Computer History Museum

Joanna Hoffman was born in 1955 and lived in Soviet Armenia and Poland until 1968. She was then able to immigrate to the US at the age of 13, after her mother had married an American and moved to Buffalo NY. She learned English quickly and excelled in school. She was fortunate to be guided into some high-quality schools where she could study physics and calculus. Her interest in physics led her to enroll in MIT, where she felt “at home” and had a wonderful college experience. While at MIT, she developed an interest not only in physics, but archaeology, which in turn led her back to Europe for a time. Through personal connections, she eventually found her way to Silicon Valley and Xerox PARC. From there, she found her way to Apple, where she worked with Jef Raskin and eventually Steve Jobs. Her major focus at Apple was in user interface design and marketing and was the author of the Macintosh business plan.

Type
Document
Format
PDF
Catalogue number
102738709
converted_cover_pdf

Joanna Hoffman was born in 1955 and lived in Soviet Armenia and Poland until 1968. She was then able to immigrate to the US at the age of 13, after her mother had married an American and moved to Buffalo NY. She learned English quickly and excelled in school. She was fortunate to be guided into some high-quality schools where she could study physics and calculus. Her interest in physics led her to enroll in MIT, where she felt “at home” and had a wonderful college experience. While at MIT, she developed an interest not only in physics, but archaeology, which in turn led her back to Europe for a time. Through personal connections, she eventually found her way to Silicon Valley and Xerox PARC. From there, she found her way to Apple, where she worked with Jef Raskin and eventually Steve Jobs. Her major focus at Apple was in user interface design and marketing and was the author of the Macintosh business plan.

Type
Moving Image
Format
MOV
Catalogue number
102738710
Hoffman, Joanna oral history, part 1 of 3

This oral history is the second of three conducted with Joanna Hoffman. As noted in the first interview, she grew up in Eastern Europe, but was able emigrate to the US and attend MIT. Upon graduation, she moved to the west coast, where she worked at Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) before moving on to Apple. While at Apple she worked closely with Steve Jobs on the original Macintosh Computer. After Jobs was forced out of Apple, she decided to join him at NeXT. When NeXT was sold to Apple, she took a “health break”, before diving into General Magic. Throughout the interview, Joanna provides a fascinating, first person insight into what it was like to work for Steve Jobs, at both Apple and NeXT, the “why” behind the key decisions made by each of these companies, as well as the excitement and camaraderie which developed in each of these very important companies.

Type
Document
Format
PDF
Catalogue number
102738754
converted_cover_pdf

This oral history is the second of three conducted with Joanna Hoffman. As noted in the first interview, she grew up in Eastern Europe, but was able emigrate to the US and attend MIT. Upon graduation, she moved to the west coast, where she worked at Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) before moving on to Apple. While at Apple she worked closely with Steve Jobs on the original Macintosh Computer. After Jobs was forced out of Apple, she decided to join him at NeXT. When NeXT was sold to Apple, she took a “health break”, before diving into General Magic. Throughout the interview, Joanna provides a fascinating, first person insight into what it was like to work for Steve Jobs, at both Apple and NeXT, the “why” behind the key decisions made by each of these companies, as well as the excitement and camaraderie which developed in each of these very important companies.

Type
Moving Image
Format
MOV
Catalogue number
102738755
Hoffman, Joanna oral history - part 2 of 3

Joanna Hoffman was born in 1955 and lived in Soviet Armenia and Poland until 1968. She was then able to immigrate to the US at the age of 13, after her mother had married an American and moved to Buffalo NY. She ended up working at a number of high-profile tech companies in Silicon Valley, including Xerox PARC, Apple, and General Magic In this, the third of three part oral history, Joanne takes a more reflective tone. She describes how her experiences have influenced her life and world view. She also describes what it was like working for Steve Jobs – both positives and negatives. She also touches on her role as a pioneer for women in the tech field. She describes her views on mentoring, failure, the cultural differences between the east and west coast tech communities, and many other dimensions of her experience.

Type
Document
Format
PDF
Catalogue number
102781035
converted_cover_pdf

Joanna Hoffman was born in 1955 and lived in Soviet Armenia and Poland until 1968. She was then able to immigrate to the US at the age of 13, after her mother had married an American and moved to Buffalo NY. She ended up working at a number of high-profile tech companies in Silicon Valley, including Xerox PARC, Apple, and General Magic In this, the third of three part oral history, Joanne takes a more reflective tone. She describes how her experiences have influenced her life and world view. She also describes what it was like working for Steve Jobs – both positives and negatives. She also touches on her role as a pioneer for women in the tech field. She describes her views on mentoring, failure, the cultural differences between the east and west coast tech communities, and many other dimensions of her experience.

Type
Moving Image
Format
MOV
Catalogue number
102781036
Hoffman, Joanna oral history part 3 of 3