“I’m not a developer. I’m not a designer.“
A generic statement that could be uttered by a majority of people in the workforce today, but in the context of what Olivia-Diane Joseph (or Liv) went on to describe in her work at Netflix, it’s nothing short of mind-blowing.
With the aid of a new, category-defining software platform, Liv shared how she orchestrated and built(!) solutions to organize thousands of different workflows and align cross-department teams around the hundreds of titles Netflix produces, publishes and promotes each year. All while allowing teams and individuals to retain their autonomy and unique ways of working.
This eye-opening story unfolded on stage at the inaugural Airtable Leaders Forum this week.
It exemplified what Howie Liu, co-founder and CEO of Airtable started the day outlining. A massive problem around the expansion and increasing specialization of software in the enterprise. Causing widespread disconnection amongst teams and countless data silos. A crisis of fractured organizations that leaves most with a difficult choice of whether to continue to move fast and double down on team autonomy, or move together and consolidate on top-down mandated solutions.
Howie went on to show how this was a false dilemma, outlining a powerful vision and new category that solves for it, Connected Apps Platform. A solution that empowers those closest to the work with the ability to build custom apps using shared data, keeping everyone in sync across teams and departments.
Airtable's Chief Product Officer, Peter Deng and members of his team expanded on the solution space even further with a visionary blueprint. As part they announced the most significant line-up of updates to Airtable since its inception, reinforcing delivery on the vision over the coming months and year.
Liv wasn’t alone in her testimony on the power of the Airtable Connected Apps Platform. Others with similar stories, from LinkedIn to iHeartRadio took the stage to share equally mind-blowing examples of before and after transformations. All surrounded by an audience full of Airtable’s top users who witnessed and even participated in the sharing throughout the day.
In very appropriate fashion, Vince Kadlubek, founder of Meow Wolf and Airtable superuser closed out the event with an inspiring presentation on the importance and power of imagination. Taking it all in, you can just start to imagine the potential this new category will unlock. What it will enable for organizations struggling to keep pace with softwares continued expansion and specialization across teams.
For an inaugural user event it was a compelling showcase. For a first lightning strike it marked a major step in a category contender's journey to develop and ultimately dominate a new category, not to mention a new era of software-driven transformation.
Congrats to Howie and the entire Airtable team on a tremendous milestone in their category design journey. Your vision to democratize software creation became that much clearer and actionable to the world this week.
