This talk was given at Mobile Monday Edinburgh, 6/12/2016.
Richard Keen and Stefan Sabev talk about building bots at Skyscanner and what they've learned in the past year.
12. 66% 50% -77% -95%
Download no
new apps
Drop off during
first use
Average user loss
within 3 days
Average user loss
within 90 days
Apps are hard
13. “Get me a BA flight from Sofia to Amsterdam
leaving tomorrow morning for less than €100”
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14. Comfort, not convenience,
is the most important thing
in software - and text is an
incredibly comfortable
medium”
Jonathan Libov
Analyst, Union Square Ventures
“
16. And already, most
of the top apps in
the stores are
messaging apps -
whether measured
by downloads or
sessions.
Source: Mary Meeker,
KPCB Internet Trends, 2015
17.
18. If apps were in the business of
selling us distraction, bots will
be in the business of buying us
time.”
Suman Deb Roy
Data Scientist, Betaworks
“
19. A computer should “never ask
the user for any information that
it can auto-detect, copy or
deduce”
Eric Raymond via Ben Evans
“
20.
21.
22. Think twice before building
any new product - platforms
emerge all the time, they might
already be too hard to
penetrate - or not suitable for
every purpose.
Don’t follow fashion. Do it
for the right reasons.
23. 90%
Zombie apps in iTunes and Google Play
Apps are hard
Source: AdJust app store report, 2016
24. Treat bot users as if they’ve
downloaded an app -
onboarding and
understanding are critical
29. Ask Skyscanner for a flight
Sure, where are you flying from?
London
Great, where are you flying to?
Seattle
Thanks, when are you leaving?
Friday
And finally, when do you return?
November 13th
Great, finding prices…
30.
31. Build something that’s far too
complicated - otherwise it’ll
probably be too complicated
for your users too
32. Domino’s Pizza have 34 million pizza
combinations in their menu
Their conversational products let you
order your favourite - making frequent
use much easier
33.
34. Lean on the platform before
thinking about endless
conversation and deep AI
