In Conversation with Katharine McKee
Tell us about your background:
After a 16 year career building out digital commerce capability for companies in pillars such as CPG, Luxury, Beauty and Apparel, Katharine McKee founded Morphology Consulting, a digital commerce consultancy that creates long term profitable growth for their clients by helping them understand and adhere to algorithmic systems online.
A Forbes Next 1000 honoree and veteran in digital commerce, Katharine is a leader in ecommerce and an expert on systems, who focuses on building profitable revenue streams. To date, Katharine has overhauled the digital go-to-market for more than 50 brands, including Fortune 500's such as Coty, Luxottica and IPG Media Brands and has sustainably increased client’s revenue up to 600% YoY.
What do you wish you’d known when you started out?
I wish I had known that you can and should build the life and career that you want. Take the time to really figure out what you need and ruthlessly focus on achieving it. I spent a lot of time learning a lot of disparate things (which has served me really well) that I thought were the "good" thing to do, rather than focusing on what was best for my skill set.
Best career advice you've ever received?
"Create documents as though they are being forwarded by your adversary without your permission" – meaning that you need to prepare your docs/presentations/information as though you won't be there to defend it/explain it. Decks need to be crystal clear, emails need to have context and information well laid out, ideas need to be fully formed before shooting them off.
What leadership qualities are important to you?
Confidence and competence. A leader is there to protect and grow their team. You need to know where you are going and how to get there before you can ask anyone to come along with you. You also need to be able to see the greatness of those around you, celebrate it, and help them best put it to use. We are incredibly lucky to be able to steward people forward in their careers, and I am forever in debt to some of the amazing bosses I have had who went out of their way to help me grow.
What has been the biggest challenge in your career so far?
The biggest challenge in my career has been being perpetually early. I have been in ecommerce since people thought it was a scam. Most of my career has been spent helping to educate people about things that would take 5-10 years to really take off.
And for fun, what is your favorite wardrobe staple?
My favorite wardrobe staple is a gratitude journal. Nothing makes me confident in my skin like being very clear on who I am and what the beauty of the day will hold.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/katharine-mckee-78301a9/
Website: https://www.morphologyconsulting.com/
Instagram: @morphologyconsulting
