My good friend Mike Quigley, a Los Altos resident, is the chief marketing officer of Niantic, the company that developed the Pokémon Go application that seemingly took over the world upon its launch July 6. The game had half a billion downloads its first two months and became the biggest mobile game launch of all time.

I thought it would be interesting to sit down with Quigley and learn about his experience at being the center of the universe.

Q: Did you in any way anticipate the huge traction that Pokémon Go would get globally, or did it come as a shock how popular it is?

A: While the team certainly prepared for a big launch, I don’t think anyone could have predicted how popular Pokémon Go would be. This was the first time in history that augmented reality technology on mobile devices would be combined with a major global intellectual property like Pokémon and be available to players all over the world. The combination – along with a few other external factors happening last summer – proved to be positively overwhelming. So, yeah, I’ll go with “shock,” Frank.

Q: Have you done anything career-wise in the past that matches what has happened with Pokémon?

A: I’ve been lucky to work on some amazing entertainment properties in my career that also had phenomenal commercial performance, including Disney films like “Aladdin” and “The Lion King” and video-game properties like The Sims, Battlefield and Rock Band. That said, the launch and mass-market global appeal of Pokémon Go is unlike anything I’ve ever experienced. I’m humbled, proud and, in many cases, speechless by the fan reactions and love of the game.

Q: What was the vibe in your office at the time you were going through the zany part?

A: A mix of exhilaration and exhaustion. The team had already put in very long hours to get us ready for launch, so we had to dig even deeper to keep the game servers up and running and keep the players happy. But the players are the ones who kept us all going – to witness the joy and delight that people of all ages were having while playing the game was a fuel much stronger than coffee or energy drinks. Of course, having a full stock of both of those didn’t hurt, either.

Q: Can you give me one or two anecdotes where it just blew your mind, where you stepped back and said to yourself, “Wow, I’m in the eye of this really cool global phenomenon”?

A: There are two that immediately come to mind. The first is when I heard my wife and two teenage girls yell across the house, “Hey, we just caught a Pidgey in our kitchen!” I thought to myself, “Well, this certainly isn’t ‘normal.’” The second is when our PR team started sending us broadcast TV clips from around the world of news programs discussing the game and the large groups of people playing it in towns and cities everywhere. Jaw-dropping, frankly.

But the whole experience began to feel surreal when we started hearing player experiences about how the game was having such a positive impact on people’s lives. Whether that was hospitals using Pokémon Go to get patients up and on their feet or large groups of players gathering together for “PokéWalks” and making new friends, Pokémon Go’s positive impact on communities has generated amazing stories that really make all of the hard work worth it.

Q: As CMO, is the product doing your job for you, or is there even more for you to do now?

A: A good marketer knows that it’s all about the product or service you’re selling. And we’re fortunate to have a very special, innovative game with Pokémon Go, and we’re just getting started. Does this make my job easier? Absolutely. But the work always presents new challenges, and it ebbs and flows with new feature releases, new promotions, new country launches and a variety of issues that we have to address in a timely manner.

Q: What is it like for you to walk down the street in Los Altos, or anywhere else around the world, and see people on their phones and you can tell they are playing the game?

A: It’s humbling. Really humbling.