Hogan Consulting / AI for business
The possibilities get bigger when the person asking the questions understands the business.
I help growing businesses work at the forefront of AI innovation, connecting new capabilities to their customers, economics, people and daily work. My approach combines creative experimentation with experienced judgment to turn emerging technology into sharper decisions, useful tools and new paths to growth.
Business context in. Reviewed, actionable work out.
Built through experience
I joined the business that became Wayfair in 2005, among its first 50 employees, and helped launch AllModern. My work crossed product data, supplier relationships, category economics, international expansion and delivery operations. At Staples, I worked on integrating Wayfair’s catalog into the Staples Marketplace.
Later, at Symmons and Island Creek Oysters, I owned P&Ls and connected growth with the systems, teams and execution needed to support it. Across more than 20 years, I have learned to see how a decision in one part of a business changes the work somewhere else.
That operator’s instinct shapes how I use AI today. I can look at a report, a process or an unfinished idea and ask: What decision are we actually trying to make? What information is missing? Could we build a better way to do this?
Explore my Wayfair and AllModern experience →Rethink the work
Here is what an AI-supported weekly business review could look like. This is an illustrative workflow, with the tools and connections chosen around the business.
The old way of working
The team spends its attention preparing the conversation.
A new way, designed with AI
The team spends its attention on decisions and follow-through.
AI supports analysis and communication. Defined calculations, reliable inputs and accountable people make the workflow dependable.
The question changes the work
A broad request gets you a starting point. An operator adds the economics, constraints and next decision. Open an example to see how that changes what we build.
“How can we grow sales?”
THE OPERATOR’S QUESTION“Which products and channels contribute the most after discounts, fulfillment, shipping subsidies and returns? Where could more sales make the economics worse? Flag missing costs before drawing conclusions.”
Reconciled numbers, visible assumptions and a shortlist of pricing, shipping or assortment decisions.
Explore illustrative work samples →“Give me marketing ideas.”
THE OPERATOR’S QUESTION“Compare a wholesale push, a retention program and a local partnership. What must be true for each to work? What demand evidence do we have? Compare margin, cash needs, lead time and team capacity.”
A focused experiment with an owner, budget, success measure and a decision date.
See how revenue scenarios fit together →“Automate our customer service.”
THE OPERATOR’S QUESTION“Group a permitted, de-identified sample of support requests by root cause. Which issues come from product information, delivery promises or internal handoffs? What could we fix upstream, and which replies should always get human review?”
A recurring view of customer friction that informs merchandising, fulfillment and service, with approved response drafts where useful.
Illustrative opportunities, not claimed client results. Feasibility depends on the available data, systems and agreed scope.
A different kind of creative thinking
A spreadsheet could become an interactive revenue model. Customer feedback could become a product improvement brief. A founder’s priorities could become a working dashboard with owners and next steps.
Creative use of AI starts with seeing connections: a customer problem that is really an operations problem, a reporting task that should become a reusable tool, or a growth idea that needs a quick economic test. I bring the business perspective to imagine the solution, challenge the output and help make it useful in practice.
Explore a visual approach to revenue modeling →How Hogan Consulting gets you there
We can make AI part of a focused growth or operating sprint, or build it into ongoing fractional support. You work directly with me, from choosing the opportunity to putting the workflow into use.
Map the work, bottlenecks and decisions. Choose a bounded problem where a better process would be valuable.
Output: a prioritized opportunity and scope.Choose suitable tools and inputs. Build a first model, brief or workflow around an actual business question.
Output: a working prototype to review.Reconcile numbers, challenge assumptions and try representative cases with the people who do the work.
Output: a reviewed workflow and success measures.Document the steps, define approvals and assign ownership. Measure usefulness and refine the process.
Output: a practical handoff or ongoing support.Judgment stays in the loop
I build around a few operating standards: use information the business is permitted to share, keep source data and assumptions visible, validate calculations, and name the person responsible for each decision.
We agree on where AI can draft or assist, where a person must review, and what needs an exception path. Success means a workflow the team can understand, maintain and evaluate against the problem we set out to solve.
Let’s get to business
Bring the process that takes too long, the question you cannot get answered, or the idea you have not had the capacity to build. Let’s figure out what is possible and what is worth doing.
Talk to Matt about AI →Start with a free business check-in