A mental model for the rules of automation At Mav, we talk a lot about what are good use cases for bots and automation. I used to think it was as simple as answering this question: Can a robot do this job better than a human? 🤔 Except, it’s not that simple… Robots should serve and enable humans…

8 years ago I saw this video by Gary Vaynerchuk. At the time, it completely changed my outlook on what I was doing with my life. To this day, I’m not sure another video has inspired me more. He yells at the audience “It’s 2008, there is no reason to…

Today, at the F8 developer conference, Facebook introduced a new type of Messenger bot that allows multiple users to access bots inside of existing conversations on the messaging app. Facebook calls them chat extensions. They’ll serve not just as group bots, but as an extremely powerful form of smart discovery…

How to advertise your chatbot and bring in traffic for pennies on the dollar compared to conventional advertising. — A few weeks ago, I published this post on the big opportunities with bots in this coming year. The core of the post explains 5 specific applications where it’s better to use a chatbot vs anything else (like a Website or Mobile App). Now, I want to focus on what…

Look — 2016 was not the year chatbot enthusiasts (like myself) expected. When Facebook announced their support during F8, we saw the future. Predictably, users and brands had massive expectations for the future of chatbots. When that didn’t happen, a lot of them moved on to the next hot thing. …

I’ve noticed a common theme in building great products. Generally speaking, you can get to 80% complete relatively fast. When I say relatively fast, I’m talking a matter of days. 80% is enough to showcase your idea, communicate emotions, and layout direction. The problem is, 80% isn’t a shippable product…

What is a “sexy company?” Those companies you see every day all over Inc., Fast Company and Tech Crunch. Those Silicon Valley heavy weights looking to “disrupt” every aspect of your damn life. You know, the Ubers, the Snapchats, the Instagrams. They usually follow a trend of raising tens of…

I get this question a lot. Mostly from brands that are deciding if iMessage Stickers are a good investment. The honest answer is; I don’t know yet. Truthfully, no one knows right now. iOS 10 was released 17 days ago and no one’s sharing their performance yet. Here’s what I…

Apple’s annual WWDC Keynote was this week. As usual, it did not disappoint. There were a few notable items, however, one in particular stood out to me: iMessage. With iOS 10, iMessage gains its own App Store. iMessage Apps are third-party extensions that expand the functionality of a standard conversation…