Matthew Carlson is fascinated by the intersection of software development, communication, and high-performance teams. He is a developer, trainer, coach, facilitator, and speaker with over 20 years’ experience helping organizations improve at every level, from powerful software development teams to senior leadership. With his strong focus on fundamental principles, people who work with Matthew gain a deep and practical understanding of how and why solutions work in their context.

Matthew’s background in Organizational Communication has helped executive and team members find clarity through his coaching, teaching, mentoring, and facilitation. He is known for bringing people together, deep listening, and helping people discover practical solutions.

This Communication centered lens allows Matthew to guide teams through the complexities of building Better Software Sooner from Product Discovery to Technical Excellence. He helps teams focus on Value from a User perspective and communicate better with the organization around them to meet their goals. He has a strong background in User Research, collaborative Design Thinking, Lean Startup practices, and specializes in helping teams use these tools to build software that doesn’t just function but delights users.

Matthew has been a professional software engineer working on projects as diverse as healthcare management, integration with steel fabrication robots, and mobile communication applications on Android and iOS platforms. He has an outstanding Java background and has recently added JavaScript to his bag of tricks. His technical passion is cleaning legacy code and helping organizations get to a point where they are focused on continuously delivering customer value rather than fighting fires.

He is a frequent conference speaker on topics ranging from Organizational Communication to Mob-programming.

Matthew lives just outside of Berkeley, California where he and his wife make a hobby of “collecting hobbies”. From studying languages, musical instruments, historic costumes, to 3D printing, and jewelry design they are always learning and building.