Accelerating Emerging Tech Product Adoption with Dominic Jones of Amazon

Apr 11

Dominic Jones is a Senior Design Manager at Amazon, developing new technologies for emerging retail experiences.

In this episode of Let's Talk Limbic Sparks, Dominic reveals how addressing the emotional context of user groups can lead to accelerated emerging tech adoption. Dominic shares details about his design background and inspirations, including furniture design, Japanese culture and many years uncovering consumer insights at iRobot to guide product development.

We explore why users are not always as enthusiastic about emerging technology as its creators, how to overcome barriers to adoption, and what designers and marketers should consider to successfully launch new products and experiences that are made possible by emerging technology.

Key Takeaways and Soundbites:

"At the heart of what I've always been excited by as a designer, is understanding and learning about people, finding ways to tap into those fundamental desires and perspectives that they have, and getting under the skin to understand what drives and motivates them."

“Brands that are really successful aren't necessarily solving that functional problem, they are tapping into those emotional needs and desires that customers have, or even tapping into the emotional speed bumps that are stopping them from adopting an idea or using a product or service.”

“I've always been a believer that we should think that we are designing activities, we are not necessarily designing products.”

"You’re trying to understand the context in which this product is being used, the activities that surround it, how it influences the rest of that person's life."

"The work that I've done that has been most stimulating has been where we've started off in understanding those instinctive emotions that people have."

"Though technology is exciting and unrelenting, there are a lot of barriers that consumers and users associate with adopting these new technologies. As designers and product developers, we can easily get carried away with our own visions and creativity and conviction."

"There are opportunities in many companies where you can take a step back and not think about how does this product get better, or how do we design and develop the next generation, but what does our brand mean to people, what are we solving for people emotionally, what are their burdens and fears and desires as they go about this activity."

"I encourage designers and marketer to think about what are the elements of that product, that experience, that activity and technology that are preventing people from adopting it in the first place vs. having a good experience when they've brought it into their home."

Here are some fun facts about Dominic…

Dominic Jones is a designer, researcher and brand builder. He grew up in England and across a variety of countries in Africa. Dominic studied furniture design at Kingston University England and gained his Master in Industrial Design from the Royal College of Art.

Dominic has worked across a spectrum of categories including CPG, health care, retail, and consumer electronics in both in product development and marketing functions. This has given him a unique perspective on the development process for brand, products and experiences and what it takes to accelerate their adoption.