June Lunch and Learn - Firefighting to Foresight: Managing Risk and Opportunity with Confidence
Ways of Working
Thursday June 26th, 2025 @ 12:00PM
Opportunity, as attributed to Thomas Edison, “is missed by most people because it wears overalls and looks like work.” Many leaders quote Edison’s dogged fixation on positive outcomes to help their teams focus on achieving success instead of avoiding failure.
Experienced program managers know the challenge of teams who miss this “positive side of risk” by chasing cascading “what-if” bad outcomes or a series of short-term solutions that conflict with high-level goals.
In this talk, Matthew shares an empowering approach to program risk, making space for the serendipitous while acknowledging the hazardous. The difference between success and failure can be a handful of things that went right, well-prepared for and acted on. Matthew will share stories from his decade with Sonos, the speaker brand who faced a series of critical decisions starting in 2020.
● As the technology for their signature speaker line aged, how would product teams balance support of long-term customers with an embrace of new
markets?
● When a global titan (IKEA) sought to partner with Sonos, what opportunities emerge from such a strong brand and how should leaders protect their own IP? We will also discuss balancing mitigation with momentum.
● Spot warning signs and still maintain your strategy
● Create actionable response plans without “scarring on the first cut”
● Elevate team morale by planning for wins, even as you acknowledge
failures
markets?
● When a global titan (IKEA) sought to partner with Sonos, what opportunities emerge from such a strong brand and how should leaders protect their own IP? We will also discuss balancing mitigation with momentum.
● Spot warning signs and still maintain your strategy
● Create actionable response plans without “scarring on the first cut”
● Elevate team morale by planning for wins, even as you acknowledge
failures
This session is intended for program managers who want to turn their risk logs into opportunity engines. Quality planning means unlocking the upside as much as mitigating the downside.
Use the following to join the meeting on June 26th!
Speaker Bio:Matthew Glidden is a program management and customer experience leader who serves as Consulting Chief Experience Officer and Technical Program Manager at GeoVero.ai, designing AI feedback integration for the global travel industry. He earlier served as Program Manager at Sonos and DellEMC, leading B2B and B2C software transformations and customer insight analysis. He holds a Master’s in IT Management from Brandeis and is active in volunteer organizations including History Cambridge and SABR. He brings a human-centered lens to managing risk, knowing that success comes to those who plan for both sides of the coin.
