About
Matthew Oliphant is an accomplished design and research leader with a wealth of experience driving product and service enhancement across a range of industries. His expertise extends to domains such as healthcare, financial services (fintech), and education, where he is dedicated to utilizing technology for empowering individuals and elevating their quality of life.
Throughout his career, Matthew has successfully contributed to various sectors, including accounting, business processing, CRM, e-commerce, education, engineering, entertainment, fundraising, insurance, marketing, and transportation (all a mix of B2B and B2C).
Writing
He drifts through life disconnected. Even when a customer at the cafe he works at calls his attention to it, he doesn’t quite see it. When a volcano destroys his car and a friend offers a very cheap plane ticket, he decides to find out what life is like outside the rut. That is, assuming he’s in one…which he absolutely is, but he has to leave in order to gain perspective.
Hemingway wrote, “You can’t get away from yourself by moving from one place to another,” in The Sun Also Rises. The only rational response to this is, “No duh, but you’ll never understand until you see it for yourself, Ernie.”
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In his fourth book, In Search Of…, Matthew Oliphant chronicles a journey that takes place over the course of a few months between 1991 and 2051. While it is a memoir, and all parts of it are true, the story folds in aspects of the world that was, the world that is, and a world as it might yet be. Everything in it happened, but none of it is real. In fact, this book may not even exist.
Awards
Work Experience
Redesigned the entire platform (including starting their design system) for a job-finding and education focused startup.
Conducted research to understand their three primary user groups
Redesigned internal employee application for healthcare company which resulted in more efficient workflow and fewer errors leading to an extra $10,000,000 in annual revenue
Established the UX and Design practices, Design System, and hired the design team of an Entertainment company in the Blockchain/Crypto space. Redesigned the entire platform prior to its public launch
Conducted generative research for search engine company to understand how customers use their array of products and how those products might be integrated to better serve everyone
Guided materials client—a mycelium-based leather replacement—to create a current- and future-state service blueprints to align all departments around how prospects become customers and how each department can best support that journey
Created a product strategy for a Healthcare AI Startup to focus their efforts across departments which increased efficiency and time-to-market
Conducted research and usability testing for healthcare company’s DNA testing product to align process and outcomes to customer expectations
Ask about the Smart Toilet research!
Deliver solutions for Generative AI, Assessments, Learning Motivation, and Design Systems.
Define the vision and strategy for learning experiences in partnership with Product and Engineering.
Direct a team of designers toward re-envisioning Pluralsight’s core application, Skills.
Course-correct the team from working in silos to working collaboratively with Product, Engineering, and each other.
Guide multiple Discovery efforts to get the Design teams working less reactively and more focused on definable problems and opportunities.
Institute a 4-day work week for the team which led to happier designers getting more work done, faster. Yes, I am a hero.
Created and managed UX and CX practices and systems
Researched needs of B2B customers
Designed the B2B platform
Redesigned B2C platform
Built and managed cross-functional team of 30 to deliver web and native applications for nGen's B2B and B2C clients
Defined product strategy
Provided UX Research & Design expertise to all stages of projects
Shepherded discovery, design, and development for the integration of Blackbaud's Internet Solutions and Enterprise CRM products for nonprofit organizations (primarily Higher Ed and Family & Human Services).
Reduced time spent managing web transactions (high-volume donations, donor information, event registrations) by combining two distinct systems into one more useful and usable system.
Provided UX design and user research for the company's website and MATLAB Central, the MathWorks user community site. Projects included designing web applications for customer-facing bug tracking, e-commerce, file sharing, and product support.
Business Logs was the first full-service agency focused on helping companies engage with their customers in the world of blogs and other social media.
I focused on corporate blogging strategy and policy in order to help companies better understand how they should best be engaging with their customers. Blogs used to be a thing! Business Logs was acquired in 2007.
Designed web applications for insurance, financial services, and internal business processing as well as in-office (physical) experiences for office staff and customers. That’s right: Service Design before we had a name for it! I designed the Enterprise Customer Relationship Management app (the primary application Agents’ offices use to serve customers), moved the call center from green-screens to the web, and designed most of the first iteration of State Farm Bank’s web applications.
Lead a group of project and program risk analysts and coordinators in strategy, planning, research, assessment, and cross-effort communication in order to make Risk Management more effective and efficient, with specific focus on Information Risk Management (IRM).
Focused on writing manuals for software as well as in-app Help content. This type of work is now called UX Writing, but I’m not sure why. It didn’t need a new name. But you probably aren’t reading this sentence. 5 extra points to you if you did!
Volunteering
This show is for people who want to make their products and services better. We explore ideas and practices to understand how we can all do better. Topics will include business, product design, service design, UX, and the occasional silliness.
Providing professional development opportunities for advanced practitioners in the human-centered disciplines!
Refresh Portland was an eclectic speaker series which highlighted new & expert voices on creative & technical topics.
I mean, c'mon. 9rules!
No link cuz it ain't what it used to be.
Was on the first editorial board for UXPA (UPA at the time) Magazine. Edited and wrote articles.
I volunteered in the news department editing down stories that played in the evening for shorter versions to play the following morning. Real tape, people!