Over the past few weeks, we have opened the Alt Labs HQ to get to know some our talented team and find out what makes their gears turn. This week we caught up with the newest member of #TeamAltLabs, Matt!
A bit of background
Dog lover Matt joined the team in September, bringing with him almost ten years of experience of innovation within the rail sector, including work with rail company, Transport for Wales.
At Alt Labs, Matt is responsible for helping our innovation clients, delivering Accelerator Programmes, Lightning Decision Jams and Design Sprints.
The world of Innovation
Interested to find out more about what Matt’s role involves? We got his thoughts on the skills required and where he sees the industry going.
Q1 – What is the most important skill you need in your role?
My role is primarily based around the management and facilitation of innovation workshops. As part of the innovation team, I look to facilitate a range of programmes, including short problem-solving workshops, 24 – 48 hour hackathons, or multi day design sprints – right up to 12–week accelerator programmes for larger corporate organisations.
Q2 – What is the most rewarding part of your role?
I think, in terms of the facilitation side of things, you need to be personable and able to engage a wide audience of people. You need to interact seamlessly with differing personalities to enable you to bring the room with you on a voyage of discovery.
It can be tricky as many people aren’t comfortable with not knowing where the process is taking them, so you need to act as the guide and not an oracle with all the answers. It’s their job to find those out after all.
Q3 – What has been the biggest change in your sector in the past 12 months?
I just love the problem-solving process! Whatever form that takes. Each stage requires effort and hard work from all involved, but it always throws up great results. I also really enjoy engaging with start-up businesses as they’re usually such interesting and driven people. It’s difficult not to be impressed by their knowledge and enthusiasm for their products and ideas.
Q4 – What has been the biggest change in your sector in the past 12 months?
The focus on sustainable innovations is becoming more and more prevalent in most industries now. Challenge statements from many bigger corporations include, as they should, an element around sustainable solutions or practices. This is great, but for me the natural risk aversion to innovate on a larger scale means that early adoption of these ideas has potentially been a little slow.
I would love to see this really gather more traction over the coming years and for there to be a more collaborative approach between public and private organisations to prioritise delivery against these challenges.
Q5: What is your top productivity hack?
See quick question 1! No, but in all fairness being active and setting your thoughts straight always seems to help me. I like to take time to mentally debrief myself after carrying out a task and think what worked, what didn’t and what to work on. I usually do this when I’m exercising or blasting some music walking the dog.
I find it helps create a positive mindset as I always make sure to give myself kudos for the things that went, as well as much as be critical of what needs improving. If you’re in a positive headspace good productivity is just a natural by-product.
Want to put Matt’s Innovation skills to the test on your next project?
Want to put Matt’s Innovation skills to the test?
Five quick questions
Tea or coffee?
Coffee
Would you rather be too warm or too cold?
Too Cold
News or reality TV?
Not a fan of either but will say reality tv because it’s about as accurate as the news is half the time anyway.
Holiday abroad or staycation?
Staycation with the doggo…and wife
Dream dinner guest and why?
Nimsdai Purja. Talking about building mental toughness and positive mindset, this guy, for me, sets the standard. He seems super humble with it and not overly intense which is why I’d have him over for some scran.
The first guy to climb all 14 of the worlds +8000m peaks in under 7 months and an ex-SBS operator, you know that guy has some mad stories to tell over a family bucket of KFC chicken and a choc-ice… No expenses spared in my house!