Recent interviews on bots and conversational products
I’ve been wanting to write some kind of think piece to kick off 2017 but that hasn’t happened yet. For some reason I thought that I’d have more free time after leaving Uber, but it turns out I’m just as, if not more, busy now — go figure! Still, some of that busyness included opportunities to expand on my perspective on bots, personal bots (“mebots” as John Borthwick calls them!), and the still-green space of messaging and voice computing—which I collectively refer to as “conversational products.”
An interview with uxdesign.cc
First, I participated in an interview with Fabricio Teixeira for his user experience-focused uxdesign.cc publication. As a follow-up to his piece on The State of UX in 2017, he wanted me to discuss conversational interfaces — fleshing out trend #3: Everything is a conversation:
“Chatbot” is one of the hottest terms in our industry right now, and we are pretty confident you are going to be building one quite soon — if you haven’t already. But what does the future of Conversational Interfaces look like?
You can read the text of my interview here:
An interview for the O’Reilly Bots Podcast
Second, I talked at length with Jon Bruner and Peter Skomoroch about MessinaBot and personal bots, “bot skeuomorphism”, the role of Product Hunt in the bot ecosystem (follow my bot, #ConvComm, and Personal Bot collections!), and a bunch of other topics!
The conversation is about 40 minutes long and you can find the download links to the episode on Product Hunt:
What’s next?
A lot of folks have asked me (many have reached out via MessinaBot!) what’s next for me after Uber. While I have several solid opportunities in front of me, I want to be intentional about my next steps — and will be sure to share the news when I’ve made my final decision.
I do know that I’m still very passionate about the conversational product space, and am prioritizing that area in my search. I’m also eager to create a role for myself that aligns with how I work and how I know I can be most effective, while also seeking people who will challenge me to work better and more effectively.
In any case, stay tuned. I’m optimistic about what’s to come in 2017.
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