Working Theories: Matthew Knight
WORKING THEORIES is a semi-regular interview series from Sibling Studio, spotlighting some of the best thinkers, makers, and cultural challengers in our extended network. These are the people we admire, collaborate with, and learn from—the ones doing genuinely interesting work across brand, culture, and beyond.
Matt is a strategist and founder of Outside Perspective, a brilliant community where freelance strategists connect and support one another. He has been a leading voice in driving forward conversations about new ways of working and mental health in the industry.
Who are you and what gets you out of bed in the morning?
Hello, I'm Matthew Knight, I'm an independent strategy partner, who works with businesses to help them figure out what to do next. This is mostly positioning, brand and communications work for businesses like Clear.Bank, LEGO, and NiCE. I love the diagnostics stage, and probably do my best work here - helping businesses understand the real problem, not just the solution they think they need.
I also spend around 30% of my time supporting fellow freelancers, through projects like Leapers (research and resources on mental health in freelancing) and Outside Perspective (a community for independent strategy people); and working with those who hire freelancers - to advise them on getting the best out of their network of independent collaborators. This is the work that really motivates me, and I’m more proud of the awards and impact in this space, than any gold pencil in my attic.
What’s a working theory you hold right now about the industry, culture, or creativity?
My current working theory is that we're going to see villages win over monoliths. The big-ass holding groups who who have been hoovering up and dumping talent like some sort of reverse aura-farming factory line are crumbling, and the massive number of microstudies, indie-shops and practioner-led businesses are super exciting, but they're not able to do it all on their own. So we'll start to see informal and formal villages pop-up - coalitions of professional friends who work together on a regular or irregular basis, but can offer something much bigger and bolder, without being tied up in headcount and office space. Each node will offer some sort of superpower (strategy, insight, creative, production) but collectively, provides smart integration and deliver bigger. We'll see the a major contract or pitch-win from a village for a significant brand in the next 18 months, and the old-school will wake up to the threat/opportunity too late.
What’s a belief or assumption in your field that you think is overdue for a rethink?
That us freelancers will happily keep coming back for more work, regardless of how you've treated us. 93% of freelancers will actively avoid working for businesses where they had a bad experience. The tinderfication of talent has meant that too many big (and small) agencies and clients think that there's an endless stream of brilliant people, and whilst there might be, you only get so many strikes before your reputation crashes out and you can't hire anyone with decent experience. The next few years are going to be nuts when it comes to finding and working with people, and treating them like shit but pretending you've got some sort of amazing culture or briefs isn't going to work anymore. We all talk, we all know who the bad ones are. If you think you're going to be able to keep working with decent people or just use AI to churn out your briefs, you're gonna get a brutal wake up call.
What’s your favorite dumb thing you’ve seen on the internet recently?
guesswho.baldedition on instagram. It's a download-print-and-cut-out-and play version of the popular game Guess Who, but all of the characters are well known, white, bald men. It looks quite a lot like most board rooms.
What are your absolute go-to cultural resources?
I'm really fortunate that I get to have a pick-and-mix diet from the #curiositystream in Outside Perspective, which means rather than regular reads, I'm getting a lot of diverse content from out members. Standout subscriptions however, include Mara Dettmann's "This week in tech and digital", Lucinda’s boston-matrices are brilliant, Nikita Walia's writing is always spot on, Burn After Reading from MORNING is smart, and byooooob have some great regular takes on their IG that feel different to the rest. I also have two teenage daughters, far better than any WARC report. But I'll be honest, the older I get, the less I'm interested in broad cultural observations and hot takes - they're often designed only to have something new to say every week, and I'm too old and slow to keep up.
Which project, person or moment has most shaped your approach to work?
Lea Simpson - I think my strategy career started truly when I was working with a bunch of amazing people at Hyper Happen, which was the digital little sister of Naked. It was Lea who first said "You do realise you're a strategist, right?", and my response was "What's a strategist?". She's now co-founder of Brink, who do frontier innovation, delivering real-world change and impact. She's not only been an inspiration, but also a wonderful friend who has literally kept me off the streets.
Sibling Studio is a strategy practice exploring how culture and human behaviour shape the brands and ideas of tomorrow. Get in touch if you’d like to work with us hello@sibling.studo
Villages and / or small studios have always tried to get on big clients. The problem with it is finding a client that doesn’t ride your village to the ground…