Prepare

Step 1: Understand the business requirements

With every project, it is important to understand the requirements of the business in order to understand the problem that a virtual assistant is supposed to resolve. This should also help you identify what your users’ needs are and how a virtual assistant would manage users’ expectations.

As you try to understand the business requirements, ensure that you:

1. Identify the problem: ask questions like “Why are you building a bot?”, “What are you hoping to change for a user?” and “What is the business goal of the bot?” 
2. Select appropriate use-cases for your virtual assistant: For instance, if you find that most of your user queries pertain to information that is already available on your website, choose FAQs as a use-case.

If you are a Conversation Designer working with a business, you need to review the business's proposal and collate these questions for the business to answer during a call or meeting. 

At Haptik, Smart Skills are readily available so that you don’t have to design or build certain use-cases from scratch. Check the Smart Skill library to see if a Smart Skill is available for the use-cases defined in the proposal.

Step 2: Research the brand and build a bot persona 

Once you understand the business requirements and identify a problem that needs to be solved, it is time to do some research on the brand or business. Read through a brand’s website or browse through their app to understand how a product/service for which a bot is being built functions, how a problem is currently resolved on their website or app, and review user feedback to understand their pain points.

• At this stage of the design process, ensure a user persona is defined through user research with the help of the brand’s internal teams. 
• Once the user persona is locked in, create your bot persona. The bot persona you choose should complement the brand’s overall marketing tone and be relatable to the end-user.

• Identify a name and a face or avatar for your bot so that your user can easily recognize and relate to it. Make sure the name and avatar of your bot align with the target audience. 

Click here to read more about Phase 2: Initial Design

Click here to read more about Phases 3 and 4: Final Design and Launch