Matthew Thomson

Urgency is the heartbeat of high-performing teams and companies. Without it, even the most talented teams risk falling into a plateau of low-level productivity. Leaders must consistently drive tempo and intensity to avoid this trap—aligning everyone towards ambitious goals and maintaining focus on what matters most. At the No Priors podcast, Frank Slootman of Snowflake says it best: urgency isn’t just about speed. It’s about setting higher standards, fostering alignment, and ensuring the team thrives under a shared mission. It’s the fuel that powers extraordinary outcomes and defines a company’s culture. At Magento, this mindset wasn’t just a guiding principle—it was an expectation. We fostered momentum and drive—setting ambitious milestones and encouraging the team to move fast and deliver results. Complacency wasn’t an option, and we worked hard to avoid it. The result? A team that consistently delivered exceptional outcomes by staying focused. Each milestone wasn’t just a win—it reinforced our culture of high performance and collaboration. For leaders, the plateau is a choice. ➡️ What strategies do you use to avoid the productivity plateau? https://lnkd.in/gmEFnWCw

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Are Return-To-Office Mandates Really Just Mass Layoffs In Disguise? -- Amazon's Recent RTO Mandate Is Not Going Over Well. Or Is It? https://lnkd.in/eJTxUPKr #startup #technology #work #rto

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Had a great conversation with MarketWatch discussing how Zillow uses AI to assist buyers and sellers. We discussed AI and ML-powered features like Natural Language Search that allows users to express preferences naturally for customized listings,  AI for personalization for content delivery, and the use of AI to enhance home valuation through Neural Zestimates by analyzing unstructured data from listing images and descriptions. It's a joy to work with the Zillow AI team, and this is just the beginning of what we have in store! #Zillow #AI https://lnkd.in/g2TBKjqe

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Had a blast chatting with Manasi on the Wharton Tech Club's Podcast. We talked about how Zillow's cutting-edge AI powers tools that continue to improve and evolve our product suite, how we’re approaching GenAI in this “teenage phase,” and my top tips for Product Managers with this latest AI wave. Last, but not least, what books I rely on daily and my two favorite classes as a Wharton Undergrad. Manasi asked for just one, but I had to include MGMT 101 where I met my wife as a favorite class, too. Check out the link below or listen wherever you usually enjoy podcasts! #ProjectManagement #TechTalks #Tech #Zillow #AI

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ZI Labs is headed to Seattle and Chicago this week—are you around? Join us this week for two amazing events: 1) Seattle: GTM Plays Cooking Class Wednesday Oct 16th, 6 pm PT Millie Beetham and I believe in the power of signals and storytelling in GTM, much like a classic recipe. Just as cooking requires the right ingredients, timing, and techniques to create a memorable dish, a successful go-to-market strategy demands the same attention to detail.  Join us for an amazing evening of cooking, dinner and learning. We’ve got 12 amazing GTM Leaders signed up from Stripe, Outreach, Highspot, Airtable, Salesforce and more!  Have one more spot. Who is in Seattle we should know about? 2) Chicago: AI + GTM Masterclass (and then dinner), Thursday Oct 17th, 3:30 pm CT Join us this Thursday for an AI + GTM Masterclass, where we’ll explore how to blend AI into your strategy. We’ll create a recipe for success that fosters innovation and connection, moving beyond just AI copywriting. Discover how AI can save time for your sellers, brainstorm opportunities within your territory, and streamline your team’s GTM efforts. What You’ll Learn: 🔍 AI’s Impact: Discover how AI is reshaping the B2B arena and how you can leverage its power. 🛠️ Blueprint for Success: Develop a comprehensive AI readiness framework to assess your capabilities, identify gaps, and implement effective strategies. 🤝 Network & Collaborate: Connect with like-minded leaders from the Chicago area, sharing experiences and insights in a dynamic environment. 2 spots left, so don’t miss out! DM me or tag someone in Seattle or Chicago if they should join us. Let’s unlock the potential of AI together! #AIMasterclass #GTM #AI

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V2MOM, SMART, LRP. PCT. Behind those acronyms are actionable concepts that helped Manu Gurudatha, Engineering Leader at PagerDuty skyrocket engineering productivity. And he shared his exact process in an in-depth article where you’ll learn: ◾ How to implement V2MOM (Vision, Values, Methods, Obstacles, Measures) and plan better. ◾ Why setting SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound) goals can bring you clarity and success in eng projects. ◾ Tips for effective Long-Range Planning (LRP) that aligns daily operations with your long-term business goals. ◾ How to reduce Process Cycle Time (PCT) to accelerate project delivery. Click on the link below to go from slipping to shipping, with real life examples at PagerDuty 👇 🔗 https://lnkd.in/eHUAc6qJ

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When it comes to AI, our approach at NinjaOne has always been to explore thoughtfully and proceed with caution. Over the past few months, it’s become clear that there’s a lot of good that AI can do for the IT community – but if approached carelessly, there’s also a lot of damage that can be done.     After a lot of thoughtful R&D, we’re excited to bring to market NinjaOne AI for Patch Sentiment, aimed at providing IT pros with detailed insights and community feedback on patches to help them better (and more quickly) determine whether patches are worth delaying or deploying.    Also, as we continue to pressure test and incorporate AI into more of our offerings, we’re excited to bring onboard a new Senior Vice President of Data and AI, Joel Carusone! Joel, we’re so excited to have you onboard. Looking forward to working with you and infusing AI into more of what we’re bringing to market for our customers. https://lnkd.in/g9G_3dbr

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Starting a company is one of the boldest moves anyone can make, and after a decade of working with early-stage founders from Google to Sequoia, I’ve learned the hardest part is often taking that first leap. It’s terrifying to share your idea and face the question, “Is this worth working on?” But that initial feedback is what transforms uncertainty into action, and every great company began with someone brave enough to ask for it. That’s why I’ve teamed up with Afore Capital (the folks who originally popularized the "pre-Seed" category) to launch a Rapid-Fire Idea Pitch Session—a chance for tech builders to get quick, actionable feedback and build the confidence to move forward or pivot. If you’re tinkering on an idea, waiting for the right moment to share it—this is it. Apply here: https://lu.ma/3bt43xi5

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Han and Zeno's recently shared perspectives that changed how I’ve been thinking about Customer Support. It’s a concept from the lens of simple engineering. The key idea in the support analogy is that the ideal scenario is for customers to be able to self-serve and resolve their issues without needing to escalate to a human support agent. The "try block" represents the resources available for customers to help themselves, like documentation, FAQs, and AI-powered chatbots or virtual agents. To me, the "catch block" is escalating to a human agent when self-service fails. Seeing this in real-world parallels, Customer Support is like filing your taxes. The try block includes tax prep software, online guides, and chatbots that answer common questions. If you get stuck, you move to the catch block - hiring a CPA or visiting an IRS/CRA office. I imagine companies like Intuit think about taxpayer-friendly systems investing heavily in the try block for their customers, using AI to tailor guides to your specific situation, flag potential errors, and suggest deductions. By making the software as helpful as possible, a true Copilot – they reduce the need for costly human intervention. Optimizing the 'try' workflows is how award-winning AI Agents like Tico are able to achieve a constant 96% AI automation rate, and it can only be done by being able to configure your AI Agent, and it starts with #ConversationalAI. If you’re navigating high support volumes with a lean team, reach out and I'll show how you can help blend & configure AI automation with quality for your customers.

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Ethical AI is a hot topic right now. If you missed Vonage at Dreamforce, you can watch this session on understanding missteps and how to avoid them. https://gag.gl/b8kzlq #mycompany

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Observability is crucial for understanding and ensuring great digital experiences, and the good news is that Fastly is adding new features and refreshes to our Observability packages without increasing the price. Check out what's coming 👉

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🔈 PSA for my start up folks trying their best to plan the next quarter 🔑 Spreadsheets are great and all but startups are built by people 🔑 Spend as much time getting folks bought in, aligned and excited about the plans as you do creating it. 🤗 The earlier the company is in their journey, the more this applies. ^^ Happy building 💪 #startups #spreadsheets #planning #peoplefirst

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For anyone interested in learning more about where #artificialintelligence could go from here, have a listen to this fireside chat between Renen Hallak, CEO and Founder of VAST Data and NVIDIA's CEO and Founder, Jensen Hung.

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See Cameron Yoder and I in our costumes on the latest podcast as we react and share what Sellers and Brands need to know about the Q3 Amazon Earnings call!

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For the builders and cloud developers, you don't want to miss this ... perhaps you want to impress your boss 😉 Would you be interested in starting leveraging AI with confidence? https://eqix.it/3UpVGLM JJ Asghar is hosting a hashtag #DemoDay session to help you engage in AI from an hashtag #OpenSource Standpoint. Jump in to set your reminder so you don't miss out. 🤩 For more info ⤴

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The last few years have seen a proliferation of 'X'Ops roles in tech (StratOps, BizOps, SalesOps, RevOps, ProdOps, DesignOps, DevOps, etc.) with the goal of providing leverage for people in 'X' roles. Many of these leverage tasks end up being grindy work, such as planning and coordination, issue management, driving efficiency, and managing communications and notes. Given the repeatable nature of these tasks, I wonder how many of these roles will be replaced by GenAI Ops Copilots? #genAI #Ops #opsroles #stratops #bizops #prodops

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Building a great culture is hard. When we first started scaling our team, we made a lot of mistakes. Over the course of several years, we put processes in place to improve our hit rate, increase our talent density, and retain great people for much longer than the average startup. There are three pillars that I believe make it work: 1. Hiring process 2. Performance reviews 3. Compensation I thought I'd share the approach that works for us in case it's helpful for other teams...

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Today, I had the privilege of being part of a powerful roundtable discussion at Fortune #BrainstormAI in San Francisco, where I joined a group of visionary leaders shaping the future of AI. Huge thanks to the impressive panelists: Alexandra Debow, Co-founder and CEO of swsh; Arvind Jain, Founder and CEO of Glean; Najeeb Uddin, Senior VP and CIO at AARP; and, of course, Verne Kopytoff from Fortune, who led the discussion. We went deep into the real conversations about AI—it’s innovation potential for both customer experiences and operator workflows. My top tips: (a) start with a customer problem but be okay to evolve as you experiment (b) unlock ideas with a smaller, representative dataset that people from across your company can test ideas with, and (c) try and “mix” AI & business thinking at the team level, not org level. At #Zillow, we’re using AI-powered tools to transform the home buying experience and help real estate professionals—like loan officers and agents—work faster and more efficiently. By automating tasks like summarizing phone calls, sending follow-ups, and setting reminders, AI helps agents stay organized and focused. For buyers, sellers, and renters, we’re using AI to remove friction and streamline the process—making it easier to find and win a home with fewer obstacles. Thanks to everyone who contributed to such a high-energy, hands-on discussion! #AI #Innovation #Disruption #TechTrends #FutureOfWork #Leadership #GameChangers #RealEstateTech #BrainstormAI #Zilllow

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