Inside SQLI: Meet Matt O’Daly, Technology Solutions Director

Tell us about your career before SQLI? 

Music has always been my passion. I studied Music Technology De Montfort University in Leicester with the hope of becoming a producer, or session musician.  

By the time I left in 2009, I was more interested in the business side of music and found an internship in eCommerce at Warner Music. It was advertised on Facebook, of all places, which is crazy when you look back on it!  

I worked my way up to Senior Director and eventually ran the eCommerce business for Europe. Everything from what went in the stores: the product; the operations; what technology platforms were used; the overall technology and sales strategy.  

A decade later, I was ready for a change and joined Adobe. During my five years with Adobe, I helped build out their commerce services team and worked with some awesome partners like Liverpool FC, Dyson, and Kurt Geiger, to name a few.  

Later, I moved to Spotify - they wanted to build out the commerce functionality in the app, which played into my musical roots. Unfortunately, after COVID they made a lot of redundancies which I got caught up in. I knew the SQLI team well from my time at Adobe, so the move was an easy decision for me.  

What are the challenges of your role?

The main challenges are how to grow and scale. What's the optimal strategy? Which technologies should we prioritise? Which additional platforms can we engage with to better serve our customers' needs? Navigating this path is key to establishing a robust forward-thinking strategy. 

Now, we are looking at ways technologies such as Adobe Edge Delivery Services can better help enterprise-level businesses to scale up as quickly as possible. Across the Group, we're actively supporting our existing clients on their path towards composability, ensuring businesses have the flexibility and agility to grow and leverage their current technologies effectively.  

Historically, the approach has been monolithic, so in a lot of cases it’s now looking at the journey to composable and how we make sure businesses aren't locked into one technology path. 

What motivates you in work? 

I love a challenge: it keeps me on my toes and the boredom at bay. I like to know there's something new on the horizon.  

What have been your main achievements at work so far? 

Internally, we’ve developed a scalable structure for the technology solutions business unit, with a widened technology strategy, which has been a great move for the business.  

In terms of projects, we achieved significant milestones with Sharp throughout 2023. We successfully designed and launched a new eCommerce B2B platform across 19 markets. 

Despite challenging requirements and numerous complexities, it was a huge accomplishment. The entire team should be immensely proud of what they have achieved. 

What are your interests away from work?  

I've been obsessed with music since I was about 10 and started playing the drums at the age of 12, swiftly followed by the guitar a year later - I am sure my parents were relieved!  

After spending my teens and twenties playing in bands, I shifted my focus to building guitars—it has been a long-held interest of mine. During my earlier school years, I was told that building a guitar was easy and not suitable for a project. It was only many years later that I was introduced to professional luthier who finally agreed to teach me how to build an acoustic guitar. It turns out, it's not that easy at all! 

There are lots of skills that you need, not just in the tooling, but in the maths that goes into it, and in the planning and preparation. My first build took about 150 hours and six months of my time. And at the end of it, I had a fully-functioning, working acoustic guitar that remains proudly displayed on my wall to this day. I’ve had the bug ever since. 

I’ve been going to the Boatyard Guitar Workshop for 10 years and I’m part of a community of people that build guitars – I help to teach too. I absolutely love it. I have about 15 or 16 guitars (who’s counting?) of my own now and I also sell them.  

At work, things move fast, and you have to make quick decisions. In the workshop, it's slow and careful. If you rush making a fretboard, you'll get the wrong note. Precision is key. 

Away from guitars, I have driven go-karts competitively, completed the London Marathon, and adventure raced up Snowden. I also have a blonde Labrador called Lando, after Lando Calrissian from Star Wars.  

Where do you see the future of eCommerce heading?  

When it comes to technology, it's all about composable solutions. As companies seek to de-risk from relying on a single platform or ecosystem, it's important that we demonstrate how and why composable solutions are better for the long term. 

I'm also super interested in how businesses are embracing AI, understanding its implications, and leveraging it to transform the customer experience and buying journey. Our focus is on helping retailers selecting the right technologies to fully leverage AI and realise its value. 

What does your future look like?  

I want to help SQLI grow and scale. It's great to be part of a business that is offering a broader range of technologies and solutions – not just Commerce. We're ramping our efforts in the Experience side of the business, it’s exciting times! 

If you had your time again, would you do anything different?  

I’d train to be a carpenter and probably end up being a fine furniture maker. I love building things and working with my hands.  

Do you have a motto in life?  

At the risk of sounding very David Brent, it’s wise to remember that all problems come with solutions. Don’t get too hung up on the problems. 

Any words of advice you’d pass on? 

Don't make things about you. Whatever the issue is, it's not personal. I can get fired up about things, but when everything seems to be going against you, just be reminded to take yourself out of the equation and focus on what the issue is about.