Manufacturing eCommerce Success – with Jenifer Hanki

Curt Anderson  00:02

Hey Damon Happy Monday, dude, how are you, man?

Damon Pistulka  00:05

I’m doing great. Curt. I’m ready to talk about Adobe Commerce today.

Curt Anderson  00:10

Oh my goodness. Did you get some sleep over the weekend? Because like you need it. You needed a lot. You get some rest. Did you gear up

Damon Pistulka  00:16

bed extra early? Yeah,

Curt Anderson  00:18

I was in bed at like six last night. So alright, we’re gonna dive in. I am. I’ve been. I’ve been waiting for this for months. This is just such an honor. Such a privilege. Happy Monday, everybody. We are here with just an E commerce extraordinaire, Jennifer Hanki. Jenifer. Happy Monday. How are you today?

Jenifer Hanki  00:37

Happy incredible. Monday. I am feeling wonderful. Oh my gosh, I got my cup of coffee. I took a cold shower. I feel like I’m living the billionaire lifestyle. And so here we are. Yeah, let’s accelerate into the week, first week of March.

Curt Anderson  00:56

Well, let’s, let’s dive right in. So guys, drop us a note. Let us know that you’re out there. You definitely want to connect with Jennifer here on LinkedIn. She’s with Adobe. We are going to do man, we’re going to dive in and cover some really juicy topics. But Jennifer, before we go there I have. I have a lot of ecommerce questions that we’re gonna dive. We’re gonna geek out hard today. But I do have a question for you. Are you ready? I don’t think you’re sitting down. So you’re ready for that? Are you? Are you hanging on? Are you ready?

Jenifer Hanki  01:24

Oh my gosh, I I gotta I gotta put myself down, then I’m

Curt Anderson  01:31

out. All right, Jennifer, when you were a little girl growing up? Who was your hero? When you were a little girl growing up? Who was your hero?

Jenifer Hanki  01:42

Oh, my gosh, that is a fantastic question. My hero? Well, I feel like I have. I’m a very indecisive person when it comes to answers. So I’ll tell you this, I would say my hero when I was younger. The traditional answer would be my uncle. He is a neurosurgeon, heart surgeon turned pediatric generalist and operates a wonderful clinic in the center in the heart of Tokyo. And he just has this incredible aura about the way he carries himself. And he’s just so genuinely caring and loving. And just the way he incorporates his philosophy of care into his his general practice. It’s just so it’s just really inspiring. This the flip side of the same question, which is like if you could have dinner with anyone or like your hero, who would it be? I think I think I would love to have dinner with Anakin Skywalker. Just to understand. I’m just saying I’m just say, you know, I feel like it’s because I just want to get a little bit into the psychology of the becoming of, of the Darth Vader. And I’ll just stop there before we get into more questions because I think it may lead to more questions than answers.

Curt Anderson  03:20

Well, well, we can’t let that one go. Jenifer, let’s let’s tie in a couple of questions there. So first off your uncle’s first name, please.

Jenifer Hanki  03:26

His name is kutsu Scott’s what we call him? katsu. Yeah. katsu. Excellent.

Curt Anderson  03:33

And what a great story. I’m like you the passion and just I just your your expression that was just so wonderful. Sharing about your uncle. loving, caring, compassionate, just sounds like what a role model. What an incredible inspiration. And then Scott Luke Skywalker, is that it was that Luke Skywalker is that with

Jenifer Hanki  03:53

his father. His father got it. Okay.

Curt Anderson  03:58

We can’t. We can’t. Oh, let’s let’s take it one step further. What What would you love to know what let’s dig a little deeper into that?

Jenifer Hanki  04:08

I would love to I think, I think there’s like this element. I just just the motivation. You know, it’s like, it’s like, it’s kind of like the the Malcolm Gladwell concept of like, the tipping point like, what was it? What did it what did it for you? What got you to that point? And I think I’d love to ask that same question to like, you know, maybe like Elon Musk or you know, whatever controversial figures of History Throughout our past and present, and I think this fictional character, it just be so interesting to see. Like, yeah, his his why his starting point. And if he can identify, you know, like, what what was the true trigger of his be coming. Yeah, man,

Curt Anderson  05:04

I Daymond good that Jenifer that might be our next episode with you is we’re gonna do a deep dive the tipping point as controversial historical, you know, game changers, right? What a great I’m a history buff. Damon has to say what a great

Damon Pistulka  05:17

Tinus bashley Were they Anakin? Because Annika did some nasty stuff?

Jenifer Hanki  05:24

I mean, he did. Spoilers. That’s right. Yes. All right. Yeah.

Curt Anderson  05:29

Let’s say hey, spoiler alert here so, ya know, so, Hey, happy Monday, two guys crew early, let us know if you don’t Okay. Or your job. All right. All right, man. It’s America. We can just run with that when you think about, you know, historical figures. Whether Martin Luther King Gandhi, you know, Rosa Parks, just think of like some of the people that really had that tipping point. Or on the flip side, folks that did not contribute positive things to society. On that tip. Jennifer, you got us thinking man, yeah, well, you got us thinking there.

Jenifer Hanki  06:05

What can we say March March madness.

Curt Anderson  06:07

Madness is here. Okay. Speaking of March Madness, Damon, are you a basketball fan? You basketball fan at all. March Madness is kind of I watch

Damon Pistulka  06:17

at least the last minute of the championship game that

Curt Anderson  06:22

a boy Alright, so i i Jenifer, I hope you don’t mind. I have to go here. Okay. One of the greatest basketball teams of all time, Damon in college basketball when you think college basketball greatest basketball team historically of all time. Do you have who’s the first team that comes to mind?

Damon Pistulka  06:41

women or men? Men? Oh, it’s the

Curt Anderson  06:45

Duke Well, you know maybe for our generation but in a previous generation, it might have been John Wooden maybe UCLA Bruins There we go. And Ufford you I know I don’t know if you’re a big sports fan. But you have a connection somewhere somehow to the UCLA Bruins? I don’t know. Do you have any any combination there?

Jenifer Hanki  07:04

You know, it’s funny that you say that. And I I actually, if you if everyone on this, I’m not going to try to spam my mother. But if everyone types in their email inbox and sends an email to Bruins for basketball@hotmail.com That’s my mom’s personal email. And for I don’t know why but but bros basketball@gmail.com rose for basketball@aol.com. That’ll all link to my mother. Just FYI. Yeah, my parents both played basketball, growing up, and that’s what they connected over. They did not actually attend UCLA. But I think their their deep admiration for John Wooden and basketball. I grew up watching UCLA and was a huge Bruins fans. And I know my manager, and my director also love UCLA. So anyways, Bruins for basketball@hotmail.com Feel free to send my mother a cute little message that you saw

Curt Anderson  08:11

Jenifer just shared that with me recently. And so she mentioned Timothy was on the show back in September. And he just he bleeds light blue man. So he’s just a bleeding Bruins fan through and through. And so we talked about that when he was on the show. And I was teasing him about that. And then Jennifer comes on, and we’re geeking out about sports. I’m Jenifer man, I’m sorry that we’re geeking out about sports. And she Oh, well, by the way, you’re not really off track because my mom’s email is this and so that was absolutely right. So we’re gonna give a shout out we’re gonna give what’s mom’s first name? Jenifer, what’s your what’s your Mimi? Well, so we’re gonna we’re gonna drop me a note and just give her a big hello and talk to her about how great you’ve been. So let’s dive here. Wonderful crew career that you’ve been building and you are just I’ve seen you speak in person. You are a powerhouse speaker just an E commerce extraordinaire. What led you to build your path your career? What brought you into E commerce? What attracted you to e commerce? That’s

Jenifer Hanki  09:11

a great, great question. Curt. You I mean, you do this for a living so I can’t imagine that you would ask poor bad questions. But it starts it starts from a young age actually, in my middle school days actually. My my uncle and my aunt actually inspired me. This is this takes me back many many many years ago but every year I would go spend my summers in Japan. And every and my my family, they’re very spiritual and they are very deeply connected to kind of the you know, spiritual power of gemstones and beads. And every summer I would spend in Japan my uncle and my aunt would buy me these like beautiful beads from these semi precious gemstone bead shops, it’s going to connect to technology and E commerce I promise in a few moments, but every summer, they would have they would buy me these like expensive beads and really really beautiful like semi precious stones, and they loved jewelry and being able to like wear these beads. So every summer they would kind of buy me these beads and I loved making jewelry. So I would make them kind of different bracelets and trinkets by the end of the summer and that kit became like a ritual every summer I would go they would buy me these like well lovely supplies and I would have like a whole arsenal a whole inventory of jewelry. And this is like the beginning of Facebook that started and I remember my aunts my uncles, my family they started wearing all my jewelry and they got compliments from their their mothers or church friends. And people started asking like what did you get this? And they’re like, Oh yeah, like my niece, my daughter My granddaughter is actually making these and so I got inquiries to like post these these pieces on Facebook at like the beginning of Facebook marketplace. So this is me when I’m like 1112 years old. And I started selling jewelry on Facebook through like my timeline if that was if that’s still I don’t think it’s still a thing anymore. But people would find it and would ask to purchase jewelry from me when I was like 1213 years old, that ended up expanding into like a long story and and expanding into this this kind of side project when I was in middle and high school and started making like customized jewelry just through like friends and family and then would continually sell to like different doctors. I don’t know they would like want to buy things in bulk later okay. I had a passion for E commerce and worked at a retail e commerce tech startup in Silicon Valley about six years ago. And that ended up really fueling my my love the energy for the creative tech space and just working with with different skews and a lot in assortments and working actually with with a few jewelry companies then. So fast forward. It’s it’s now a few years after it’s it’s COVID time and I’m stuck at home in my parents in my parents home in my childhood bedroom. And I still have like maybe 1000s of dollars worth of like beautiful gemstone beads and jewelry in my room. And I had a bit of time because it’s COVID so I was like okay, well this is just going to solicit and collect dust. I started making jewelry for for the fun of it. And I had a mentor at this time and she was telling me oh like you know, it sounds like you have this passion for jewelry like you should just and she was actually building out her own haircare ecommerce brand at this time. And she told me you should just do it just like create a create a store I want you to by the end of the summer, like start listing all your all your jewelry, and I just, you know, put up a little shop, like it was a summer project, I made a bunch of jewelry, I like put it online didn’t like expect anything from it, like put, like a few Pinterest posts on it. And lo and behold, I made like a couple tic tock videos. And fast forward like three months from there, I’m in my parents basement, I have hired like my mom’s church friends. And we’re we have like 300 orders of jewelry to like, start like manufacturing in bulk. And I started learning like the power of e commerce the power of like, demand generation, and how, you know, really the next generation of commerce is, is today. And I felt like I want to be in the space where, you know, I can creatively feel like I am connected to the retailer, the merchant because I’ve had this experience and being able to really catalyze you know, each of these brands into the world of you know, being able to 10x their, their their current demand. I think that was something that was really exciting to me and you know, working on the other side, you know, helping other brands be feel empowered. That was that was kind of like my mantra, my hope and I’m just really, really grateful for the opportunity to be on this side of working with other brands and how other brands can crawl, walk, run fly with Adobe commerce.

Damon Pistulka  14:43

That’s awesome. Wow,

Curt Anderson  14:44

okay. That was a big drop the mic right there. We’ve got a few things on pack, right. There’s Yeah, so Okay, first off, you’ve got E commerce at 1112 years old. Yeah, that is, you know, we just had a guest on Friday. Exact Same thing. And as a matter of fact, there are a high level of Adobe agency. Jennifer, you’ll love these guys. And he was talking about how he was as a young teenager getting an E commerce. So the great thing is, you know, for millennials and yeah, for millennials, you know, you could get into E commerce at such a young age, Jennifer. So now let’s unpack this. You’re in your mom’s basement shipping hundreds of orders out. And this was during COVID. Is that we said,

Jenifer Hanki  15:24

this is this is peak 2020 to 2022.

Curt Anderson  15:30

Okay, so like, how walk us through that, like, yeah, so you’ve got church friends, you got people just pick packing shipping? Like, what did that what was going on? Yeah,

Jenifer Hanki  15:40

I mean, it was just, I mean, I also I don’t want to I don’t want to frame it in a way where it was. I was like, making making bank and rolling in dough every day. It was just like, the morality of sort of tick tock videos, just happened to generate, like, dozens of orders at a given time. But yeah, it was it was crazy. I like I just let it sit for maybe like, a month, and I saw some, like, additional income in my Chase bank account. And I was like, what, like, how Where’s that coming from? And I like, investigate. And I’m like, Oh, my God, it’s from my, it’s from my ecommerce store. And I haven’t even fulfilled the order. And then I was like, Oh, it’s a fluke. It’s a fluke, the second the second order, maybe like two weeks later, someone else like I see additional income, someone else orders it. And I actually reached out to that to that girl. She was like 14 years old. And she was and I asked her, like, how did you even find me? And she’s like, Oh, I found you on Pinterest. And but you really, you gotta get on Tik Tok, because that’s where all the youths are solid stuff. And I was like, oh, no, I don’t want to. I don’t want to do that. But yeah, like it, it turned into like, like, the first video, like maybe the 10th or 12th video got like 900,000 to a million views. And then, you know, a few more got like 234 10 million views. So it was like a it was a whole moment for for the little, little little ecommerce like store using like the same, the same needs actually the same beats from when I was 12 or being used. And it’s like really high quality stuff. So I was like, Yeah, and I think that’s what really resonated with the audience that it was all handmade it was made to order. You got to see it, like the Tick Tock kind of feature like the beads getting, or the jewelry being made into in real time. And so that was just like, that was the backstory of E commerce, my ecommerce experience and passion and yeah, I mean, I would say it’s funny because at the time, I was also starting at Adobe in a different role in a different role. But while I was onboarding I was also like, working like I had that nine to five, but also the five to five to nine. Yeah.

Curt Anderson  18:11

Your Side Hustle was completely blown up. Did you see you got 10 million views on a tick tock? Yes, they

Damon Pistulka  18:16

did. Yeah,

Jenifer Hanki  18:17

I mean, okay, I am rounding up it was like nine point something but that

Damon Pistulka  18:23

was Alright, so we’ve what was the I haven’t gotten died views I did.

Curt Anderson  18:28

What was do like, what do you think? And I apologize, because I know like, we want to dive into Adobe really piqued our curiosity. What was on a video when you got? I think you said one video got up to a million views. Then another one got 10 What was the video?

Jenifer Hanki  18:44

Yeah, the video was the video was me just packaging the product and just packaging, but I think it’s, you know, I think I think a lot of it has to do with the original question about who would I like to have like, not not dinner with but who like, who is my hero? Yeah, and just like care, compassion. Love, is something that I really try to strive to live by. And in the same way that my uncle lives by those principles, I tried to apply that to my jewelry brand. So in the packaging, it’s not just about like the actual product, but the the video in length is about 30 to 40 seconds to a minute because there’s just so much intricacy and diligence that goes into packaging each product. So it’s like, you know, there’s the card that’s handwritten and then there’s like multiple free items like packages of tea and whatever and then the hair like additional free items and the way it’s like, you know, wrapped and individually packaged with it and then, you know, wrapped with like a foil and then like tie I’d with a bow. So I think it’s it’s it’s that extra level of care, compassion and love that I want every person to experience that I think people really admired and you know, that just went viral? Yeah,

Damon Pistulka  20:14

yeah. Well, it’s about in anything. And I think someone said here, MD talked about, listen to understand your customers, you you are trying to show the heart of what you do. And really listen, let them get to know you, and listening to them and the care and the, that you’re taking just connected with people. Yeah,

Jenifer Hanki  20:37

and I think I think the the comment about really listening and understanding your customer, it’s so crazy to think that because actually, the E commerce startup that I worked at, prior to my time at Adobe, they actually understate that they’re that startup, worked on understanding consumer feedback, and understanding customer affinity and propensity to buy so that it could effectively project sales, sales numbers for a given assortment of that of that have that upcoming design drops. So let’s say we’re designing like the spring 2025, they would send out like 1000s and 1000s of consumer feedback surveys, so that the designer would be able to understand how that would incorporate how the feedback wouldn’t be incorporated into the next like Nike design. And we drop the lowest performing products. And in the same way, like the way that no, I would incorporate, like feedback, like just directly messaging that that second girl who purchased my jewelry, and she told me like where I need to be like, at that moment, like, I don’t think I would have gotten to that level of success, had I not just directly gone to the source. And so I think that, you know, goes back to the original point of just really listening to your customer knowing what they want. Because oftentimes, we like to assume what the customer would like. But yes, ultimately, the customer is knows best.

Curt Anderson  22:13

Isn’t that fascinating? 14 year old, makes a suggestion, you need to be on tick tock, and you blow up and go. I mean, how many people put out videos daily or on a you know, and never, you know, you know, you know, I’ll get three views. And I think two of them are my mom, and maybe my sister, you know what I mean? And like You’re like you completely blow it up on a suggestion. So I want to dig into Adobe. Jenifer, is there anything else you like? If you’re comfortable with me asking? Are you still doing the jewelry business? Is that still an ongoing entity? Or what does that look like?

Jenifer Hanki  22:46

It is still ongoing, it’s very, it’s a very small operation given that, you know, I’ve kind of accelerated into a different path. And I do love e commerce. And so just being on this side, and being able to incorporate that into my day to day at at Adobe has just been an honor and a privilege. So I would say the jewelry operation is a lot smaller, but it’s still it’s still ongoing. And it’s it’s so hard to explain, like the way algorithms work. Because, like, there’ll be sometimes just like random trends. Like maybe a month ago, there was like an aqua marine trend going on. And so all of a sudden, like, in two days, it just I sold out, like all my aquamarine inventory. And like maybe like different engines will push out, like, you know, some some some products more than others. So I’m not you know, I wish I had more insight into how you can capitalize. Yeah, yeah, it’s still ongoing and I’m still learning.

Curt Anderson  23:54

Well, hey, in Deborah, happy Monday to everybody. Jump in the comments here customer knows best. And she says Daymond That’s a great story. So again, guys, we’re here with Jennifer and she’s with Adobe commerce and we’re going to take a deep dive. So man, go back and hit the rewind button on a few things here. We’re talking about listening to your customer, you know, typing into E commerce, stop being the best kept secret and you know putting yourself out on weather, you know going where your customers are hanging out at. Jennifer’s shared how she was on Pinterest. She’s talking about how she went on to Tik Tok and I just I think this is absolutely brilliant. In Jenifer what I love is that not only you know, during the day you play this ecommerce, you know, specialist solution provider. And then at night as you said, from your five to nine you are ecommerce entrepreneur at heart. So you’re playing both sides and you understand what your customers are going through. So let’s go here you are with Adobe commerce and a lot of folks might be familiar with Adobe, and maybe they’re like, Gee, I didn’t know there was an E commerce solution at Adobe or maybe they they’re still thinking to Magento please share with folks how how does Adobe make the world a better place? just share a little bit about Adobe commerce please.

Jenifer Hanki  25:02

Sure, I apologize. I needed to I got a little emotional over over you know, all the all the E commerce out here. So I just need to clear it clear out my my throat There you go there. Okay, so let’s let’s revert back to what Adobe is and what Adobe stands for. So the way I explain Adobe to my friends, is that most people know Adobe by like Photoshop by, let’s say, like the illustrator or some of the video creative tools, and like Premiere Pro or After Effects. But what most people don’t know is that Adobe actually has three lines of business. So the first is Creative Cloud that everyone knows and loves. So that houses all of your Photoshop, Illustrator, substance, 3d, everything creative. A second line of business is Document Cloud. And that houses Adobe Acrobat, Adobe PDF, reader, and Adobe sign. And fun fact, which I actually found out not too long ago is that Adobe invented the PDF, that is an Adobe creation. And I didn’t even know that was where they first started. But yes, low Behold, Adobe. PDF is Adobe invented the PDF, and that’s the second line of business. The third line of business is digital experience cloud. And that is where Adobe commerce sits. It is all of our digital experience marketing automation software. And so you can think of in the same way that like the Creative Cloud, or Document Cloud has multiple different products that service a different different area of of for creatives or for documents, for digital experience, each product, for example, like Adobe analytics, Adobe Experience Manager, Adobe target, Adobe Experience platform, Adobe commerce, that is part of the the entire marketing stack, and it covers everything from you know, website, traffic management, and analytics to being able to host a website to creating content, and managing even transactions on your website through Adobe commerce. So that is kind of the entirety of Adobe with my best recapitulation of what Adobe does. But what Adobe really stands for is that, you know, Adobe, at its heart is a creative technology company. And in that, you know, Adobe is continually pushing the edge is continually pushing the envelope for innovation and creativity, empowering creators, across every segment across every industry. So if you think about, you know, just how much Adobe has impacted the world, I believe, 95, or 98%, of all digital screens, that you will ever see, has been touched by an Adobe product at some point in its lifecycle. And so just thinking about that, you know, like everything digital, that you see from UI UX to advertisements, to campaigns to even website traffic, SEO, or whatever it might be, Adobe has somehow percolated into that sled, its lifecycle. So Adobe commerce, you know, as part one part of this larger engine, I like to think of it as you know, just being a part of that. This whole creative technology empowerment, and being able to empower, you know, merchants, retailers to sell their products, not just as a transit, not just as a transaction, but really to connect with their customers to really understand and create, create something that really resonates because they’re part of this, this overall mission to empower and create designs that really resonate with their audiences. So I think that’s why Adobe as a company I really stand by but also with his products, I think every, every every product is part of this overall greater mission that Adobe has continued to live by over 42 plus years.

Curt Anderson  29:23

Okay, yeah, man, a couple of drop the mic moments right there. And just overall, just what I absolutely love, Jenifer is just how you the passion, that you’re sharing the story about your company, it was very similar to the way you described your uncle, where you’ve described your business and just how inspiring is that? I’m gonna go a little bit off script and you’re talking about, you know, the superpower at Adobe is empowering creators, and that emotional connection that as a company that they do with their customers, would you say 95 to 90% of all users is that What was that number again? 95 to 90%.

Jenifer Hanki  29:59

That’s like it Can’t remember you can see it. It’s like on Adobe fast facts like it’s on one of the website and on the one of the home pages, but it’s, it’s like every digital screen like what you’re seeing right now on your computer, something on your screen. Like I think 95 98% of the time has been touched by an Adobe Adobe product.

Curt Anderson  30:20

How, man? Is that a statement right there. And so I’m gonna go here, I’m going to go a little bit off script. Damon, we love talking about culture. Jenifer, could you share what what is it about the culture at Adobe that just makes it so like your passion is just like I’m ready to run through a wall right now. Like you’re just so getting everybody. Everybody’s getting fired up in the chat box. Guys. drop us a note. We’re here. Jennifer, if you have any questions, thoughts, comments, let us know that you’re out there. We’ve got Jennifer from Adobe commerce. Jennifer, what is it about the Adobe culture from your perspective that just makes it just so fun, so addicting that you’re here? Passionately sharing how you guys are making the world a better place?

Jenifer Hanki  30:57

Oh, man, if I if when you originally said Oh, John, we have like, usually these go three to four hours. But you know, well, we’ll just keep it down to one. I could take that three hour right now. Go for three hours. Yeah, let’s just you can you can watch this into XP as a recording everybody anyways. Point being. I think Adobe’s culture is really it’s really underpinned by one word. And I think it’s just authenticity, authenticity through and through, you know, people like the the people. I mean, I think everyone says, it’s such a hackneyed cliched, right, like phrase, like, oh, the people, the people, but I think it’s not just the people. It’s a product, it’s the philosophy, it’s the process, everything that we do is so transparent. And I love how, you know, as part of one of as part of the Adobe’s you know, Four Virtues, I think it’s like, innovative, involved, exceptional. And the last one is genuine. And I truly believe that there that authenticity, being genuine, just really percolates through every facet of the Adobe Experience, not just, you know, working with people, but the product itself, but the process, everything about, I don’t know, like working with people here is just incredible, because all I’ll just going to work every day and listening to and I sit with, with different teams, I’m actually remote worker, and when I go into the, to the office, just to just see just to have that, that human connection. Yep. And, you know, hearing other people at Adobe feel so passionate about their product and the work that they do, hearing about, you know, my friend who’s a machine learning database infrastructure engineer, who’s just like, so passionate about, like, what this is going to do for the generative AI capabilities at Adobe. And then, you know, another team that’s working on like Adobe Stock and images and being able to, you know, they’re now rolling out which I don’t even know if it’s, I’m allowed to announce this, but there’s like a cool like all these like, cool stuff, these like really cool things that are happening. Everyone I’m just so excited to work on to be a part of, and I do think that Adobe is just really at the fore of this innovation, and people are just very genuinely excited to be here. So that’s just that’s just the I don’t know how to explain it. Other than that, it’s just people are genuine. No one’s no one’s trying to. I don’t I don’t think that you know, BSA as part of our culture. And that’s, that’s just the way it is. That’s the secret sauce.

Curt Anderson  34:10

Man, there’s so much love unpack right there, you know, like Warren Buffett is, you know, such what an advocate about, you know, doing things with integrity and just doing things and you know, and when you think of Adobe, like you said, you know, and I’m not a graphic guy, but even you know, I use Adobe, everybody hears us a PDF, you know, and just, you just you have such a positive relationship with Adobe, you know, it’s typically it’s something on a, on a positive side of things that, you know, whether you’re getting an image, you’re putting out a graph, you’re putting out something for a customer, you know, hey, share that PDF, share that information, share that image, and then you know, we’re here to do a deep dive on E commerce. I’ve gone off script again, you use the word innovation. What do you think you’re talking about the people, right? And it’s a in and how about a tagline? We’re just happy to be here, right? Maybe that’s Adobe’s new work, right? We’re just happy b2b here. What do you think it is that drives that innovation at Adobe? Why do you think you guys are always you know, some companies come and go, right you think of Kodak block blockbuster, some companies that have been around for a long time they you know Blackberry, they get so caught into their their technology that they lose sight of the customer, you guys do a great job of listening to the customer? What do you think it is that helps you guys stay so innovative?

Jenifer Hanki  35:27

What what is it that about? I think it is like I think it’s not we really do try to listen to the customer. I know actually quite a number of individuals that work with research groups that actually get direct feedback from customers, and these like very formal settings. I’d also say that that’s a that’s such a good question. I I think it’s that the essence of of, of this is like, maybe it’s too early to get into the philosophy at this moment. But I just think the essence of humanity is creation. Yeah. And there’s just this insatiable quality, and curiosity that I think, working. Building a company, or working at a company that whose mission is about adding to the creative economy. And I think it just naturally creates more curiosity for what more could we create? And how can we create things even better? And, and for humanity? I don’t know. I think that’s I think that’s just something innate, I like to believe humans are inherently good, which is also why I like to connect back to the person I’d like to ask Anakin Skywalker how he became.

Curt Anderson  37:06

That’s right. So Damon, I don’t know if this reminds if this kind of this conversation brings you back. So we had a conversation, Jennifer with a wonderful guest. And he introduced a concept he is he’s spent a career studying not only just companies that have thrived, but societies that have thrived, okay? I’m really difficult, challenging circumstances. And he had one word, and I feel Daymond this is totally irrelevant. I’m dying to hear what you Jennifer. I’m Hope I’m not stomping you. Because I know like we’re doing I didn’t intend on going here. But we’re doing a deep dive. I just love what we’re going. But he used the word saga. The society’s he was comparing like the Vikings, the Vikings would put out, like, Hey, we’re gonna go on a ship. I don’t know, if anybody’s gonna survive. We don’t know, if we’re gonna have enough food we’re not we don’t know where we’re gonna go. But the boat was packed with a bunch of people that were going to go on this adventure. And then he was talking about different companies and different clients that he works with. And he calls it the cause the saga, and I feel like what you’re describing, and again, my interactions with your team at Adobe, just, it’s like there’s a cause. And you’re talking about things like, you know, the creative economy, that emotional connection, being genuine, being authentic, the authenticity. Do you feel like you kind of feel that sense of like a fighting for a cause? Or just like Adobe has like that humanity a greater purpose? Like you feel that at all?

Jenifer Hanki  38:31

Oh, yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. And I think that’s what keeps us. I think that’s what, that’s what makes, I mean, to, I don’t even know if this is like answering your question. But I started off with a cohort, like four years ago, at Adobe with nine people. And, you know, I feel like especially in today’s age, you know, company hopping is so perfectly Not that there’s anything anything wrong. In fact, I thought, I thought at some point, you know, I would I would eventually look to other other companies by like the second or third year, but all nine people who I started off with in 2020 are still at Adobe. There. That’s still on Adobe. Cool. Cool.

Curt Anderson  39:16

That is awesome. Hey, let’s grab a couple comments. Here. We got Timothy is coming across a pond from Amsterdam. So Timothy, happy Monday, my friend, he says, Wow, well said I run a boutique software company where we build SAS technology to better human lives. I so resonate with what you just said. It was a friend here, he has a question, what values and benefits does it provide for me? So maybe we’ve been answering that as we’ve been kind of going along. Let’s get right. If there’s anything else I just I went on a little culture tight. That was just so good, Jennifer, thank you for sharing that. Let’s dive into so manufacturing ecommerce success there I couldn’t think of a better person to have on the show than you. And so let’s dive in for manufacturers that are out there may They’re, you know, contract manufacturer or custom manufacturer that, hey, we we feel a little bit behind the curve here, we need to get an E commerce. Can you take us through any bit of like a e commerce 101? Or what are some things that those manufacturers should be thinking about? To really resonate for E commerce success?

Jenifer Hanki  40:17

Yeah, I mean, it. Again, so many, so many great questions. I would say, you know, think about future proofing. Think about, you know, it’s easy to, it’s easy to think about what’s immediately going to resolve your current needs. But like, like those who are long term oriented, or looking for long term gratification, where, rather than short term, you know, if you’re thinking about the long term, make those right investments. And so it might be that, you know, currently, and it’s also the concept about like, quality over, I don’t know, if it’s like quantity. So, in terms of like, I mean, thinking about this business, specifically, but like, yeah, talking about Adobe commerce, you know, thinking about price points and thinking about like different technology stacks, you know, it’s easy to go with a cheaper alternative, or kind of like, kind of like a winter coat. I like to think like, Okay, if you are if you are buying at let’s say an h&m or forever 21 And you know, looking for like a, like a seasonal coat that is like on trend, it’ll like serve serve you well, for maybe like one or two seasons. But like the, you know, the button starts to fray, the seams start to kind of unravel. But if I were to invest in like, like a Helly Hansen coat, or like a north face, or I’m just thinking like other other brands off the top of my head, you know, maybe like coats that are a bit more more expensive, but you know, that are durable, that are going to extend you and are going to serve you that is going to be a classic piece for the perhaps the rest of your life. You know, it’s it’s about how can you be forward or like future oriented? So how can you adjust to the dynamic landscape of this might be like in the winter terrain, but in the same way of like the digital landscape? How do you adjust to the dynamism of the digital landscape, future proofed for sustained growth? And, you know, you’re, you might think, oh, it’s easy to pick the low hanging fruit at the time. But if you’re short term oriented, that can really impair development and consumer activity. So just think about future proofing as like underpinning for strong long term growth overall, and make those right investments and think about what it could be to what it is for your business to stay ahead of the curve, and preserve and gain market share.

Curt Anderson  43:06

Well, I love that. Thank you, Jennifer. Great. And hey Daymond Deborah says, Hey, what about Daymond? We haven’t heard from Daymond. So Damon, let’s get you on. Let’s get you in the game. My friend. What’s your What are your thoughts here?

Damon Pistulka  43:17

Well, you know, when you when you look at Adobe commerce, you know, we’re talking about e Commerce today and manufacturing e commerce success. You know, what, what are some of the things that you really see Adobe commerce solving for E commerce, retailers? There are b2b b2c, that that is really cool that you’re going man, it is awesome when we see these things working.

Jenifer Hanki  43:44

Yeah, I would say personally, there’s there’s quite a bit. But when you said when you said Damon, like b2b b2c, that hybrid capacity, Adobe really allows different brands to create commerce experiences in a standardized fashion, but also at scale, in an unrivaled capacity. So just the way that we can, you can push out different storefronts and store views. All within one streamline admin panel is like, fantastic one. But the best bet with with y Adobe is just all the investments that are made to make a personalized commerce experience from end to end. And I don’t mean just about, like the way content is surfaced. But even the way data is streamlined and orchestrated into the back end and further augments AI and machine learning capabilities with Adobe sensei. And the fact that you know, we have a whole creative cloud to be able to leverage, you know, with digitally native brands. It’s just so important to think about the whole lifecycle of how do we personalize each touchpoint one Until one, and I was talking with a merchant actually last last week at Palm Springs, you know, and they’re talking about, you know, other competitive platforms. And you know why they were so excited about Adobe, and they, they just, quite frankly said, you know, Adobe is like, pretty straightforward. I like that, you know, I can actually visually see how my experience is personalized, you know, I might get one seasonal campaign if I’m within this, like one customer segment, based on past purchase history or affinity and, you know, understanding propensity to buy just so much so much that I can go deeper into like personalization with data sharing capability, and just really understanding the customer one to one. So, I’d say that is the why Adobe story.

Damon Pistulka  45:51

Very cool. The The other thing is, you know, we all hear Ay ay ay ay ay ay ay ay. You know, everything there, I don’t care what you’re doing. And so what do you really think in the practical application in E commerce are some of the key things that you’re seeing rolled out where AI is really helping these these businesses do a better job in this personalization?

Jenifer Hanki  46:20

Yeah, I would say there’s, there’s several components. So there’s, like, I’d say AI has gone through, I don’t even know how many generations maybe weren’t like the fourth, fourth or fifth wave of AI, like generative AI and and prior there’s like the, the, the AI that’s, that’s based on data models, it’s understanding like consumer affinity. But now we’re we are able to create content that’s never been created before. So I’d say it’s, it’s one with specifically Adobe, and understanding customer and data, it would be like, enabling a better ability to discover products. So how are products listed on a site. So that might be like, in the search bar, you might, based on previous search queries, or you know, what people are trying to look for. Maybe they’re excited about, like, certain types of coffee grounds. I’m just thinking about coffee because I yeah, I’m such a coffee fiend and my coffee staring at me on the left hand side, they might be like searching for a coffee grind for dark roast, espresso coffee. But maybe there’s like a different shopper who we know in a previous session loves decaf coffee, because maybe they’re trying to wean off. So in the discoverability, we might intelligently categorize them as like a decaf coffee lover, and can actually surface those products at the top of the search query. Also, to be able to individually cater the category page, so that we can actually score based on a propensity to buy based on like ROI based on based on different algorithmic models can actually rank different products based on and sort them based on higher conversion rate, etc. So that’s discovery of products. One is, and two would be like, even like cross sell upsell opportunities, just being able to again, like utilize those those models to recommend better products based on visual similarity, or even in previous browsing sessions or purchase history. And then three would just be to actually create, I know that outside of Adobe commerce, there’s so many practical applications of AI and data that are being currently capitalized with Adobe analytics products. So actually being able to create different for or even anticipate different customer segments, based on historical data. So it actually will create, like, automatically generate, like, Oh, here’s a demographic that we think that you could cater towards. And it would then surface like, different buckets of people of consumers, and will give you like, suggestions in that way. So that’s just one one area. Other things could be like, campaign timeline optimization, you know, based on like, certain historical peaks or anomalies, maybe they maybe based on like, that data will assess like, oh, like, you know, based on this, this, these analytics, with augmented AI capabilities, it will actually generate like kind of timelines of different times that you should publish your campaigns in different geographies as well. So just like really diving deep into data, and then so that that’s like, so discoverability too, is like data analytics. and audience assessment. And then third, it would be like product description, generation. So like just being able to build your site faster. It’s like everything from sorry. So everything from product description to product images to campaigns, Adobe Firefly, for example, I believe there will be like some, some capable capacity to enable assets or manage assets better from the Creative Cloud, Adobe Firefly into our digital experience products. Nonetheless, with B with being able to create and generate different assets in very rapid eyes expedient way marketers and E commerce directors CMOS will be able to pretty much pop out a shop much faster probably, in I don’t, I don’t know, the exact metrics but cut down the time to market significantly with just all the content supply chain cut capabilities that are that’s being enhanced by AI. So it’s a there’s multiple prongs to it. Multiple prongs to one AI where AI is really helping with Adobe, Adobe commerce and being able to push out products and really understand the customer and then utilizing that feedback. And, you know, it could be event driven, et cetera. But point being Adobe’s doing a lot with AI.

Damon Pistulka  51:36

Well, and you just gave us like a masterclass in AI and ecommerce in like seven minute or six minutes, three minutes, whatever the heck that was because I was writing notes as fast as I could. And your this is this is what we can’t even comprehend yet. It’s cool if you’re working with this stuff and understand this stuff, because we’re just trying to learn about it well enough to be dangerous, right. And it’s it’s so great to see that companies like Adobe are really pushing this because it is going to be able to help us do things that we never could before faster, better. And just like you said, just so many different things. That’s cool as heck. We got a question though from Miguel.

Curt Anderson  52:18

Read that. So we got to start winding down, sir. I know like we need to have you back then we just keep it for those three hours. So guys, again, you know, you’re joining us connect with Jennifer, if you have any questions on Adobe drop her notes, reach out to the amazing folks amazing team. Timothy says I love capital L O V E Timothy, thank you very much. I love Adobe one of the few pieces of software that I’ve been using for over 20 years. Timothy, you only look old enough for 20 years to be using it. But Miguel, happy Monday, Miguel, he says hi. Is this just an enterprise solution? How does the solution fit for SM e eco system? For a lot of startup fashion brands? Is this a good solution? My friend Jennifer, what do you have to say for our friend Miguel? Yeah,

Jenifer Hanki  53:03

Miguel, it sounds like you and my team need to talk. I’ll say that, um, I would say traditionally or digital experience cloud is is mainly for, like b2b. So you know, enterprise brands. It’s traditionally not used by like individuals, like the two clouds I mentioned, like Creative Cloud, and Document Cloud, those can be used by consumers on the day to day. But point, but on the, on Miguel’s point about you know whether the solution fits for SMEs. There’s a slew of different solutions that Adobe can can definitely ameliorate for your team. And I’m sure our teams would be happy to talk. So Miguel, feel free to find me my name. My full name is Jennifer. src, Muhammad asked this question. So Jennifer with one and ha acai hanky.

Damon Pistulka  54:04

Hey, very good. Very good. All right.

Curt Anderson  54:07

Let’s start winding down here. Jenifer. I have so man, we could keep you all day. Oh, yeah. Tons of recap. Tons. So guys, what we encourage you to do get back to the beginning. And we talked about her hero when she was growing up. We talked about who she loved to have dinner with. We talked about what brought you an E commerce. She has a great ecommerce story herself. I real quick, Jennifer, if you could answer this one. For folks out there that are just starting ecommerce. Maybe they’ve engaged with the agency first. What are just give us a couple of quick questions. What are questions that a manufacturer should be asking an agency and ecommerce agency as they’re selecting their e commerce platform? Any advice there of questions that they should ask are just the right

Jenifer Hanki  55:00

cuz I was gonna say I was like how to not be biased. I mean, I would say like, before, it’s all about, like, fit I. And I think it’s, it’s also about, you know, like understanding the work that they’ve done. So, one like, whether what they produce what they specialize in is something that also aligns with your, your vision for your ecommerce, digital transformation. One, and just understanding of the expectations on at the outset, so that you can align there, but to really just getting to know like the agency, the team, I think it’s just really important because this, this team will be likely there with you through and through in the trenches getting, getting getting you to that point where you can really accelerate your growth. And then and to get to that point, you know, it will, it’ll take a lot of time and diligence. And so if, if you feel like, you know, there might not be, per se, a vibe fit. That might that’s just a thing to keep in mind. But also, yeah, asking, asking him questions about, like, what they value and what, what, what they can what you can expect from from their services. So I’d say that’s, that’s the most important thing. Perfect. Okay,

Curt Anderson  56:24

cool here and what I did, I dropped your LinkedIn in the chat. So that one’s a Facebook that went to YouTube. Damon, I don’t know, if you like if you want to jump that into LinkedIn, so guys can connect with Jennifer and connect with the amazing folks at Adobe, we I have one last question for you. And I know if you’re if you’re cutting out, I know we’re almost at the bottom of the hour, you’re cutting out. How about we stand up and give a big roaring round of applause for our amazing, wonderful guests. But we do have one more question for you. Connect with Jennifer on LinkedIn, connect with our friends at Adobe. And please, you know, feel free to go back and hit the rewind button on this. This was in Deborah says greatest Debra, thank you Happy Monday. We appreciate the comments. We appreciate everybody out there. Damon, I know we’re at time but I I’d be remiss if I didn’t ask her the question.

Damon Pistulka  57:12

You have to.

Curt Anderson  57:14

I have to ask the question right, don’t I? Oh, Jennifer. Now you listen. Mom and Dad are huge Bruins fans basketball in particular. Are you a baseball fan by any chance do you enjoy a baseball game here and there?

Jenifer Hanki  57:28

Oh, I do I do love actually this is so this is so this is stuff salient because I have a calendar invite that I had that I rescheduled because because of this call to talk about getting tickets for the SF giants with another another manager so yes, I do love baseball and it’s

Curt Anderson  57:53

this is perfect man. I was I was in I was I caught I caught a demon I was at I watched the Barry Bonds. Walk off home run one time in San Francisco Stadium. This is probably before your time, Jennifer but back in the day it actually went right into the rain out of the stadium into the you know guys grabbing the ball. Right? So Jennifer since your since you’re a Giants fan, I have a question for you. This came from the audience. They sent it beforehand. So if Let’s hypothetically, if you read the Giants game and they’re playing the dreaded Dodgers, okay, they’re playing the Dodgers not not a fan favorite. If you’re a Giants fan, they’re playing the Dodgers. It’s a bottom of the ninth tie score. There’s somebody on second base in the giants are up. The manager looks down the bench and says Hey, Jennifer, grab your helmet grab your bat get up there. Please hit into winning run for us. We need like we need this win desperately. Okay, you with me? You got it. person on second base. Two outs tie score bottom of the ninth. You grab your helmet you grab your bat like you’ve got to go and hit that winning run. You with me? As you’re walking to the plate. What is your walk up song?

Jenifer Hanki  59:08

Oh my gosh yep, I mean, I have so many. But you know, you know, Okay, I gotta give me give me a second. I gotta like, Okay, I don’t know the name of the song. But maybe if I have it. It’s a Beyonce song. It just automatically like when you said that. I was like, I can see it. It’s like, Duh. done at that. Like trying to find Okay, Beyonce song. I think it’s, um, I think it’s crazy. That’s

Damon Pistulka  59:49

awesome.

Jenifer Hanki  59:50

That’s crazy and love. I gotta find it. I gotta find it. But like, the very beginning like, like, musical instrumental intro. That would mean I walk.

Curt Anderson  1:00:01

Yeah. Do you have it?

Damon Pistulka  1:00:03

I don’t have it with me right. I

Curt Anderson  1:00:05

think I think Can you hear this? Let’s see if I. Let’s see. Wait, hang on. I went to YouTube.

Jenifer Hanki  1:00:15

Think you can hear it?

1:00:20

Ah, you hear it? No

Jenifer Hanki  1:00:28

it’s okay. Next session. I will. Paola.

Damon Pistulka  1:00:32

There we go. There we go.

Curt Anderson  1:00:35

Alright guys, let’s great crazy as Murphy I had on YouTube but for some reason it doesn’t show up on here. So I guys, thank you, Jenifer, we appreciate you. We applaud you. We just commend you. What an inspiring session we want to give a shout out to your uncle in Tokyo, lots of love to him. We want to send love to Mimi, and just you know, in all your church, family friends that are helping you crank out keeping out ecommerce orders on your jewelry. We want to give a big shout out to the incredible team and a Christmas here today. Chris is put in the chat put it in the chat. Thank you, Chris. Thank you.

Jenifer Hanki  1:01:10

I’ll follow ya.

Curt Anderson  1:01:13

I’ve got it in the chat right now. So Chris Carson from above the phrase in the house from Oregon, he’s and I had the honor privilege of doing a big Adobe commerce project with the team at above the fray. So big advocates for Adobe, Jenifer, so connect with Chris and so let’s wind down Damon parting thoughts, words of wisdom from your perspective? No, I

Damon Pistulka  1:01:33

just I just you know, you drop so much wisdom on AI. It’s just got me going again on this. And it’s just the different ways. I’m just excited to see what Adobe is going to be coming out with and what you guys are really doing. You know, you have been a staple. Adobe has been a staple in business since hell when I was young. Right. So schools. Yeah, it was yesterday. But you know, you see that and what’s happening now with Adobe commerce and just the things you were dropping, exciting already even more excited for what’s coming. That’s right. Jenifer,

Curt Anderson  1:02:05

last words of wisdom parting thoughts for the crowd today.

Jenifer Hanki  1:02:11

I think what David had mentioned like, Oh, I’m excited to see like what Adobe is coming out with next. If you’re not excited and want to know some of like the the cool stuff that Adobe is coming out with for digital experience. Stay tuned, march 25 through 28th is Adobe summit and some of the things that I know my friends have been diligently working on and can’t can’t actually speak to until then. I actually got going live. So think of that as like the you know, it’s like the the Tim Cook Steve Jobs presentation stage where they can like, you know, announce new product features. So stay tuned.

Curt Anderson  1:02:51

I’ll be awesome. All right. Thank you. Lots of awesomeness here all the way round. Jennifer, thank you. We appreciate you guys have an amazing incredible week ahead and just like we love to say just go out today and just be someone’s inspiration man just like Jenifer was for us today. Another round of applause for Jennifer and man would have been would have the world’s just a better place when we’re just out inspiring each other. So I’m going to end Dima we got another great guests on Friday. So we’re going to be back here 1232 Eastern 932 Pacific with more juicy information for you guys. Have a great rest of your week. We’ll see a Friday hanging out. Thanks

Damon Pistulka  1:03:28

everyone.