6 Questions for Suze Cooper
Big Tent Media’s director on why Alexa is the greatest show on earth…
1. Thanks for chatting, Suze! So, you’re an Alexa Skills creator. That’s awesome. What have you learned in this space, and what broad advice can you offer to others interested in creating for Amazon’s Alexa?
Suze Cooper: Firstly, creating flash briefings and skills is a lot of fun. It also takes time to learn what needs to be done and then implement that, and at the moment there are relatively few courses, both online and IRL you can use to learn the basics of developing skills and briefings.
My advice to anyone wanting to work on Skills would be to be patient and keep working at it. Keep creative. Keep coming up with ideas and trying then out. Learn what works and what doesn’t. In terms of flash briefings, it’s all about commitment and content. You have to be sure you have the content to update the briefing every day and you need to commit the time not only to creating it, but also to researching. Creating something new every day, even when it is only a couple of minutes long, takes time.
2. Do you think if Google or Apple had been as open to third party developers as Amazon, you’d have utilized their product instead? Or, is there a reason Amazon would still be your preferred platform for content creation? (I understand that these other companies not being the “open book” Amazon is makes this somewhat hard to answer.)
Suze Cooper: Amazon’s flash briefing format really appealed to me. As a journalist I create radio news bulletins — short, varied content, updated regularly. So the flash briefing seemed to me to be an extension of that — a shortened radio bulletin that could be accessed via an Alexa-enabled device. The format also gave me the freedom to play with that bulletin. I could present it my way using my own production and play with it in a way I am not able to when creating live bulletins for commercial radio. I have always seen the flash briefings as a way into creating for voice.
I am learning more about voice every single day and picking up ways of designing voice experiences that I hope will be useful no matter which provider I create for. Skills, Actions or creating for Siri — my plan is to have a go at all of them. I’m pretty geeky like that!
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3. Getting back to journalism; you had a career in radio before this, and it shows, such as in your deft use of bumper music in your flash briefings. How well does the world of production for radio translate to the world of Alexa Skill creation?
Suze Cooper: Thank you — yes, I believe a lot of my radio experience and audio production knowledge can be used in the design and creation of flash briefings and Skills. As brands and businesses see the value in creating for voice, they will want to create a sound identity [emphasis added]. This is something radio stations and radio advertising has been doing or years and I see no reason why it wouldn’t translate across to voice.
4. When you change the accent of Alexa from American to Australian English, you also get different Alexa “talking points” in response to the basic “good morning” utterance. Instead of a this-day-in-history reply suited to the US, you get one for Australia. Do you know how many countries this has been done for? And any opinion on how this might be modified or improved?
Suze Cooper: As far as I know Alexa supports English, French, German Italian, Spanish, Portuguese and Japanese. Within that it recognizes five dialects; UK, US, India, Australia and Canada. All of the major players in voice tech are constantly trying to improve the conversational nature of the responses given by the tech, and I guess starting with colloquial and localized greetings is a first step towards this. So far as improving this goes, I guess it’s about research — making sure the phrases that are being used are what people are used to hearing. Beyond that, the phrases could be made relevant to the day or season.
5. I’ve used Amazon Blueprints a lot. It’s fun, but certainly limited when compared to the range of functionality available to Alexa Skills creators. Do you have any thoughts on Blueprints, or words for people curious about just how different Blueprints is from Alexa skills?
Suze Cooper: You’re right — Blueprints are a lot of fun and it’s a quick way to create a Skill. It’s also very satisfying to hear it played out on your smart speaker. I have loved playing about with the templates and it has certainly given me insights into conversational design and into Skill structure. The other thing it has done is sparked an interest in me to learn more. While there are a variety of templates to chose from, they are limited, and as I dive deeper into creating Skills I am finding I want the Skill to do this, or that, but I am restricted by the template. I am not a coder, although it’s something I have a basic knowledge in, and it’s something I will certainly be revisiting soon in the hope I can create something from scratch.
Another limitation of Blueprints here in the UK is that they can not be made publicly available, so while I can create a Skill using Blueprints and use it on my device at home, I can not submit it to the Skills store like I could if I was in the US. At the moment Amazon isn’t letting on as to when Blueprint Skills will be made available in the Skills store in the UK.
6. Who are some of your favorite Alexa Skills creators?
Suze Cooper: I really enjoy short and useful flash briefings. I enjoy the Front Row Entrepreneur flash briefing as the content is so relevant to the social media management work that I do. I listen to The Smart Speakers and Alexa in Canada for daily updates on voice tech news. True or False is a fun Skill and one the whole family enjoys. It’s such a simple concept but works really well for voice. The guys behind this Skill, Labworks, have created several game Skills and are clearly learning through each one and putting that knowledge into their next creation. I also love the way Send Me A Sample has taken product testing and turned it into a voice experience — very clever!
