Bringing Humanity Into The Customer Experience

Doug Cerny was in the Amazon Minneapolis office to co-host a watch party for an internal design event when he graciously decided to set aside some time that day to chat with us. We’d wanted to get to know him better for a while now because we’ve never seen him wear the same epic graphic t-shirt twice, and we’re fascinated by the way he intentionally connects with the people in the local Minneapolis community. We walked together to a quiet space to ask him some questions (currently wearing a shirt highlighting A Goofy Movie), but we caught on quickly that no place where Doug enters stays quiet for long. As his peers and coworkers passed by; cheerful hellos, comments of excitement about the upcoming design event, and “good to see you” came through sudden eruptions of genuine smiles.

Pivoting into UX

When Doug was a child, he was a complete movie buff; mesmerized by the magic of animation. His early career dreams were to bring stories to life through animation; while also recalling that he became obsessed with engineering and genetics after watching Jurassic Park. He joked with us that he was bummed when he wasn’t able to “create real dinosaurs” with his Biomedical Engineering schooling; but this set him on the path to becoming a Systems Engineer, working on Medical Devices in the Midwest.

As a Systems Engineer, it was Doug’s job to study medical device users as they interacted with devices to understand how a product software, hardware, or service was meeting (or falling short) of user’s needs. He was serving people with unique conditions and felt a growing empathy for the personal struggles they experienced; noting how tough it was to observe that while the device safely met the needs of the user, the work of a systems engineer did not prioritize a “usable design that also brought humanity into the process.” For example, building a medical device that’s functional, but aesthetically bulky and unpleasant, can cause a person to stand out in a way that may cause them to feel embarrassed and uncomfortable. This doesn’t solve this person’s full need, and he realized that was a gap that mattered more to him to solve than just making sure a product functions safely. So Doug transitioned from system engineering into human factors and eventually moved into UX and Design - a space where he now feels at home.

Fast forward to today, Doug currently finds his inspiration in helping folks like locally-owned, women-owned, and minority-owned businesses thrive; noting that this is possible because of his position in Amazon’s Buy with Prime product; which helps democratize the direct-to-consumer world of retail. Doug loves the idea of giving small business owners a leg up to help them create competitive businesses of their own; by allowing them to build a space for themselves to market and sell their unique experiences that’s fueled by the power of Amazon logistic capabilities on the backend which allows them to scale.

More than just an expression of personal style...

Speaking of that Goofy shirt he was sporting, we knew Doug had an epic graphic t-shirt collection after seeing him around the office, but the why behind them surprised us. Doug mentioned, “in my previous life working at medical companies, the dress code was business attire and grey tones. That was just never me. So I would come to work in Guardians of the Galaxy shirts, bright neon pants and boat shoes.” Doug is intentional about bringing character and personality into his work environment through his personal style because he’s noticed that it helps other people feel more comfortable coming to work as themselves as well, which is something he values in his work environment.

Doug also shared a story about a lesson he learned from his Dutch grandfather, his Opa. “If you gave him a yellow sweater, no matter how hot it was, he would wear that the next time you saw him because you gave it to him and he knew it would mean something big to that person.” Doug also shared that recently, one of his coworkers invited him to a presentation she was giving. He knew the speaker loved the movie Aladdin, so he showed up to her presentation wearing his Aladdin shirt to show support for her in his unique way.

Doug laughed and let us know that, much to the chagrin of his wife because of the needed closet space, he now owns over 400 Graphic tees, a collection which he finds hard to narrow down because he’d hate to not have the perfect shirt for the right occasion.

The power of words...

When Doug first started at Amazon, he learned how to present ideas differently through written storytelling; essentially presenting ideas backwards from how he envisions customers seeing and using the product. He loves how this helps him shape stronger ideas that impact customers, and how it helps him sell his ideas with a long-term strategy in mind. Doug appreciates that written documents can tell your story even when you’re not in the room; and this unique mechanism can help your ideas spread and scale so much further than a traditional word-of-mouth strategy or what PowerPoint presentations can do alone. This skill can take time to develop, so Doug now mentors other creatives at Amazon on using written frameworks to breathe life into their ideas and gain support from leadership.

Doug also appreciates the “welcoming spirit of curiosity and learning” that he’s found at Amazon these past 5 plus years. Amazon hosts several internal networking and design events throughout the year, which makes it easy to connect, share resources and learn from each other. He finds it enchanting to get to meet creatives that come from so many unique and diverse backgrounds, i.e. - investigative reporting, agencies, healthcare and more; explaining that our diverse community is so fascinating to be a part of, but also truly makes us incredibly powerful. The sheer number of unique business areas across Amazon that come together to solve problems for our customers inspires Doug daily.

When work ends and the movie credits roll...

Life with a 15-month-old son keeps Doug’s personal life pretty busy. He’s recently taken back up his morning running routine, which not only helps him feel healthy and centered, but is an active source of inspiration that keeps him innovating. Doug said with a smile: “I’m way too distractible to sit down and read books, so running helps me go through several Audible books a month”. He loves listening to books on random topics (like finance or real estate) and picking up on processes or mechanisms that he can repurpose and use to solve problems within his own unique design space. He’s also found success approaching new challenges by thinking about ways nature may have already solved something similar he can apply as a solution to his own space.

If you happen to see Doug around Minneapolis, ask him if there’s a story behind his shirt! You can also learn more about the work of Doug’s team, Buy with Prime here.