Sean Johnson
CEO of Madison
Sean Johnson
CEO of Madison
Greater Chicago Area
Overview
Work Experience
CEO
2024 - Current
Madison helps grow professional services firms by making their Partners and Managing Directors "slightly famous." Specifically we help you: - Get clarity on your Point of View. - Communicate that Point of View through insightful and high quality content. - Create natural and respectful ways for your prospects to raise their hands when they're ready.
Owner
2023
Helping founders and senior executives build better businesses and live better lives.
Adjunct Professor
2013
Teaching a course on digital marketing to full and part-time MBAs.
Founding Partner
2021 - 2023
Manifold is a platform for perpetual value creation, combining venture investing, incubation and advisory services under one roof.
Partner at Digital Intent
2010 - 2021
Lead the product strategy and growth teams for our innovation business unit.
Partner
2013 - 2023
Founder Equity provides investors with an attractive way to gain exposure in early stage technology startups. Founder Equity has no fees and no carry, provides a built in portfolio of great companies, brings deep operational expertise to bear, and seeks liquidity targets significantly faster than traditional venture.
VP Product Development
2009 - 2010
Led product development for web 2.0 job and recruiting platform. Worked with the Brill Street team to determine product strategy, lead interface design and development, conduct user testing, etc.
Vice President and Creative Director
2006 - 2009
(NOTE: Goalquest was acquired by EducationDynamics in 2006) Responsible for identifying market opportunities and new product development initiatives for company’s Enrollment and Retention Division, which has 120 clients and generates $8 million in revenues annually. Determined project objectives, gathered functional and business requirements, developed personas, created wireframes and design prototypes or mockups for production. Conducted user testing and focus groups to gather feedback and improve products. Mentored and managed multiple graphic designers (in-house and freelance). Collaborated with other departments to ensure products accomplished business and client objectives. -- PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT • Along with VP Technology and VP Product Dev, responsible for the creation of a social networking platform that serves over 100 million pages a year and reaches over 100,000 students, as well as an analytics backend, a content management system, and an early warning system. • Created and implemented a formal product development methodology to decrease development time, reduce costs, decrease scope creep and improve client satisfaction. • Created the Enrollment Audit, an extensive consulting tool to help clients identify holes in their enrollment management strategy and provide suggestions for improving their overall enrollment process and increase revenue for the institution. • Developed, designed and deployed the EDDY Idea Manager, a Ruby on Rails application created to consolidate and manage innovation within the division and encourage collaboration between departments. -- CREATIVE MANAGEMENT • Responsible for managing the design of over 300 microsite and/or custom web development projects each year. • Recipient of multiple industry awards for web design and microsite development. • Received highest department grade for client satisfaction on every feedback survey conducted during tenure.
Owner
2006 - 2008
Web and email marketing company creating tools and consulting on strategies to help small businesses and non-profits run professional, results-driven online marketing campaigns.
Director of User Experience
2005 - 2006
Acted as user advocate, helping bridge the gap between business, technical and user stakeholders. • Developed formal user testing process to identify and eliminate bottlenecks and pain points in the user experience for company's web applications. • Regularly conducted focus groups at client sites to gather informal feedback on products. • Organized client and student feedback groups, and held regular calls to discuss new product opportunities and identify ways to improve existing products and services.
Account Manager
2004 - 2005
Handled account management and client service responsibilities for 15 clients. • Had the lowest client attrition rate during account management tenure. • Generated over $100k in upsell and cross-sell revenue.
Owner
2003 - 2004
Web and application development company, focusing on creating online campaigns and building attractive, standards-based websites and web applicaitons. Responsible for all marketing and PR aspects of the company and manage implementation of design for client work.