Jan 07, 2021 | 3 min read

Business Strategy Design with Matt Kelly

By: Patrick Emmons

Business Strategy Design with Matt Kelly

Innovation starts when all stakeholders are working as a cohesive unit and have identified a common mission. Matt Kelly, a partner and Business Designer at Do Tank, is our guest this week. Matt believes that to be successful, a company needs to spend time doing business modeling that allows them to increase efficiency and ensure they are targeting the right customer demographics.

Matt spoke with Patrick and Shelli about business design and the concept of validating assumptions through pressure tests. If you are interested in business design and modeling, check out Do Tank’s tools and templates in their Business Design Academy.

  • (01:23) - What is Do Tank?
  • (02:43) - Getting the ball rolling
  • (05:56) - Navigating the internal landscape
  • (08:05) - Closing the feedback loop
  • (11:19) - Validating assumptions
  • (14:23) - Agility is key
  • (17:28) - Creating compelling pitches
  • (23:14) - Articulating vision
  • (25:40) - Craving for variety
  • (26:55) - Lessons learned
  • (29:09) - Clients all over the board

Matt is a partner and business designer with Do Tank, which helps teams create better businesses. Roughly half of Matt's work is in healthcare, and the rest of it is spread around a wide variety of industries. The focus of his work includes building new business models, strategic planning, value proposition design, upskilling folks on innovation, and designing physical & virtual events. He holds a Bachelor's degree in English Literature from the University of Chicago and an MBA from the University of Illinois at Chicago. He lives in Chicago with his wife and three year old son.

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About Patrick Emmons

If you can’t appreciate a good sports analogy, movie quote, or military reference, you may not want to work with him, but if you value honesty, integrity, and commitment to improvement, Patrick can certainly help take your business or your career to the next level. “Good enough,” is simply not in his vernacular. Pat’s passion is for relentlessly pushing himself and others to achieve full potential. Patrick Emmons is a graduate of St. Norbert College with a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science and Mathematics. Patrick co-founded Adage Technologies in 2001 and in 2015, founded DragonSpears as a spin-off dedicated to developing custom applications that improve speed, compliance and scalability of clients’ internal and customer-facing workflow processes. When he is not learning about new technology, running a better business, or becoming a stronger leader, he can be found coaching his kids’ (FIVE of them) baseball and lacrosse teams and praising his ever-so-patient wife for all her support.

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