Get ready for a lively discussion with our good friends and fellow admin evangelists, Mike Gerholdt and Gillian Bruce. Listen in as we tackle opinionated launches in the tech world and beyond, drawing from our experiences and personal thoughts. From the strange matrix of Coke Zero being the New Coke formula to the interesting fact that everyone has an opinion about Vision Pro, we share our insights and perspectives on how these launches draw attention and incite people’s opinions.

We explore the long-rumored Apple car, the standardized dongles and charging ports, and the irony of gasoline pumps having a standard-size nozzle. Join us as we delve into the world of self-driving cars and how current roads are built for humans, not machines. Join us as we appreciate the diversity of experiences and opinions, building a deeper understanding of product appeal and consumer behavior.

Show Highlights:

  • Opinionated product launches, including Coke Zero, Google Glass, and Vision Pro.
  • Deep dive into the tech world with a focus on the rumored Apple car and the standardization of charging ports.
  • Exploration of self-driving cars, roads built for machines, and the future of technology. 
  • Debate on controversial tech launches like Tesla’s Autopilot and McDonald’s McRib.
  • Examination of the role of public opinion in product launches and its impact on the product’s success and accessibility.
  • The possibilities and challenges of AI in future product launches.

Links:

Episode Transcript

Mike Gerholdt:
Vision Pro, Chat GPT, Tesla Autopilot, McDonald’s McRib, and Crystal Pepsi. This month on Coffee With Evangelists we talk about opinionated launches because as we hear more about the AI in the world and new products that Salesforce is launching, people have opinions. And so I thought we would talk about some of these launches in the tech world or elsewhere, that definitely drew attention and most importantly, drew people’s opinions.

Josh Birk:
So joining me again this month, that is my good friend and fellow admin evangelist, Mike Gerholdt. I’m Josh Birk, your host with the Salesforce Developer Podcast. And here on the podcast you’ll have stories and insights from developers, for developers. Today, however, you are once again, going to shake things up where I take a little bit from Mike and Gillian’s show, where the three of us sit around and talk about various things over coffee. And this time we’re doing opinionated launches. But no further ado, we’ll just run right back to the show.

Mike Gerholdt:
Our admin evangelist, Gillian Bruce and Josh Birk, who have come with products and opinions. Welcome back.

Gillian Bruce:
Hello.

Josh Birk:
Thanks for having us.

Mike Gerholdt:
I mean, I remember when I tried Crystal Pepsi, I was in high school. I was working at a subway, and I thought it was amazing. And then a friend of mine said, it just tastes like Sprite.

Gillian Bruce:
But it was in a Pepsi labeled can or bottle. I mean, come on.

Mike Gerholdt:
Gillian, that was back in the days when you used to buy glass screw tops, and it had some weird foam printed on it. Crystal Pepsi.

Gillian Bruce:
Yeah. I remember my babysitter at the time got a gallon, not gallon, the really big soda.

Mike Gerholdt:
Like a gallon jug.

Gillian Bruce:
Those really big soda bottle, the two liter, I don’t know. You know what I mean? And I remember just being like, wait, it’s clear on the inside. I don’t understand.

Mike Gerholdt:
That’s not Pepsi. You’re fooling me.

Josh Birk:
Right.

Gillian Bruce:
I want my soda. Don’t tell me there was water in there.

Mike Gerholdt:
Give me caramel colored water to make me feel better.

Josh Birk:
Well, it tasted somewhere between Sprite and Pepsi, right? It was almost supposed to be almost a magic trick, I feel like. It was just like I don’t understand the point of it.

Mike Gerholdt:
Well, people had thoughts. I mean, I also didn’t list Coke versus New Coke, because I remember that fiasco.

Josh Birk:
Yeah. I don’t feel so bad for the people who get highly opinionated about products like that. I feel bad for the people. Well, the people who have an opinion, but the opinion is they love the product and then public opinion goes against it. And now they have to drive down to Mexico to find it.

Mike Gerholdt:
Google Glass.

Josh Birk:
Right.

Gillian Bruce:
Did they ever do the Pepsi Challenge, but with Clear Pepsi and Sprite?

Mike Gerholdt:
I don’t know.

Josh Birk:
I don’t know.

Mike Gerholdt:
I feel like I saw a documentary on the Pepsi and Coke and they did the blind test. People can’t tell a difference.

Josh Birk:
Right.

Gillian Bruce:
Or if you can, you’re drinking a lot of soda.

Mike Gerholdt:
Yeah.

Josh Birk:
And there’s this weird matrix of Coke Zero is the new Coke formula, but Coke is the old Coke formula, which I don’t think I’m getting that right. But it’s like-

Mike Gerholdt:
I hear what you saying.

Josh Birk:
… there’s a strange spreadsheet out there of which flavoring you’re actually going to.

Mike Gerholdt:
Right. I do think fountain soda tastes sweeter than when you buy it.

Josh Birk:
Oh yeah. Because I think they actually blend in more, you get the sugar right off the tap.

Mike Gerholdt:
Sure.

Josh Birk:
Yeah.

Gillian Bruce:
Just got it right off the tap. Just put straight into my vein.

Mike Gerholdt:
Harper veins.

Josh Birk:
Just Millhouse and Bard Simpson just right underneath there, pulling it down.

Mike Gerholdt:
So that was old stuff. But Vision Pro is what Apples calling their Ready Player One goggle cosplay.

Josh Birk:
They’re ski goggles for the future.

Mike Gerholdt:
I mean, they kind of look like it. They look comfortable if you’re going to be wearing ski goggles to escape the nightmarish world.

Gillian Bruce:
An opinion that I have heard, that I think I identify with is, who wants to put something like that on their head?

Josh Birk:
And in one environment. So I’ve got a PlayStation VR too, and it’s kind of a similar dorky looking space, sci-Fi thing, but it’s in my living room. The only person who gets a ridicule of me about it is my wife. I’m not bringing that into the office and pretending it’s this thing that I’m going to use for business.

Mike Gerholdt:
You’re not going to travel with it and put on-

Josh Birk:
Not going to travel with it, right?

Mike Gerholdt:
… a leisure suit and do a 3D meeting in your hotel room.

Josh Birk:
And then a friend of mine was like, well, maybe I’ll get that for travel. I’ll be on a plane with that. And I’m like, really? You’re going to look at other people while you’re… Okay. I mean, it’s a plane. Weird things happen, I guess. So you should be fine. Yeah. Especially since they have have glasses that look like glasses that do the things that you might want to do in a plane, have this big artificial screen in front of you and you don’t look like you’re George Jetson.

Gillian Bruce:
What I find really interesting about the very strong opinions about this new Vision Pro is that everybody’s got an opinion about it, but very few people have been able to try it.

Josh Birk:
Right.

Mike Gerholdt:
Right.

Gillian Bruce:
It’s like the opposite of the Crystal Pepsi. That was very accessible. But unless you’ve got what? Four or five grand to drop, you’re not going to get a chance to try this thing.

Mike Gerholdt:
Right.

Josh Birk:
Yeah. And that’s like, I’m not the market for this, and I’m somebody who will spend money on first generation geeky objects just because they’re first generation geeky objects. And I’m definitely not lining up for one.

Gillian Bruce:
Well, that’s funny. I would think you were the audience for this, Josh.

Mike Gerholdt:
Yeah, I was going to say, don’t you have?

Josh Birk:
I got to be three doors down from the audience, I think. Somebody from Apple might be like, wait, he’s not our audience.

Mike Gerholdt:
Then we missed the mark.

Josh Birk:
Yeah. We missed the mark.

Mike Gerholdt:
I feel like everybody is getting an opinion, Gillian to your point, off of the short video that Apple sold them and they’re like, well that doesn’t apply to me, or that does apply, or that’s perfect. I don’t know.

Gillian Bruce:
Or like me, you haven’t even seen the video. You’ve just seen what it looks like and you’re like, yeah, I’m good.

Mike Gerholdt:
Well, the claustrophobia in me is, at least I can see through them, so it’s not like putting on a blindfold.

Josh Birk:
Yeah. I think it’s interesting a lot of people are comparing it to the iPhone launch and that it’s going to be this pivotal moment of Apple. Everybody has to buy into this concept or it’s going to fail. People forget that when the iPhone launched, not everybody thought it was going to be a good idea. There were consumer, there was Wired, I think, called it the biggest mistake Apple was ever going to make.

Gillian Bruce:
And that’s an interesting point, Josh, because everybody talk about Pivotal moments, right? Mike, in your opening, one of the things you said was Chat GPT. Yes. Again, we go back to the accessibility of it all. Everyone can access Chat GPT. Very few people can access this Vision Pro. But everyone, if you talk about, oh, this is the next iPhone, or even the Apple Watch wasn’t very popular in the beginning because it didn’t do a lot. And then, hey, who sells the most watches of anyone across the industry? Apple. And so again, it might be one of these things where it takes time, whereas opposed Chat GPT, everyone is losing their dang minds about it because it is so fun and it is so different and there will be a change. But again, it’s like the base first iteration of this and the possibilities will evolve over time, right?

Josh Birk:
Yeah. I think if we tried to compare Chat GPT to the iPhone, I think the problem there is exactly what you just said, Gillian. It’s like this is not a new iteration on something that’s been around for a long time. It’s been around for a long time, but this is the first iteration where it’s first been public and second has a large enough model behind it to be smart enough to have this wow effect. I wouldn’t compare it to the iPhone. I would compare it to that weird huge phone that your dad had in the car that had an antenna about five feet up. The bag phone. This is basically the bag phone version of a phone. It’s the first one. The only difference though, back to your point Gillian, is that everybody can use it. Only really rich people have the really big bag phone, but anybody can open it up a browser and try out GPT. So it’s going to be really hard to predict where that’s actually going.

Mike Gerholdt:
I wonder, just thinking through cultural norms, you brought that up. When did it become okay to just wear Apple headphones, those earbuds walking down the street. That at some point was normalized? Do think wearing VR goggles on a plane or walking down the street will somewhat be normalized.

Gillian Bruce:
Some people tried to normalize Google Glass, especially here in San Francisco and it just never.

Josh Birk:
Right. Which that’s an interesting comparison because the difference between Apple AirPods and Vision Pro is Vision Pro has cameras on it. So are you worried that if I’m on the plane that I’m recording everything around me?

Mike Gerholdt:
And it’s in 3D or something too?

Josh Birk:
Yeah, it can do. Somebody was watching the video and there’s this moment where somebody’s watching their kids’ birthday party, but they’ve got the goggles on and they’re recording it. And it’s recording it in 3D and their response was, wow, that’s really cool. Please never do this to your child. Don’t let them see your face when they’re blowing out there candle.

Mike Gerholdt:
Well, I mean, how many pictures haven’t you seen recently where people go to concerts and they are holding their phone up to record everything? Right. We just end up watching the concert through our phone at the concert.

Josh Birk:
Yeah.

Gillian Bruce:
You’re not very being present in the moment. I mean, gosh, as somebody with two young kids, I am constantly reminding myself. It’s either I’m taking no pictures because I am so in the moment and I’m like, wait, that cute thing happened and I have no photos.

Mike Gerholdt:
It’s in memory now.

Gillian Bruce:
Or I’m like, oh God, no. We should do this angle. Oh, I want him when he’s giggling this way. Oh no, I didn’t catch it. I got to do it again. And it’s just even with existing technology, that’s hard.

Josh Birk:
Right. Yeah. No, I think the Vision Pro, even Apple’s saying they’re not going to sell a ton of these things. They know $3,500 is not, that’s something’s going to be lying around the corner. The iteration that it’s going to be question mark, their iPhone moment is what they figure out how to do this for 500 bucks or 350.

Mike Gerholdt:
Or will they just use the Vision Pro as a way to test out tech for other pieces of tech that they’re working on?

Josh Birk:
Right.

Gillian Bruce:
Yeah. The long rumored Apple car.

Josh Birk:
Right.

Gillian Bruce:
Which again, people would probably line up to buy.

Mike Gerholdt:
Of course.

Gillian Bruce:
And would have lots of opinions about it. People have opinions about it and it doesn’t even exist.

Mike Gerholdt:
Well, most probably you would need six different dongles because you’re going to have the wrong dongle to charge it.

Gillian Bruce:
So we already have a dongle problem in the EV world because we have Tesla and I have a Kia that’s a plug-in hybrid, and you go to a charging station and there’s a high likelihood that you don’t have to right dongle. Literally.

Josh Birk:
Right.

Mike Gerholdt:
Yes.

Josh Birk:
And then when Apple comes out with their car, it’ll be the first EV that’s powered through lightning. Yeah. That’ll just add on the product.

Mike Gerholdt:
So the irony of that is gas pumps were somewhat standardized. Gasoline pumps, the nozzle is a standard size. Diesel pumps actually come in two sizes because over the road trucks have a larger nozzle. And so I know this because I have a diesel truck and you can go and there’s a standard sized pump, which it pumps diesel slower than the high volume pumps that the diesel trucks have. But that’s interesting because at some point it’s like curtain rings. We just agreed on a size. There’s also, Gillian to your point, not only a dongle problem, but a location problem. So Ford puts their charging ports in different parts of the car than Tesla does, which is also different than Rivian and Polestar. And it creates a parking issue because you’ve seen those pictures where people literally can’t pull up to the charging station because the port is on. I think Tesla’s driver’s left side. Where’s yours Gillian?

Gillian Bruce:
So I have a Kia plugin hybrid. So one side I could put gas in and one side I can plug it in. And the plugin is on the back-

Mike Gerholdt:
Boy, don’t mess that up.

Gillian Bruce:
Well, it’s fair. Yeah. It not ever going to happen. Also, I never get gas, which is wonderful.

Mike Gerholdt:
Oh gosh.

Gillian Bruce:
It’s on the back right. Is where my plug is.

Mike Gerholdt:
Yeah. So opposite of Tesla, Ford puts theirs right up by the driver’s door.

Gillian Bruce:
Yeah, that would be challenging with-

Mike Gerholdt:
With the parking.

Gillian Bruce:
… the way I have our home set up. Yeah.

Josh Birk:
To round on that. Another nice thing about the distinction between diesel and non diesel is it keeps idiots like me from not from putting diesel into his non diesel car. So thank you.

Mike Gerholdt:
Only to stop. Yeah. While we’re on the subject of cars, Tesla has an autopilot.

Gillian Bruce:
Yeah, it sure does. But does it really? Because it keeps talking about the fact that it does, but has it really, really happened? I mean, as a San Franciscan, I’m surrounded every day by Waymo and Cruise that are actually cars driving people on the road without anyone in the front seat, and they look so cool and I really want to get in one. So I have an opinion about that, that I think that’s cool. But other people have very different opinions.

Josh Birk:
I think it’s cool, but slightly terrifying because as the real Elon Musk has presented himself over the years thinking that that’s the guy who’s going to be responsible for making sure that there’s going to be a fleet of self-driving cars that aren’t going to have to ask the trolley problem. It kind of worries me a little bit. This is where I want the governing bodies to come in and say, you haven’t done this good enough sort of thing. And I’m not sure our government’s efficient enough to keep up with people like Elon Musk.

Mike Gerholdt:
No.

Gillian Bruce:
We kind of know that that’s true.

Mike Gerholdt:
I mean, we’ve seen that with internet regulation. So ironically, I think the tech in the self-driving cars is amazing and way futuristic. Our approach to building and designing roads is what’s stuck in the 1700s. Because we built roads just as pathways for humans to navigate, as opposed to if you look at a circuit board or you look at even some of the automated robots that they have in manufacturing plants. There’s very clear designed markings and parameters around it, which the floor has to be leveled and stuff for the robot to operate because that’s essentially what the car is. And we don’t build roads that way.

Josh Birk:
And to the charging point, the future could be roads that just charge your car as you drive along.

Mike Gerholdt:
I’ve heard of that in Sweden or somewhere.

Josh Birk:
But we have roads that are still falling apart.

Mike Gerholdt:
Yes.

Josh Birk:
Again, maybe we might have to move to Sweden to see some of this stuff in our lifetime.

Mike Gerholdt:
Yep. What controversial opinionated items did you come up with for this? Anything?

Josh Birk:
The iPhone is a little-

Mike Gerholdt:
Because realize we’re going to talk about the McRib.

Josh Birk:
I don’t have an opinion on the McRib.

Mike Gerholdt:
Really? Have you had a McRib?

Josh Birk:
Yeah. There’s almost no version of barbecue sauce I don’t like. There’s barbecue sauce I like a lot. And there’s barbecue. I mean, I’m not saying all barbecue is created equal, do you not get me wrong? There’s also been almost no beer I’ve ever drank that I didn’t like. Not all. Oh, well that’s not true. There’s one, and I won’t say the name because podcast in that kind of stuff. But I brought it to a party and I had never had it, and it instantly became the mockery of the party.

Mike Gerholdt:
Oh God.

Josh Birk:
So it does exist. So bad beer obviously does exist, but it’s like, I don’t know, If I’m driving around and I want a little barbecue sandwich, I’ll do a McRib.

Gillian Bruce:
I don’t really trust anything from McDonald’s.

Mike Gerholdt:
I mean, I don’t know what kind of meat is ground up. I don’t know what it’s made of that’s been formed and shaped. So Gillian, you don’t trust McDonald’s.

Gillian Bruce:
Yeah. I mean, you basically said exactly what I was thinking. But people are very passionate about the McRib’s existence or non existence. I know it is something I have heard many conversations about and it fascinates me because, to your point, Mike, what even is it and how different is it? I guess it’s got different sauce.

Mike Gerholdt:
And why is it limited? Cows grow all the time.

Josh Birk:
Right. Exactly. And I think Taco Bell plays this game too. They’ll bring something back. It’s all marketing. It’s just all marketing to try to.

Mike Gerholdt:
Well, that Mexican pizza, my God, I’ll say that got me back to Taco Bell because otherwise there was no reason to go.

Josh Birk:
Yeah. See, I’m from Central Illinois and it’s like McDonald’s, Gillian, you might want to cover your ears for this part because little known fact about me, I used to work for photo franchise, one of those things, family gets a backdrop, click a button kind of thing.

Mike Gerholdt:
Oh my God, this is going to be the best story I’ve heard.

Josh Birk:
Well, so I learned a few things about people at that time, and one of the things I learned was if you got your kids to dress up and come to my store and behave themselves for the five minutes, it takes me to click the button. And like I said, I wasn’t a photographer, I just worked there. I just clicked the button. If you use McDonald’s as the reward for bringing them into the store, do not remove that reward while they’re there because they will lose their little minds and the session is over. It is hysteria. It is crying. I mean, I’m on top. I’m talking a hundred percent of the time. As soon as somebody said, oh, we’re not going to McDonald’s anymore. I’m like, I’m out. I’m going to go get lunch now.

Mike Gerholdt:
It was fun trying to take your picture.

Josh Birk:
Right. Congratulations.

Mike Gerholdt:
We got what you got.

Josh Birk:
You just got the best photo you’re going to get all day. I am sorry. And also sad story, the last time we were down at Thanksgiving, we just happened to drive by McDonald’s and the line was around the corner. So we have a bit of a fast food nation still going on.

Mike Gerholdt:
We do. Yeah. Wow. I kind of want you to run the photo op at Dreamforce.

Gillian Bruce:
Yeah. Careful what you share you can do, Josh. We’re always looking for people to do more.

Mike Gerholdt:
How great would that be?

Josh Birk:
I mean, I need some sock puppets and a bit of balloons.

Mike Gerholdt:
I want all of admin relations to come in its best mid 1990s photo picture. I’m talking Eddie Bauer flannels, poofy hair, tight rolled jeans.

Josh Birk:
We need at least one person in corduroy.

Mike Gerholdt:
Yeah, because it was the nineties and grunge.

Gillian Bruce:
As long as you do those cool treatments to it afterwards where there’s some feathering and pastel or something, the big picture of the face in the background versus.

Mike Gerholdt:
Just one person that showed up late gets its own picture. And then they’re kind of ghosted in looking at the rest of the.

Josh Birk:
Right.

Gillian Bruce:
Talk about things AI could actually help with.

Josh Birk:
I just would like to see the face on creative’s face when if we set up a photo op next to, I mean, you’ve seen how high resolution our creative is, right? That they want that to look as real as nature scene as possible. Trust me, I never used a background that you would’ve mistaken for real.

Mike Gerholdt:
You didn’t just have random oil painting.

Josh Birk:
Yeah. It was like park and there’s this glare from the light on it. It’s like, yeah, that’s not a real park

Mike Gerholdt:
Pixels the size of dice.

Josh Birk:
Right.

Gillian Bruce:
Well guys, I’m about to turn into dust, but this was very fun.

Mike Gerholdt:
You are. It was. So thanks for hanging out and joining us on this opinionated. If anybody has an AI generated picture of us in mid nineties photographic style, please share it on Twitter. Also, do us a favor and share the episode with just one person. So if you’re listening on iTunes, all you got to do is tap the dots, click share episode, and you can post it to social, you can text it to a friend. You can talk about McRibs that way. If you’re looking for great resources, not about McRibs or Crystal Pepsi, your one stop for everything admin is admin.salesforce.com, including what ought to be an interesting read, a transcript of this show. So be sure to join us for the Conversation Admin Trailblazer Group in the Trailblazer community. Of course, the links for all of that is below in the show notes. We’ll resume our regularly programming next week. And so until then, we’ll see you in the cloud.

Josh Birk:
Seriously all. And that’s our show. Now if you want to learn more about this podcast, head on over to developer.salesforce.com/podcast where you can hear old episodes, see the show notes and links to your favorite podcast service. Thanks again, everybody. I’ll talk to you next week.

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