Alexa Skill Development is a skill set that is becoming more and more recognized in the mainstream. I recently met a community college professor at a speaking engagement in Nashville who is trying to build a Voice Design / Voice Development program at his school. PHENOMENAL. This will happen. SOON. And as it happens, project managers at digital agencies and Q/A testers will need to test the crap out of voice apps like Alexa Skills. Some people will have devices, and others will test using the Amazon Developer Console. But this video shows you how to test using only your web browser - for free - using a tool called Echoism.io. You're welcome! Happy Alexa Skill Testing!

As the world of voice apps continuously changes, one of the latest ways you'll want to consider garnering awareness for your business is to build what's called a "How To Video Action" on Google Assistant. This is a voice-activated way that users can bring up VIDEO content on their devices, like Google Hub, and phones with the Google Assistant app loaded on it. Picture your audience at home or their offices with a Google Hub (device with a screen) and them needing to know how to do something (how to build a holiday wreath, or how to fix their hot water heater). They can say "Hey Google, open home improvement tips" for example, and your businesses' How To Video can appear. This video shows you a step by step process of not only how to build these voice-based applications, called Google Actions, but also how to name them so they're most likely to be found organically via an "opening invocation." This process has recently been referred to by Google Actions marketers as "whitelabeling." Here's what you'll need to get started: 1. A Google Account. 2. YouTube video content that you've created for your brand, of the "How To (do something)" variety. 3. A desire to reach your target audience in new ways that the data is showing you should (i.e.,, voice-based multimodal apps). The step-by-step process is outlined here by Google, but my video walks you through a real life scenario that is very helpful.

Before I get into defining Alexa Presentation Language (APL), I have to define "Multimodal Voice App." What the heck is a multimodal voice app? By now, we're all somewhat familiar with what we can ask Alexa to do. Some of us way more familiar than others. And by now, we should at least have some level of familiarity with what "Alexa Skills" are. They're simply applications built on top of Alexa, the same way mobile applications are built for the iOS App Store or Android Google Play Store. So yes, it's possible to build a voice-based application that does all of the things (and more) that/than a web-app or mobile app does. It's also possible to fully integrate these voice-based apps (for Amazon Alexa - they're called "Skills" and for Google Assistant they're called "Actions" into preexisting web-apps and mobile apps. For example, imagine signing up for a subscription service on a website, being able to then view it on your mobile app, but also being able to ask Alexa to bring up premium content on your Echo device or any Alexa enabled device. With me? Great. Okay, now consider the fact that Amazon has not only Alexa-abled cars, headphones, etc. but they're also selling tens of millions of devices with screens. The Echo Show and Echo Show 5 are super popular, and the Spot still exists, as well as Amazon Fire app that is also Alexa-enabled. So voice-based apps that are designed for more than one type of device (i.e. Echo and Echo Show and/or Echo Auto and Amazon Fire) are called Multimodal Voice-based apps. They're voice activated and voice navigated, but they also have visuals. Okay, now that we've cleared that up, let's talk about Alexa Presentation Language (APL). This is how the Alexa Skills Kit (for developers) allows you to design for multimodal Alexa Skills. This video shows you some cool features about designing and testing using the APL Authoring Tool and my Echo Show 5 Device.

What's up everybody? I'm going to show you something I've been really excited to do myself. This is how to create an animated GIF (I pronounce it JIF like the peanut butter), then add it to Instagram Stories, so that anyone can stick it to their stories on Insta.  This is complete branding arbitrage, because it costs NOTHING.   1. You just create a GIPHY.com account, apply to have it verified (which is easy - this video explains it) - https://giphy.com/apply/ 2. Create the frames for your GIFs using Canva and download them as transparent PNGs.  3. Upload them into GifMaker.me ... Download them as an animated GIF file.  4. Upload them to your GIPHY.com account and add tags. The tags are important, because these are the search phrases that users will type in to find your GIFs on Instagram.  Why is this branding arbitrage?  1. Because the data says user attention is HIGH on Instagram Stories. 2. The cost of putting your logo into Instagram Stories via these GIFs is ZERO Dollars and ZERO cents. 3. You can do as many as you want, with as many keywords as you want.  So get creative, or contact us if you need help - paul@datadriven.design

The first step towards creating your Alexa Skill or Alexa Flash Briefing for your brand, start-up or small business, is to create an Amazon Alexa Developer Account.  It's one of the easiest possible steps in the entire experience of building Alexa Skills, but it still feels good to get started and know that you're in the right place.   First, go to https://developer.amazon.com. It will redirect you to a log-in page. Here is where you click the "Create an Account" button.  After filling out your username and password, you will be sent a one-time password (OTP) to your email account. After entering in your one-time password, you'll fill out your Developer Account's profile information and agree to the Terms and Conditions.  Your account has been created. Now to start building Alexa Skills, visit the Third Tab from the left, called "Alexa" and click "Alexa Skills Kit." You will then be taken to your Amazon Alexa Developer Dashboard, where you can click "Create Skill" and get started building your Alexa Skills!

I sat down for an awesome podcast interview with my good friend Brynn Plummer, VP of Community Relations and Inclusion at the Nashville Entrepreneur Center.  We had a great conversation about Voice Technology, and how businesses will be expected to have Alexa Skills and Google Actions in the next 24-36 months.  We hit on how Entrepreneurs can get resources in Nashville, and how the Nashville Entrepreneur Center is playing a critical role in the Nashville Business Community.

I want businesses to know that you don't need to have an Alexa Skill or a Google Action that does everything for you. You need it to just be integrated with / enhancing your current experience. Michael Antaran, CEO of CARROT Wellness, explains how CARROT started simple, and then integrated Voice based apps like an Alexa Skill to enhance the experience and increase user engagement. "When we started, we made CARROT a mobile app that rewards you financially for walking. It's free, it's easy. There's no simpler instructions then the doctor saying saying you need more exercise, you need to walk more. Everybody knows how to walk. Then when you get into Mindfulness and Meditation, it gets into the Voice space of things. So we integrate CARROT with our Alexa server so that without even opening CARROT, your information from our app can become part of your own Flash Briefing for the day. So it fits it in there between your own Flash Briefing of what you like, so you know what you need to walk today. You can also ask Alexa about your CARROT rewards and history, and it will dynamically adjust and provide the right information for you. SO if you're on a 10-day streak of making your goal, so the CARROT Alexa Skill will tell you that. "You're currently on a 10-day streak, make it 11, and you'll get into the top 10% of people."

I asked CARROT Wellness CEO Michael Antaran "What advice would you give business owners like yourself about the Voice version of their platform in terms of incorporating an Alexa Skill or Google Action into their digital presence?" His answer was amazing, unexpected, and spoke to my heart - "I would advise them to leverage what they have. I'm all about being resourceful, and with four guys on my team, we use the right data to make the right decisions at the right time. That's the only way to survive in a Start-Up. What I would definitely advise them is, make sure you look at the data. I know there's a lot of feeling that comes into play. Everybody has that. You wouldn't be in this business going into a start-up unless you had some gut reaction about something you think you can solve, right? So make sure you look at the data to make sure you back up your assumptions and rethink about and revisit all the different assumptions you made, to make sure you're still on that right path to profitability. Don't forget about the data, make sure it drives where you want to be, and make sure it drives what you were predicting before you started. It's always great to have a gut feeling about something, but as an engineer, I always want to make sure I have a pathway I need to follow. If I'm not on that pathway, it doesn't make any sense to continue on." Check out the full episode here.

Michael Antaran and I have a lot in common. We were both born and raised in Michigan. We both left jobs in the corporate world to create our own start-ups. We’re both building software on a consistent basis, and we’re building Alexa Skills and Google Actions (voice-based apps on top of Alexa and Google Assistant) and integrating everything into one overall experience. Watch the entire video or listen to the podcast while you’re working, running, walking the dog, whatever and you’ll hear all of that, but the key points are here… Michael is the CEO of CARROT Wellness, a mobile app that rewards you for walking. Period. That’s it. Super simple. But how he got to where he is today isn’t as simple. But it is really freaking cool. Michael is a software engineer who worked for Chrysler. A dream job since he fell in love with cars growing up in Motor City. But when his first child was born, he was up in the middle of the night tending to the baby, and couldn’t fall back asleep, so he started coding mobile apps (remember, the iPhone had JUST come out). A gamer, he coded games, and turned these 80 hour work weeks into a successful mobile app gaming company that was so successful he left his full time job to pursue it. Four years later, he pivoted. Not for business reasons, but for personal reasons. And there was nothing wrong in his family health wise, thank God. But, there was something wrong, in his wife’s opinion, with the negative impact she thought his company was having on the youth of America. “I was helping kids get fat,” says Antaran. Having a moral issue with this, he decided to take a year, and change the way all of his mobile games let users buy more lives and power-ups. Instead of charging money for them, he made users walk to earn them. Yep, he tapped into the pedometer on smartphones, and rewarded gamers for walking. “You have to do the work. You can’t fake it or enter your own information,” he adds. This story quickly got the attention of major health systems in Michigan back in 2015, and CARROT was born. CARROT is now mainly a B2B app that companies can use to promote health and wellness among their employees, but there are consumer facing versions, and Alexa Skills integrated as well. CARROT is a full experience. “It’s all about engagement,” says Antaran. “Without engagement, you can’t improve.” Why did CARROT’s four person team of software engineers add Alexa Skills into the experience? “The data,” said Antaran. “Start-ups can’t live without it.” Which brings me to maybe the most important thing Michael and I have in common – making data driven decisions. I highly encourage you to listen to this entire episode. Thanks and have a great day!

Yes! Your business can sell products and services on Alexa. You need a Custom Alexa Skill to do it, and we can build it for you, so your stakeholders can just say "Alexa, book an appointment with my CPA firm," or "Alexa, order my fitness supplements." This is done via Amazon Pay, NOT "In-Skill Purchasing." This video explains how businesses can get started selling their products and services on Alexa.