To begin I assessed the existing reservations flow, breaking it down into it's simplest components and arranging new flows using sticky notes and strings to determine the best way to arrange the skill, keeping in mind that a user could activate the skill with any amount of information.
From there we spoke with Amazon and determined that a member only skill would work best comply with their platform standards and allow the simplest/fastest process possible. Next we ran surveys with top customers to assess their willingness to try such a product and determined that measure market members were highly interested in trying voice reservations.
From here I created a technical diagram showing all the logic and backend interaction of the skill. This became our functional bible directing our development. Agile Development commenced and progressed int a series of 7 sprints. Before each sprint I wrote the prompts (what Alexa says) for each area.
the development team and I wrote a series of utterances (user responses) for each prompt and did a series of internal tests to build out our library of utterances, edit prompts, and refine the flow further.
After rigorous internal testing the team submitted the skill to Amazon, and went through certification.
This project required me to learn Alexa Skill Builder, Node JS, and some Lambda. It required working cross departmentally with operations, legal, fleet, brand and others while maintaining declines using agile methodologies.
Below is the final result.
Cover image by: https://www.brotherspark.co.uk/evolution-office-technology