Matt Davis has spent 15 years in electronic product development, gaining a breadth experience in divergent industries - e-commerce to entertainment to education, etc. - and working with large and small businesses as either employee or consultant. Through all these endeavors, Matt’s commitment to developing top-shelf electronic media has never wavered. Successful electronic products appropriately synthesize the strategic goals of a business or organization with the quantifiable needs of end-users. Intelligently weaving these two sets of needs together has been a constant in Matt’s career. Whether it’s a website, an internally-facing toolset, or a robust online application with complex functionality, understanding who needs to accomplish what – and how they can achieve this most simply – is the only way to design and build excellent products.
Matt began his new media career in 1997 as Production Manager of the “Books” channel of then-fledgling barnesandnoble.com. After a couple of years, wanting more hands-on participation in strategic design decisions, he moved on to start-up DVD/VHS e-commerce retailer bigstar.com (may it rest in peace...). Matt’s redesign of bigstar.com there garnered the site a “Best In Category” award in Forbes Magazine’s 2000 “Best Of The Web” issue. (Forbes’ review was music to any information designer’s ears: “Clear and simple to use…”!)
Late in 2000, Matt took on the role of Executive Producer (eventually AVP of Electronic Product Development) in the K-12 division of The Princeton Review. During his five years with TPR, Matt guided all aspects of product development during a period of major business model shifts and exponential, sustained growth: the division’s earnings went from $500,000 in 2000 to greater than $35,000,000 in 2005.
Since striking out on his own with Matthew Davis Media in 2006, Matt has kept his professional life interesting by wearing variegated hats for his diverse clientele: information architect and interaction designer; music composer and producer; GUI designer; social media strategist and integrator; sound engineer and editor.
Matt received his masters from NYU’s Interactive Telecommunications Program and his BA from Amherst College. He is an avid Facebooker and Google+er, having developed an ahead-of-the-curve love for social media in the mid-1990s when he first telnetted in to the NYC-centric BBS ECHO – long live the command line!
Matt and his family live in northern New Jersey, just outside New York City. He makes music with his band The Thousand Pities.
(For my full CV, please contact me!)