at one point, and I actually installed Ubuntu and learned command line things there. Learned about gnome and just learned about all the different libraries and how to actually use Linux. Um, and then that just kind of expanded. So I that you mentioned, yeah, I was exposed as a kid.
And then that kind of just continue my curiosity. Um, and so. I guess that same curiosity has continued to go forth because even now, um, I'm still, when I see certain things, I'll still go read about it. If I have time, I'll still go look at [00:05:00] some code. And even if it's like in the browser where I'm just like running the run, but just to see something execute, like it's still there that I'm trying to just expose myself to new things.
Jennifer: Yeah, so there was like a curiosity and kind of, maybe, for me, I didn't have a plan, like, I wasn't like 10 year old kid. Jennifer wasn't like, okay, when I grow up, I'm going to do this. It was just more of a, well, these are the kinds of things that I'm gravitating towards. So I'm just going to keep doing that until, you know, and hopefully that, and you know, it's all worked out so far, you know, is it kind of the same for you or did you have a plan at some point?
Did you get a plan together?
Reginald: You know, I think once, once I had been in the industry for a while, I think that's when I started to put things together. Like Okay, I've touched some development. I've touched some engineering. I've done some [00:06:00] cloud. All right. And then I think Google had the SRE handbook that came out and that kind of gave me a framework. Um, but I didn't let that like limit me per se about what I like, what impact it's just kind of gave. It kind of gave definition to the things I had experienced so far. So I think the plan became just, all right, let me, let me see how I can extend my impact. How can I improve the people around me, things around me. Um, you know, because after a while as an individual contributor, you look at what you're working on and the tasks you have and then eventually you start thinking, okay, what about the tasks on the team and then ancillary teams and then wider and bigger. And at that point, I just started to realize, okay, I can extend my impact.
I've experienced a few things. Let me lend my knowledge. Let me help someone. Let me train someone. Um, Or let me flag a potential piece of work. Um, so yeah, there, there became a [00:07:00] plan, but I also, I guess, how do you say this? I don't try to adhere to this timeline where timeline where I need to be doing something because things happen, right?
Like the pandemic happened. life happens. You get a family. And so it's just more about being open to what's available to you and making the best of it. Right. But there was a certain point in my career like, okay, I like this field that I'm in, or this pocket that I'm in, I like the technologies around me. Let me see what I can do to kind of just grow and extend from there.
Jennifer: That makes sense. Um, so now that you're, um, a director, can you Describe some of your roles or responsibilities. What does your day look like? Or maybe your week?
Reginald: so at this level, you know, it's, it's about a few things, right? Like, it's helping the teams that, you know, align to me, making sure I'm aware of their roadmaps, their challenges, sometimes even having [00:08:00] skip levels with the ICs just to get. And understanding, um, that's part of the job, but it's also just removing obstacles as they come up, or at least identifying them, uh, because a lot of times challenges will come up and eventually someone's going to have to provide an answer, or at least diagnose what the problem is and the possible solutions.
And so a lot of the managers that report to me, I spend time with them identifying what can we do? What, how can we do this? Or what's happened in the past? What's the best path forward? And then also understand what's happening within the company and bringing that information back to the team and say, Hey, this is the world that we're in right now.
This is the information we have help like use this information to align our strategies, our roadmaps, our solutions. So we're better aligned to the business. So my day to day can vary, right? There might be something that comes [00:09:00] up and it's random. We need to go figure out what this means. You know, contract, technical, personnel. Um, A lot of things. Um, but over the week, there is a certain rhythm where you need to check in with your teams, check in with your leaders, um, also checking with your peers. Of course, check with your leadership as well. Um, and then just over the year, there's always a cadence of just checking in quarterly.
Where are we? Do we meet our goals? Um, you know, if we did great, what's our next set of goals? If we didn't align to the goals we had for the previous quarter, why not? Oh, because it was some unknown whatever. So, basically what I'm saying is that it's, it it shifts. There's ebbs and flows to it. They should be flexible, but there should be a, a plan in place where you're trying to adhere to something. And make sure that you're aligned to [00:10:00] a strategy at your company and make sure your teams are aligned to that too. And then you're just enabling and passing along information as it flows.
Jennifer: Yeah, I think you answered my next question was going to be, um, yeah, if I can see how in the week things kind of vary depending on what's happening, but like maybe on the yearly cadence, it's, you know, like you said, there's goals and there's like the strategy of the company. Um, Um, and you said you're passing information, you know, up and down, you know, across, you know, from your, from your managers and your, and your ICs up to leadership, um, do you get to help or what is your involvement in kind of molding what those goals are, what the strategy is, how, what is that process like?
Reginald: I mean, it, it varies from place to place, but generally, right. It depends on the problem space. Like if it's something totally business related, my opinion is less involved, but if it's more [00:11:00] technical, Of course, you know, my teams are involved. They're going to eventually come to me and ask, what are your thoughts on this?
Um, and in the past, what I would do is one, I know the problem space. Well, like, what do you ask me? What is the goal behind it? And then understanding how does my team fit into this? The technical strategies, the solutions, you know, do we have a solution already in place? If so, You're green. Here you go. Just connect in, check in with this manager, make sure that we don't, you know, we don't overcommit or we are not oversaturated from a technical perspective, but it's just understanding the problem.
And then I'll give my advice, my like direction on how this should go. Um, of course the impact or input from the manager as well, like they may have more information. That's just a little bit newer about something that's happening. With the team or something that's happening or a lower technical aspect. [00:12:00] Um, but yeah, like You need to be ready You should always be aware of what your teams are doing or at least have a general idea and then when people approach you You should be able to give some type of direction about yes. No Hey, we will be ready or hey, you know what? Let's talk about that. What do you mean by this? Because this is actually larger than what you may be thinking. And so it's just having that conversation, um, outlining needs, wants, and then just making sure there's a consensus, right? Because you always want people to understand, but you want people to know that you understand, you empathize with what they're bringing you. And you want to be seen as someone who enables. That's really how it goes. It's just understand the question. How do I, how does my team align to this? Um, how do we not align to this? And then just kind of strategizing on the timeline and how do we actually roll this out into prod or a lower [00:13:00] environment, et cetera.
Siara: have a question. You mentioned earlier that, uh, you're still very curious, and it seems like you sort of keep your, um, finger to the pulse of kind of what's going on in the engineering space. At the level that you are now, are there things that maybe you miss about being an individual contributor, or are there things at your level now that maybe you wish you kind of had more time to go through?
To, uh, invest maybe in your individual contributors.
Reginald: I guess my, my answer to that would be things are constantly changing. So when I was an individual contributor, the things that were around me, I invested in it, but. I never want to think that what I learned then is sufficient for now. Right? And so, I'm heavy into the cloud, Terraform, automating things with [00:14:00] Python, using CICDs, different ones that's out there, CDNs. understanding the DNS, like all that stuff is great, but I, I always challenged myself to make sure that my understanding is not the end of it, right? It was, it was a stream, right? There's better things. There's better solutions now available. And so it's nothing that I necessarily miss. It's just me. Making sure that I can better communicate with other engineering leaders or people or ICs in my team.
So when they approach me about the solution, I'm not like glassy eyed, just like whatever. Like I can at least have an intelligent conversation about the technology and be like, okay, I understand what that is. I know what this is. I tried it out. I read about it. And so that's why I do that. Partly some of it really is just curiosity, like, Oh, that's cool.
Let me see. [00:15:00] Eso Miss. No, but it's just more of things change. Things improve. Things digress.
Jennifer: What advice would you give, um, for, you know, up and comers who are interested in technology, engineering, development, and kind of rising into leadership levels?
Reginald: everybody's journey is different. I would just say Just stay curious, just continue to learn, continue to listen to others. Sometimes the best way to learn is just to truly understand what someone's telling you, especially if it's a technical problem, and spend time learning and solving that problem with that person.
There's been a lot of times where I had no idea what someone was telling me, but if I sat down and just listened and looked at the code with them, or looked at this solution, like, okay, visually, you know, I got it. And then I, it, I don't think I necessarily benefited from it, from it being, but maybe down the line, I was like, Oh, okay, I've seen this before.
I'm not assuming on it, but I'm at least [00:16:00] familiar with this problem. Let me go talk to someone who really is an expert and I can actually communicate this issue. So just continue to learn, continue to invest in yourself. Um, You know, don't think that whatever you've done in the past is like the best, like there's always ways to improve it, continuously improve, always look for solutions out there, um, or, you know, also question what you've done. Sometimes I go back and I think about things that I've worked on. I'm like, man, if I had to go back and do this, I probably would have done it this way with the understanding that I have now. You know, I would also suggest people to learn about your company. Uh, just don't like, of course you want to do your job first, right?
That's step number one. Um, Step number two is just understanding what your peers are doing and understand how that connects back to the bigger vision. And once you do that, you start to learn about other teams. and how they [00:17:00] contribute to the work that you're doing and that, that, systems thinking kind of puts things in perspective. It helps you solutions better when you know three, you know, three steps down the line, someone's going to use this solution this way. It really does help in the long run.
Jennifer: That's typically advice I give to, so you, you'll get college hires or interns or something or interns to convert and I think, you know, six months to a year after they've kind of gotten into the swing of this is what a development process is and, you know, real life versus, you know, college, you know, or what they learned in a class.
And I think the next piece of advice is what is what I always give them is, okay, you need to understand. The business and, you know, why people are making decisions. Where does this requirement come from? You know what, you know, it's not, you know, they just kind of like, yeah, just tell me what it is and I'll just do it.
And I'm like, yeah, but, you know, try and understand why and [00:18:00] you know what the users are doing and this and that. And I think that really, um, And, you know, and definitely what I've seen for the people that do well have a really good, um, Grasp on not just their technical skills, but they really understand why the requirements are the requirements.
I totally agree with that
Siara: It's very easy to get siloed in sort of your day to day. You kind of go down, you have tunnel vision on what I need to complete for the day. And it's, it does give you a better perspective of thinking outside of just what's in your world. So awesome advice from both of you.
Jennifer: So what programs do you think companies should do or apply or be engaged in um To bring more black people into technology roles at their companies
Reginald: So one, I think you don't need a program, but hire hire them. Like if they're qualified and they can do it, just hire them. [00:19:00] Um, I don't, I may not like, I'm being very blunt,
Jennifer: Mm
Reginald: I'm in this humor in there, but it's true. Right. Um, the talent is there. of course you have to make an effort, right?
Like if you want to see. A diverse, um, technical, like organization in your org, then you have to put the effort into it. Um, you know, there's been studies for how that is effective for your business to have a different, like diverse representation across or you get different ideas, different cultures, different mindsets, things that challenge it, because generally you're, you know, depending on your business, your customer base is probably diverse. Um, So one, hire them. Two, you know, what I would say to that question is, make sure that Black people, we apply. We put ourselves out there.
Um, so that there is no, [00:20:00] hey, you know, we didn't see anyone apply. Like, no, that, that person applied, they put themselves out there. Um, Sometimes people might be shy to do that or they don't want to put themselves out there like, hey, this person applied for that role.
But, you know, I always encourage people like, no such thing as a perfect candidate. Like put yourself out there or at least go talk to the hiring manager, email someone, go talk about this role and put yourself there. I also look at like this program, like, I love that there's other, like, we have this platform where. You all have connected with other leaves in this space, but then I think about what do we do with this data? What do we
do with all this? It's good to put it out there, but what's next? How is this house going to be used? Like, it's good to talk about. It's good for us to connect. All great, but the next part of my brain kicks in like, Okay, what's the action behind this?
How would this be utilized to benefit other people or hiring or [00:21:00] outreach? you know, outreach is another one, right? Where if you want diverse representation, you probably have to go to diverse locations or reach out to those communities, um, you know, if you're not getting the type of applications out there. imagine there's a lot of diverse representation in larger cities, Houston, Atlanta,
New York,
Jennifer: hmm.
Reginald: like they're, they're there. So it's just, it's a two part answer, right? Like, companies have to do things, but I always put it back on me. Like, okay, how am I helping the next person? Right? Um, like, yeah, I can invest in myself.
I can study, I can grow, I can ask questions, but if I'm not helping the person next to me, or helping the folks in my team,
then I'm not really contributing to a solution either. Um, so I, I know you were looking for one answer, but I probably gave like three or four, so take it how
you want. Right. But I
Siara: No, this is good.
Jennifer: if there's anything our data has [00:22:00] showed, it is that there's more than one answer. No,
Reginald: And
Siara: for sure.
Reginald: will also say, you know, when we say, you know, more Black people in technology, like, technology is a very wide term. It's very just broad, you know, talking, are we talking software development? Are we talking, you know, AI, ML? Are we talking cloud? Are we talking technology? Are we talking all these different areas? I say that just because we, we use that word so, so, usefully, but this field that we're in is so vast. There's so many things that you can do. And it's really about if you are a SME in a certain area. There's probably specific companies that need you, that need that skill set, so go look for that. Like, if you're really good at [00:23:00] AI, like, put yourself out there. Graphic design, you know, I guess that's the other part to it too, so, sorry.
Jennifer: no.
Siara: no, no.
Jennifer: Um, I think, I think I had two follow up questions. No, I think the first is kind of around and maybe the second is related. What, as you know, if I'm, if I, you know, if I'm someone looking for a job and right, so I'm going to put myself out there. I'm going to apply to all the tech jobs that I want. Is there something because I'm asking you because I've seen you've worked for several different companies.
So you may have kind of more experience in this. Um, Is there something you should be looking for asking in your interview or looking, you know, when you're, when you're researching the company to see if this is going to be an environment that is going to value, um, you know, you as, um, as an, you know, as an employee?
Like, I guess, how do you figure out the good companies versus the bad [00:24:00] companies
Reginald: The way I look at it is that you can't, it's hard to judge the company, but you
can reach out about who you're going to work with day to day, like assess the hiring manager, you know, look at the recruiters and the sources when they speak to you, um, when you speak to the team, right? Like ask that, cause that's going to be your world.
Um, the larger company, you may not interact with a lot of people initially, You kind of have to assess where you're going into because generally your day to day is managing your peers. So if that's a good environment, then that can help you grow. You know, of course, and then it's also just research the company itself.
Like if there's things out there about the company that is not conducive to your blackness,
Jennifer: hmm. Yeah.
Reginald: probably don't want to be aligned to that. but, that's what I would say. Like you, you can't assess everything about the company, but you can assess your relationship with your hiring manager, your [00:25:00] peers, ancillary partners who might come in any of your process and then you can just, um, I also ask about some of the like business resource groups that the company may have. Like, okay, there's certain things that align to my interests that would help me connect with other people who may or may not look like me, but we have similar interests and that can let me learn more about the company. And that can only help me be a better engineer, whatever.
Jennifer: I think you started to touch upon my, my second question was this kind of like, because, you know, I could, I could, I could probably build a checklist, right? I go to the website and I see black faces, right? I see people, you know, that look like me, at least on the website. And then, yeah, maybe I interview with someone and maybe there's a, I get interviewed by a woman or, you know, someone that I can connect with and kind of see I'm not going to be the only one.
Cause I know. Some people, right, that's gonna, if, if you're truly like the only one, [00:26:00] and sometimes you can kind of feel like an other, and sometimes that's the thing that maybe I get hired, but ultimately I get there and I'm like, Oh, I'm not too happy because I always feel like an other. Um, so, you know, I can see myself having this checklist of things to do.
Um, just from that. Feeling like I'm included in you know, whatever's going on at the company and I think the other thing that I would look into is kind or ask about in an interview is kind of like You know, what is the path to whatever my goal might happen to be right, you know Um, you know, what is the likelihood or is there is there any sort of programs here that would you know?
Help me along the way like mentorship program or something like that.
Reginald: those are all great points too. And, you know, I'll also add like, there's allies that come in. All shapes and forms that will be conducive to your environment. So just be open that someone who may not look like you may be in support of you being there. And that makes a world of difference as well.
Jennifer: [00:27:00] Absolutely Yeah, everyone's got to start somewhere, right? You don't want to, a company might be great, especially if it's a small, small company, right? Um, you want to give them a chance to, um, be part of, you know, part of that community and as long as they're, as long as they're including you and not making you feel like you have two heads.
That's what my mom used to say all those times. She said, sometimes people just look at me like I have two heads and I'm like, I feel your mom.
Siara: Thank you so much, Reginald, for joining us for this conversation. We are now going to transition into the heat check segment of the episode. Um, The heat check is where we will bring hot topics across either technology or black culture to the conversation and give our perspectives on it as our guests.
Please feel free to chime in or even share your own, you know, snippet of something you saw out on the internet, interwebs, or you read an article or what have you, and you want to share, [00:28:00] uh, please feel free. Um, Jenny, I'm gonna let you go first today.
Jennifer: Okay, I'm going to sneak one in just because, um, Uh, I was looking for heat checks and then I saw something that was interesting but I didn't really have time. Okay. So my sneak one is I saw a book called the engineering executives primer which is kind of related to the discussion we've had today and I'm mentioning it because I think one of the things that did catch my eye was there's not one path to becoming an executive everyone's story is unique and That means You know, you can do it.
Anybody can do it. If that's your goal, you just need to find your path to it. So I thought that was pretty cool. Um, I'm assuming, Reginald, you agree with, uh, the one path thing. Okay. And then my real one is, [00:29:00] uh, Afrotech had, uh, about, um, Ronald Yancey, who was the first black graduate from Georgia Tech. Um, I think he graduated in 65, uh, and his granddaughter is getting a master's.
No, yes. Let me make sure I get it correct. Um, she is graduating, um, in electrical and computer engineering. She did this on May 3rd. Uh, so, just a beautiful story, right? Um, I think, I connect with this for two reasons. One, 60, so he was the first, and the article talks about kind of the challenges he had being the first and how no one thought he'd be able to graduate and, you know, the things he did to make sure people weren't accusing him of cheating and, you know, just people [00:30:00] not wanting him to be there.
65. Was not that long ago. 1965 was not that long
Siara: long ago.
Jennifer: Um, but beautiful that, um, right? His granddaughter didn't have those sorts of challenges. And, um, I think one of the things that, you know, um, I experienced through my career, you know, and to this day is, you know, I don't have family members that graduated from school or in technology or, you know, that, you know, obviously I look up to my family, but there was no one that had kind of had that personal experience to coach me through, you know, you know, the best way to do, you know, you know, for my career choices.
So it's kind of, you know, finding other people to do that. Um, and so it's beautiful that, um, Within that family, they have, you know, that's building, you know, building that community in the black community. And if, you know, as a community, if we can keep doing that, we're going to keep going further and further.
So I wanted to [00:31:00] share a happy story. I was in that kind of mood today.
Siara: I love it. That's awesome. What was the university again?
Jennifer: Georgia Tech, Georgia Institute of Technology.
Reginald: down the street. You know, that's, um, that kind of touches on what was it? Legacy, legacy students with the term. And so it's good to see that that chain. Um, you said you mentioned his granddaughter. I wondered, did the, did the father actually go to Georgia Tech as well? It's something I have to go back and research myself, say granddaughter and then granddad,
Jennifer: Yeah. I'm not sure it was not mentioned. And. It was just like
Reginald: or mother.
Jennifer: maybe a hundred word article, so it was a short article, but, um,
Reginald: that's a beautiful story though. I love seeing that, um, a master's degree. Kudos to her,
Jennifer: yeah,
Reginald: she, she did that, even though her grandfather [00:32:00] paved the way, like, it still takes effort on her own to
Siara: Yeah,
Reginald: a master's degree, um, and then see it through.
Jennifer: absolutely, absolutely, um,
Siara: it's shocking how not long ago 1965 was. that those are the challenges that people who look like us have to face. And in this new generation, um, she probably didn't have to overcome a number of those struggles to attain the degree that she's been able to obtain. So
Jennifer: Yeah, every now and then I try to tell my daughter, I was like, aren't you so lucky you were born when you were born? And then you know in this country and she's like, oh, I like this and I was like because we need to
Sierra what you got
today?
Siara: So, um, I was also on the hunt for my heat check yesterday. I was trying to be ahead of the curve and I saw this [00:33:00] article about, um, Apple had one of their recent, like their big events where they announced new products or upgrades or whatever. And there was this ad that they released for the new iPad pro that had a lot of people upset. So I just saw the article yesterday and I didn't think anything of it. So this morning I go back online and I see Apple apologizes for iPad pro ad and I was like, Oh,
Jennifer: What was in the ad? I have not seen this ad
Reginald: Me either.
Siara: So this touches home for me because it, where I work at pros, um, is a very creative space. So there's a lot of graphic design that goes into this.
We use a lot of technological. Tools to get our jobs done. Right? And so the ad was basically a depiction of this huge industrial, uh, press or like a hydraulic press, almost crushing all of these, um, creative tools. [00:34:00] Like there was a piano, cans of paint. Um, there was like a, uh, trumpet in there. And Crushed them all down.
And then when the press lifted, the iPad was there. Um, and so a lot of creatives and viewers of this video were very, very upset. Um, pretty much their position is, you know, this is another, you know, thing that we're having to fight is that the human connection to art and the And technology sort of taking over that, the fight with AI and all of this. Um, and so Apple's VP of marketing communications said, you know, the goal of a video was to celebrate, you know, creativity and offer another tool for creators to be able to bring their ideas to life. to life. Um, clearly we missed the mark here. We were not, you know, trying to say technology is going to take over that human interaction. Um, and so I can see both sides [00:35:00] of the argument there. So I'm interested in your thoughts on Apple's apology. Should they have apologized? Or do we think people or creatives are just being super sensitive? Because in today's age, everyone's offended by something. You can't always, you can't make everyone happy.
Right? So interested in perspectives on. Should Apple have apologized or just let it ride?
Reginald: I'll, I'll jump in. I haven't seen the commercial from what you described. I guess I can see both sides. You know, um, iPads are great, but you know, pianos are great as well and all those other tools. And so I, I guess I'm not personally offended. Um, but I guess that kind of goes along to because I, I came up playing music.
I played the saxophone [00:36:00] in my younger years. I got, I'm connected to it. So I never thought that I, in my mind, I never thought, Hey, my, this iPad would. Replace my connection with my instrument. Um, so maybe because I have that connection, I, I don't, I don't feel it like I'm, I don't feel threatened by that.
That makes sense.
Siara: Yes,
Jennifer: I was just thinking, pianos are expensive and people probably would like a piano. And if you're just crushing a piano, I'd be like, what a waste. Cause someone could use that piano.
Siara: absolutely.
Jennifer: Yeah. I haven't, I haven't seen it either. Um, so yeah, I, yeah.
Siara: ad to see all of these things being, I mean, it's like up close and personal. And like I said, I can, I can see both sides of the aisle. I think I was more surprised that Apple even came to the table and offered an apology, which, [00:37:00] That's not something that Apple normally does, you know, it's just like, this is, this is our thing.
You can love it or hate
Reginald: Well, I mean, it sounds like the ad was effective because folks are talking about it and they know there's a new iPad, right? So it sounds
Jennifer: Are you a,
Reginald: perspective, it sounds effective.
Siara: Yeah.
Jennifer: are you an Apple or Android? Person by the way, I already know sierra. I already know sierra's answer
Siara: mean, I'm
Jennifer: to say is
Reginald: Yeah,
Jennifer: Like it doesn't matter
Reginald: yeah, I don't think, uh, yeah, if you're going to get an iPad, it sounds like you're going to get this little one too, so.
Jennifer: You're gonna be like yeah that that That commercial was unfortunate, but what, what other iPad am I gonna I don't even know what you call a tablet. I'm gonna get a generic tablet.
Siara: not buying an iPad pro. I'm not in the market for one, but you already saw, I got my beats going. I'm already in the, I got my, I got my [00:38:00] iPhone and my Mac is sitting right here next to me. So, you know, yeah. If I'm in the market for I'm gonna buy it. Yes, absolutely
Jennifer: yeah. I support all the creatives and I agree. Like, there's not one medium that is the right medium, so People should be painting. People should be, uh, doing digital arts. They should, you know, they could be graffiti on the side of a building. I mean, art is art, so there's not one way to do it. So I don't think the iPad is going to kill that.
Siara: I don't I don't either but I just thought it was an interesting comment Like really y'all was that upset that y'all got a apple to come and apologize kudos
Jennifer: I'm going to go look for this commercial now.
Siara: We will share a link to the ad in the show notes as well. If any of our viewers would like to see it. Awesome. Well, thank you again, Reginald, for joining us today on interface. And if any of our listeners [00:39:00] want to get in contact with you, where can they find you out on the interweb?
Reginald: can find me on LinkedIn, search for Reginald Kim.
Jennifer: And we'll include that link in the show notes too.
Siara: Absolutely.
Reginald: having me, I really appreciate it.