About.


Technical Coaching for software & hardware engineering

Tacit Focus, LLC

Mission:

Help make the world a better place through the improvement of product delivery.

In 2011, Marc Andreessen stated "Software is eating the world". In 2026, that vision has taken on new significance -- language models recombining the shared software history of the planet now can create volumes of code at an unbelievable pace. Though it shortens the time to runnable code, that was rarely the constraint holding companies back. The relaibility of the people and adaptability of processes define whether organizations deliver industry-leading products or languish in constant disarray.
Through improving companies' development capabilities, Tacit Focus is making the world a little bit better every day.

Approach:

Structure organizations for learning
Build technical competence in teams


Teams continuously deliver value through developing repeatable process and habits. Training alone is not sufficient: Top-down adoptions fail because leadership cannot by itself create changes in teams' daily habits. Shaping environments, organizations, and processes is necessary to exchange learning and amplify success patterns. Collaborating with advocates and cultivating emergent internal leaders create a resilient culture of continuous improvement.

Services.


Getting from Ideation to Delivery with repeatable results.

Transformation Chartering

Success or failure often is determined before the first step is taken. Start your organizational change by examining the outcomes you want. Focus on the values and principles you are willing to adopt to reach them. Set a realistic adoption strategy and waypoints for your Agile journey.

Team Coaching

Organizational transformation can be a full-time challenge, but also needs a sustainable pace. Design your coaching support to match the needs of your team development. On-site, multiple location, and virtual engagement available.

Technical Training

Improve disciplined engineering behaviors in your teams. Understand how the practices support high-quality product delivery:
DevOps, Continuous Integration, Refactoring, Test-Driven Development, Unit Testing, Source Control and more.

People.


Matt's head

Matthew Plavcan

Principal Coach, Tacit Focus, LLC

Matt helps companies build self-sustaining change at the team and organizational levels.

His career started on Intel’s lead microprocessor design team, testing large-scale semiconductor features and building tools and infrastructure for automation. He is a co-author of “The Art of Validation”, an internal reference on the philosophy and methodology of Intel verification teams.

Matt became Intel's first dedicated technical coach as a member of its Emergent Systems and Coaching team. He assisted teams across the company with improving process and software development practices. He drove adoption of hardware and software Test-Driven Development practices throughout the company.

Matt firmly believes in the “by doing it, and helping others do it” portion of the Agile Manifesto. He is an advocate and instructor for dedicated practice patterns to hone professional programming skills. In 2011, He started Intel's internal software practice program, which survived his departure over a decade ago. Matt is a global coordinator for the Global Day of Coderetreat movement.

Matt served as VR Motion Corporation's Chief Technical Officer from 2017-2022. VR Motion builds virtual reality products that create immersive training experiences for the automotive market.

Matt holds a degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Illinois, where he also taught software development.

Matt resides in Portland, Oregon.


Looking to add Matt to your team of coaches?
He has existing working agreements with these organizations:

Contact.


715 NW Hoyt St. #4221
Portland OR
97208 US