Stokes'​ work fuses deep research with critical thinking to create new value for customers & organizations. His specialty is leading research into how market categories intersect with people’s everyday lives (gaining ‘convergent evidence’ from multiple sources), then managing analysis to reveal the 'rules for transformation'​ that lead to product & design strategies which truly differentiate. He has worked in many undefined, or evolving market spaces, where (owing to social & technological change, or blurring categories) brand decisions are hard to call. His special interest is linking macro to micro, explaining how bottom-up forces (like changing patterns of consumption) create the future. Stokes was trained as a Social Anthropologist. He is a recognized practitioner of the growing field that applies ethnographic research to strategic innovation. He publishes in forums like the 'Ethnographic Praxis in Industry Conference'​ (EPIC), a leading journal for this intersection of disciplines.

Principal Research Anthropologist @ Research Anthropologist working in an innovation hub with Strategists, Designers, & Engineers to help develop new businesses for Ricoh - a global company with more than 100,000 employees / US$20B in revenue. Practicing an approach called 'deep innovation', our team cross-fertilizes knowledge from on-going ethnographic fieldwork (and anthropological theory) with emerging technologies (like computer vision, machine learning, computational optics) to shape product opportunities in Healthcare / Retail / Education. We then hone nascent products through prototyping, user feedback, & real-world field trials - feeding refinements back into the innovation & design process. From June 2015 to Present (5 months) Cupertino, CAPrincipal Researcher @ Working within Motorola CXD (Consumer eXperience Design) my role was identifying opportunities for future mobile products, services, & ecosystems, then bringing products to market in the most compelling way possible. This involved a double focus: consulting to Motorola's senior leadership (about consumer patterns and behaviors); as well as planning & analyzing research across the whole cycle of user-centered design: •Exploratory: leading 'front end'​ contextual & ethnographic research (to understand the specific 'worlds' in which products live - and the unmet potential there) •Generative: guiding concept creation, selection & definition based on the learning above + participatory design activities (in which users shape product definitions & detail designs) •Evaluative: ensuring products being developed fulfilled UX goals (via iterative testing & refinement) working closely with design teams to translate prototypes into launchable new products & services From February 2013 to June 2015 (2 years 5 months) Sunnyvale, CAPrincipal @ Lodestar was re-established to help organizations achieve innovation by applying a macro & micro understanding of people and socio-technical change. Project work included: • User experience research for refining the proposition, functionality & marketing of new-to-world social media services in the UK and Brazil; • Health & wellness research in South African townships to guide the innovation of new 'localized' over-the-counter medicines; • Data-based scenario planning to define a viable future for British bank branches; • Facilitation to co-create marketable mobile phone services for Japanese business users; • Research to create differentiating retail experiences for stores, hotels & restaurants (Europe, US, and the Middle East); • Evidence-based design research to transform healthcare services into ‘experiences’ (US). • Innovation strategy research for the refinement & positioning of technology products including web pads, digital cameras, and remote access software (in US, Europe, Asia). From October 2009 to February 2013 (3 years 5 months) Atlanta, GAAdjunct Faculty @ Within the Illinois Institute of Technology’s Innovation School (founded as the New Bauhaus in 1937) I taught graduate students to apply research methods (like empathic interviewing) that guide consumers towards expressing the unarticulated desires which pinpoint the most promising ‘white spaces’ for evolving product categories. www.id.iit.edu/prospective-students/faculty/ From September 2010 to October 2012 (2 years 2 months) Chicago, IL. www.id.iit.edu/98/Adjunct Professor of Innovation & Design Management @ Within SCAD’s design management program, I taught classes in the theory & practice of innovation, future foresighting for new product planning, and customer research methods. We applied these methods for assessing competitive landscapes, to identify the areas that would most resonate with customers and therefore lead to company growth. From September 2010 to August 2012 (2 years) Greater Atlanta Area & SavannahDirector of Foresight, Trends & People Research North America, Philips Design @ I set up and led the consumer research & planning discipline for Philips Design in North America. My role was to direct the identification of changing customer needs & wants in order to shape compelling design & marketing strategies for Philips' products (or Philips Design's consultancy clients). This included: • Strategic Foresighting into the current & future trends shaping Philips customers. • Design & user experience research into product categories such as: sustainable lighting, universal remote controls, patient imaging suites, and comprehensive healthcare environments. • UX direction-setting for Philips Electronics e-commerce strategy. From October 2007 to October 2009 (2 years 1 month) Greater Atlanta AreaFounder / Director @ Drawing on my hybrid background in user-centered design & social anthropology, trend research & marketing strategy, Lodestar was founded to apply multi-disciplinary insights to the creation and design of new customer offerings based around emerging technologies • Work from this period included breakthrough early ‘social media’ initiatives with the BBC and Nokia; and projects for Procter & Gamble, HBOS, T-Mobile, Vodafone, and InterContinental (see also Lodestar above). From November 2002 to September 2007 (4 years 11 months) London, United KingdomDirector of User Experience Modeling (XMod) @ Working at this S&P 500 digital agency during the heyday of the dot.com era, I was a Director of XMod Research for the UX discipline in London (and the dedicated Research Director for Germany). My role was heading user research for planning (and refining) the strategy & shape of new media services designed to work for (many recently online) target audiences (while fulfilling client objectives). • Responsibilities included: overall research design and project planning; conducting front end research, team oversight and quality control; iterative usability testing, collaboration with internal design, strategy, and technology teams; new business development; innovation of data collection, analysis, visualization, and synthesis techniques, final delivery of work to clients, and shaping a new product marketing strategy (grounded on the same customer insights used to create them). • Projects included: research & analysis for the OPODO.com strategy - the first joint European airline online travel service; extensive NPD work in Germany: including the proposition refinement and prototype testing of Europe's first wireless web pad; consulting to the team executing the re-design of T-Online (Europe’s largest internet portal), and refining the site and service design of T-Online's first broadband portal. From August 2000 to July 2002 (2 years) London, United KingdomStrategy Consultant and Trend Research Editor @ At this WPP Group strategic marketing think tank, I was Consultant; as well as the Editor heading its flagship ‘Planning for Consumer Change’ service. This macro Foresighting study identified 20 trends shaping British consumer behavior to prepare clients & agencies for the future. (The service was subscribed to by 40+ of ‘The London Times’ Top 200 companies). As an anthropologist, I introduced a bottom-up, consumer-led approach (that attracted many new clients) to this former economic forecasting service. Responsibilities; overall project management, leading a revamp of the service toward an observational/ trendwatching, focus, setting its key marketing messages, directing qualitative and quantitative research, writing and editing over 300 pages of content, as well as directing workshops and follow-on projects with corporate clients. As Consultant my role was advising clients on specific marketing responses to changing consumer habits and motivations; including, Coca-Cola, Unilever, Orange, and American Express. For British Telecom and Siemens I led projects to build deeper strategies for multi-channel customer relationship management. For BT, I initiated an experimental project in which multiple households were “adopted” for several weeks and filmed to create an intimate video portrait of company-consumer relationships. (This project was featured on the national news – winning BT free media). From February 1997 to July 2000 (3 years 6 months) London, United KingdomAssistant to the Chairman @ While conducting anthropological fieldwork investigating how local Chinese were ‘learning’ to be consumers in the country’s first market-led boomtown, I worked on special projects directed by the chairman of this state-run holding company. Projects involved: Participant Observation in New Era’s advertising agency, including researching customers to re-position a traditional Chinese liquor as a ‘youth brand’; Soliciting investment and coordinating communications for a large industrial park; Marketing the company’s newly acquired internet services. It is here I was converted to working in consumer research. From August 1995 to June 1996 (11 months) Shenzhen, China

Master of Science degree and Ph.D candidate, Social Anthropology @ London School of Economics From 1993 to 1997 Bachelor of Arts (BA), Philosophy @ University College London, U. of London From 1989 to 1992 Start of BA, Anthropology @ Columbia University From 1989 to 1989 High School Diploma @ Randolph School From 1974 to 1986 Stokes Jones is skilled in: Ethnography, Design Strategy, User Experience, User Research, Research Design, User-centered Design, Experience Design, Customer Insight, Service Design, Persona, Usability Testing, Design Research, Contextual Inquiry, Product Development, Future Trends, Interaction Design, Innovation, User Interface Design, Concept Development, Participatory Design, Education, Workshop Facilitation, Brand Management, Human Computer..., Customer Segmentation...