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In Conversation with
Matt McConnell
A Techronicler interview with Matt McConnell, Founder of Intradiem
Techronicler: Thank you for joining us, Matt! If you were given $10M to start a company today in a niche outside of your current field, what problem would you solve?
Matt McConnell:
I would create a health coach focused on preventing degenerative diseases, particularly cancer. I’m a two-time cancer survivor, and I’ve spent years studying the connection between daily habits and long-term health outcomes. I’ve used AI to build a custom GPT, using my own medical data and habit tracking, and it actively coaches me on behaviors that reduce cancer risk. If I could contribute to solving a real problem, I would focus on helping people prevent disease proactively, reducing the need for them to react after the fact.
Techronicler: What is the single best piece of advice you’ve ever received about negotiating—whether for salary, headcount, or project timelines?
Matt McConnell:
The best negotiating advice I know comes from a biblical principle: enter negotiations with open hands instead of clenched fists. Most people approach negotiations as a zero-sum battle, but I’ve found the opposite approach works better. I try to understand what the other side wants, and try to help them achieve it. Once people realize you want them to succeed too, the conversation becomes collaborative instead of combative. Ironically, I usually end up getting what I want as well with this approach.
Techronicler: What is the one book every leader in tech should read this year?
Matt McConnell:
The Innovator’s Dilemma by Clayton Christensen. Although it was published in 1997, it remains incredibly relevant today. AI is creating one of the biggest disruptions we’ve ever seen, levelling the playing field in many industries by collapsing barriers to entry. That is forcing even big, established companies to think like startups again. Christensen’s book explains why successful companies often fail during periods of disruption. The lesson it offers is that companies that survive will be the ones that are willing to continuously reinvent themselves, rather than leaning passively on their past success.
Techronicler: What is a piece of “common wisdom” in the tech industry that you completely disagree with?
Matt McConnell:
A common phrase in tech is “move fast and break things,” but I disagree with that philosophy. AI now makes it possible to move faster than ever, but speed alone is not a strategy. I believe companies need to deeply understand real problems first, and then go out and try to solve them. Real opportunity comes from understanding a meaningful problem and staying committed to solving it as technology evolves. Unfortunately, many companies come up with solutions first. But then they need to invent a corresponding problem, and convince the market that their solution is the answer.
Techronicler: As a leader, how do you architect workflows to reduce mental load and cognitive burnout in a 24/7 digital environment?
Matt McConnell:
A big lesson we learned from COVID was the importance of protecting our employees’ mental bandwidth. We implemented things like Focus Fridays—meaning no meetings—and encouraged employees to protect their calendars outside working hours. We also broke from the standard 30- and 60-minute meetings, substituting instead 25- and 55-minute meetings to give people a few minutes for mental transitions in between. The human brain is not designed to switch instantly from one context to another all day long without pausing!
Techronicler: What’s a key indicator that an organization’s data isn’t ready for AI?
Matt McConnell:
One of the clearest signs is inconsistent data definitions across systems and departments. When different teams define the same information differently, it creates compatibility and accuracy problems for AI. Other warning signs include poor data quality, high duplicate rates, and employees spending too much time manually cleaning or preparing data.
Techronicler: How can existing data be made AI-ready?
Matt McConnell:
Making data AI-ready requires a structured approach. Organizations need clear data ownership, consistent definitions, and measurable quality standards for accuracy, completeness, and consistency. A practical approach is a 30/30/30-day framework: spend the first 30 days assessing data and identifying gaps, the next 30 standardizing and cleaning the data, and the final 30 aligning data pipelines to specific AI use cases.
Matt McConnell founded Intradiem in 1995 with a vision of reinventing customer service through automation and artificial intelligence and continues to focus on technical innovation at Intradiem. Today, Intradiem is the leading provider of Contact Center Automation solutions for customer service teams. Matt graduated from The Georgia Institute of Technology with a Bachelor of Science degree in Industrial and Systems Engineering.