Justin Wong, VP Business Development at IFTTT, answers several industry questions prior to his participation at the 2016 CONNECTIONS Summit, hosted by Parks Associates during CES:

What is the most important next step to engage consumers in smart home solutions, connected entertainment services, and/or value - added services like tech support and connected health?

Consumers are becoming more sophisticated and insist on having interactions with the products that fit the context of their lives. Is the product easy to use? Is the user experience simple to understand? Does it interact with other devices and services they use in conjunction with it? Services that deliver these types of experiences will have more success in differentiating themselves in an increasingly crowded market.

What is the biggest challenge your company faces in 2016?

IFTTT works with partners to connect their products with other products in simple and meaningful ways. As the number of connected devices, objects, things in the world continues to accelerate, IFTTT will need top talent to help us fulfill our mission of enabling consumers and developers to connect the services they love.

What is the biggest driver for the connected consumer market?

Consumers need to be presented with product choices that fit in the context of their lives as well as significantly improve upon the experiences of today. Connected products that stand alone and don't easily connect with a wide array of commonplace things will be challenged to find a mainstream audience. Additionally, consumers insist on simple yet powerful user experiences. Products must be simple to understand yet powerful enough to accomplish complex uses seamlessly.

What are the most important initiatives your company is taking in 2016?

IFTTT is working towards its vision of ubiquitous connected products and services, accessible by developers and enjoyed by consumers. 2016 will be a big year for IFTTT and for the internet! Stay tuned.

Describe your vision for the smart home and entertainment markets in 2020.

We envision a world in which connected products and services are seamlessly woven into the lives and daily activities of every consumer. At the heart of this market are developers and makers creating products and experiences that are simple, powerful, and extensible to other parts of their consumers' lives. Empowered with the ability to personalize and contextualize all of these services, consumers will still maintain significant choice in how these services interact and what data is shared between them. 

Justin Wong will be speaking on the panel "Wearables: Healthcare, IoT, and Smart Home Use Cases" alongside Care Innovations, Honeywell Life Care Solutions, Lumo BodyTech, and Qualcomm. Add this session to your CES schedule today!

To see the full CONNECTIONS Summit at CES agenda and list of topics, visit www.connectionssummit.com.