Jo Jaquinta's guest appearances

Jo Jaquinta

Alexa Dev Chat

The Voicebot Podcast

VUX World

John Kelvie

Paul Cutsinger

Alan Nichol

Nick Schwab

Jeff Adams

Zohaib Ahmed

Arte Merritt

Vasili Shynkarenka

Ahmed Bouzid

Hannes Heikinheimo

Amy Stapleton

Braden Ream

Rebecca Evanhoe

James Vlahos

Oren Jacob

OwlTail

Today, we're getting deep into the biggest challenges facing designers and developers on the Alexa platform: being discovered and making money. And who better to take us through it, than one of the most experienced developers on the voice scene, Jo 'the Oracle' Jaquinta.Speak to anyone who's serious about voice first development and they'll tell you the two biggest challenges facing the voice first world right now are skill discoverability and monetisation. Vasili Shynkarenka of Storyline mentioned it and so did Matt Hartman of Betaworks when they featured on the VUX World podcast previously.However, we rarely hear stories from people who've tried everything they can to overcome these challenges. Until now.In this episode, we're joined by Dustin Coates as co-host and we're speaking to Jo about his vast experience of designing and developing on the Amazon Alexa platform and how he's approached tackling those two big challenges.We also discuss voice UX design techniques that Jo's picked up along the way, as well as the tools and techniques he uses for developing skills.This one is jam-packed with epic insights from someone who few know more than in this space right now, and includes discussion on a vast array of subjects including:Discoverability:The impact of advertising on increasing skill adoptionThe effect of being featured in the Amazon Alexa newsletterWhat Amazon can do to help skill discoveryHow transferring between modalities can loose usersMonetisation:The challenges of turning skill development into a businessThe difference between Google’s and Amazon’s strategyThe two ways to make money from voice: the easy way and the hard wayWhy a monetisation API shouldn't be the focus for developersWhy Amazon Alexa developer payouts are bad for the voice environmentDesign:The challenges of designing for voice with a screenHow immersive audio games help the visually impairedHow Amazon could improve the UX for users by moving to a 'streaming' approach to voiceWhy you shouldn’t be aiming for a ‘conversational’ experienceWhat is the method of Loci and how can it be used when designing for voice?Development:Fuzzy matchingBuilding and maintaining your own library and SDKCross platform developmentOther gems include:Structural problems with the Alexa platformHow company culture affects voice strategyWhy it’s not early days in voiceAlexa for business and privacyOur GuestJo Jaquinta is a software developer with over 20 years' experience. Jo started building skills on the Alexa platform a short time after it was released, has created a host of interesting skills and learned plenty along the way through pulling Alexa in all kinds of different directions. His knowledge, experience and plenty of lessons learned were all applied in building Jo's most recent skill, the madly complex, 6 Swords.Jo shares plenty of his voice design and development knowledge on his YouTube channel, which is full of engaging and interesting insights, and has put pen to paper to share his knowledge in the shape of two books on Alexa: How to Program Amazon Echo and Developing Amazon Alexa Games. He's also active on the Alexa Slack channel, helping people solve their development problems and consulting on voice design and development.What Jo doesn't know about developing on Alexa isn't worth knowing. His immense knowledge and vast experience in this area are pretty much unrivalled, which is why I refer to him as 'the Oracle'.LinksFind Jo on the Alexa Slack channelListen to the Voicebot.ai episode featuring JoFind out more about Tsa Tsa TzuCheck out 6 SwordsWatch Jo's videos on YouTubeYouTube: making money on Alexa, the easy way and the hard wayRead Jo's books: How to Program Amazon Echo and Developing Amazon Alexa GamesWhere to Listen:iTunes/Apple podcastsSpotifyTuneIniHeartRadioStitcher Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Today, we're getting deep into the biggest challenges facing designers and developers on the Alexa platform: being discovered and making money. And who better to take us through it, than one of the most experienced developers on the voice scene, Jo 'the Oracle' Jaquinta.Speak to anyone who's serious about voice first development and they'll tell you the two biggest challenges facing the voice first world right now are skill discoverability and monetisation. <a href="https://vux.world/create-alexa-skills-without-coding/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Vasili Shynkarenka of Storyline mentioned it</a> and so did <a href="https://vux.world/hearing-voices/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Matt Hartman of Betaworks</a> when they featured on the VUX World podcast previously.However, we rarely hear stories from people who've tried everything they can to overcome these challenges. Until now.In this episode, we're joined by Dustin Coates as co-host and we're speaking to Jo about his vast experience of designing and developing on the Amazon Alexa platform and how he's approached tackling those two big challenges.We also discuss voice UX design techniques that Jo's picked up along the way, as well as the tools and techniques he uses for developing skills.This one is jam-packed with epic insights from someone who few know more than in this space right now, and includes discussion on a vast array of subjects including:Discoverability:<ul><li>The impact of advertising on increasing skill adoption</li><li>The effect of being featured in the Amazon Alexa newsletter</li><li>What Amazon can do to help skill discovery</li><li>How transferring between modalities can loose users</li></ul> Monetisation:<ul><li>The challenges of turning skill development into a business</li><li>The difference between Google’s and Amazon’s strategy</li><li>The two ways to make money from voice: the easy way and the hard way</li><li>Why a monetisation API shouldn't be the focus for developers</li><li>Why Amazon Alexa developer payouts are bad for the voice environment</li></ul> Design:<ul><li>The challenges of designing for voice with a screen</li><li>How immersive audio games help the visually impaired</li><li>How Amazon could improve the UX for users by moving to a 'streaming' approach to voice</li><li>Why you shouldn’t be aiming for a ‘conversational’ experience</li><li>What is the method of Loci and how can it be used when designing for voice?</li></ul> Development:<ul><li>Fuzzy matching</li><li>Building and maintaining your own library and SDK</li><li>Cross platform development</li></ul> Other gems include:<ul><li>Structural problems with the Alexa platform</li><li>How company culture affects voice strategy</li><li>Why it’s not early days in voice</li><li>Alexa for business and privacy</li></ul><h2> </h2><h2>Our Guest</h2>Jo Jaquinta is a software developer with over 20 years' experience. Jo started building skills on the Alexa platform a short time after it was released, has created a host of interesting skills and learned plenty along the way through pulling Alexa in all kinds of different directions. His knowledge, experience and plenty of lessons learned were all applied in building Jo's most recent skill, the madly complex, 6 Swords.Jo shares plenty of his voice design and development knowledge on his YouTube channel, which is full of engaging and interesting insights, and has put pen to paper to share his knowledge in the shape of two books on Alexa: <a href="https://www.amazon.com/How-Program-Amazon-Echo-Development-ebook/dp/B011J6AP26/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">How to Program Amazon Echo</a> and <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Developing-Amazon-Alexa-Games-Designers-ebook/dp/B0739N4MJH/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Developing Amazon Alexa Games</a>. He's also active on the Alexa Slack channel, helping people solve their development problems and consulting on voice design and development.What Jo doesn't know about developing on Alexa isn't worth knowing. His immense knowledge and vast experience in this area are pretty much unrivalled, which is why I refer to him as 'the Oracle'. <h2>Links</h2><ul><li>Find Jo on the <a href="http://www.alexaslack.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Alexa Slack channel</a></li><li>Listen to the <a href="https://www.voicebot.ai/2017/09/26/voicebot-podcast-episode-9-interview-jo-jaquinta-alexa-game-developer-extraordinaire/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Voicebot.ai episode featuring Jo</a></li><li>Find out more about <a href="http://ocean-of-storms.com/tsatsatzu/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Tsa Tsa Tzu</a></li><li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/TsaTsaTzu-6-Swords/dp/B01GVGVSM0" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Check out 6 Swords</a></li><li>Watch <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAAQmkCXIcXTPuUizmI5B6w" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Jo's videos on YouTube</a></li><li>YouTube: making money on Alexa, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ft1rs7PYkzU" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">the easy way</a> and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0GR1IgBxpXA&amp;t=483s" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">the hard way</a></li><li>Read Jo's books: <a href="https://www.amazon.com/How-Program-Amazon-Echo-Development-ebook/dp/B011J6AP26/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">How to Program Amazon Echo</a> and <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Developing-Amazon-Alexa-Games-Designers-ebook/dp/B0739N4MJH/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Developing Amazon Alexa Games</a></li></ul><h1> </h1><h1>Where to Listen:</h1><ul><li><a href="https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/v-u-x-world/id1347820660?mt=2" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">iTunes/Apple podcasts</a></li><li><a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/11kuggDqneDH8zwvUL8u2P" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Spotify</a></li><li><a href="https://tunein.com/podcasts/Technology-Podcasts/VUX-World-p1102017/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">TuneIn</a></li><li><a href="https://www.iheart.com/podcast/269-VUX-World-28954249/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">iHeartRadio</a></li><li><a href="https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/vux-world" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Stitcher</a></li></ul> Hosted on Acast. See <a href="https://acast.com/privacy" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">acast.com/privacy</a> for more information.

Tackling the challenges of discoverability and monetisation on Amazon Alexa with Jo Jaquinta

Jo Jaquinta has been a developer for 20 years and started developing games for Amazon Alexa in 2015. Since that time, he has written two books on voice application development for Alexa and become a leading game developer on both the Alexa and Google Assistant platforms. Jo shares what he has learned about designing games for voice, developing within current constraints, options for monetization and even how the Alexa reward payout structure works today. 

Jo Jaquinta has been a developer for 20 years and started developing games for Amazon Alexa in 2015. Since that time, he has written two books on voice application development for Alexa and become a leading game developer on both the Alexa and Google Assistant platforms. Jo shares what he has learned about designing games for voice, developing within current constraints, options for monetization and even how the Alexa reward payout structure works today.

Voicebot Podcast Episode 9 - Leading Alexa Game Developer Jo Jaquinta

In this episode Dave and Alexa community member Jo Jaquinta cover their early gaming backgrounds, how Jo has built an Alexa Space Empire game and what pitfalls he ran into along the way. Jo also covers how he has increased engagement rates within his Alexa skills but continued to evolve the game with new ASK features like SSML audio.

Episode 002 - A Journey in Voice and a Trip to the Starlanes with Jo Jaquinta