Sam Hutch
Product designer
Amazon Skills
This product’s core purpose was to democratize skill-building on Alexa. For example, an average user should be able to make and play their own games.
Hypothesis
Amazon hypothesized that people wanted to build their own personal Alexa Skills.
Problem
The existing process for building Alexa Skills required knowing how to code, which is high barrier for the average user of an Alexa product.
Goal
Design and build a proof of concept prototype that allows people to build skills with Alexa without coding.
Success Metric
Get buy-in from internal leadership to push the project forward.
Process
Defined the core motivations, values, and style with the client from the start.
Held an in-person rapid brainstorming meeting with the clients to define a majority of the product before diving into the details.
Rapidly sketched and prototyped a high-fidelity mockup for presentation, reviewing, and iterating along the way.
Outcome
Impact
✔ The proof of concept prototype led to the successful development of Alexa Blueprints, which was released in April 2018.
✔ Amazon’s press release describes the product as “a new way for any Alexa owner to create their own customized Alexa skills or responses, without needing to know how to code”.
✔ Blueprints expanded upon the games project to include a broad range of different skills.
The Project Today
