{"pageProps":{"page":1,"posts":[{"date":"2020-03-01T09:00:00Z","layout":"post","title":"Meet the community - James Russell","author":["Celina Bledowska"],"hero":"/static/images/pages/posts/2020-03-01-meet-the-community-james-russell/hero.jpg","tags":["Article","MeetTheCommunity"],"excerpt":"An interview with James Russell. James is the CEO and founder of Brisk, but has formerly run a small business and has the desire to modernise the way in which small businesses are protected. A fit-bit for business Having worked at Aviva for 10 years as Head of Claims and then Pro...","body":"\nAn interview with James Russell. James is the CEO and founder of Brisk, but has formerly run a small business and has the desire to modernise the way in which small businesses are protected.\n\n## A fit-bit for business\n\nHaving worked at Aviva for 10 years as Head of Claims and then Programme Director, James Russell understands the needs of SMEs. Established in 2018 Brisk is an innovative AI tool that is targeted at small businesses and start-ups, those that don’t necessarily have the same resources as big companies.\n\n> James realised that offering the combined assets of technology and data, would make the business owner more aware of the risks and opportunities that could affect their companies.\n\n## When were you founded?\n\nWe were part of an incubation project, in a start-up accelerator at Founders Factory. We only registered as a company in 2018.\n\n## What is Brisk?\n\nTo put it simply, Brisk is a “AI powered risk management screening for SMEs, bringing in data from numerous sources covering everything from compliance to reputation; security to financial information.” By providing a tailored tool SMEs will have greater access to tailored products, and not have to be satisfied with the one size fits all approach offered by the larger brokers and industry giants.\n\nAny business signed up to Brisk is getting a risk management tool. James explained that:\n\n> all you’ll have to enter is your company name, the app will harvest the rest of your information, including checking for data breaches, pulling in credit information, analysing social media reviews and building a 360 view of your business.\n> We look at six areas of your business, financials, your staff, your operations, your compliance, your security and your reputation. We’ll also monitor the health of your website and look out for any potential security breaches.”\n\nActions will be suggested through the app.\n\nThe AI takes all of the data and then predicts what risks a client is likely to have and what type of insurance policy should be put in place. “The AI piece is looking at big data sets and performs an analysis – a bit like a glorified propensity model.\n\n## What led you to establish Brisk?\n\n“During my time at Aviva I saw that a lot of resource and attention gets given to big business and they also have the capacity to seize risk management opportunities. Small business owners don’t have the same access to the same resources. We wanted to use the increasing availability of data and technology to help the busy business owner to become more aware of the risks and opportunities, stay safe, and be more resilient. We felt this would be a powerful service”\n\n“We believed people buy insurance because it’s essential, then the policy just sits in a filing cabinet somewhere and people don’t really think about it.” James saw a gap in the market. Brisk also insures SME’s against cyber-attack, which in turn helps small firms improve their credit worthiness. During Brisk’s research phase one business said that having this type of protection was almost like, “having a kite mark, a quality accreditation.” This improves a smaller company’s chances of securing a loan or getting a better quote on their insurance.\n\n## What inspired you to start Brisk\n\n“I felt that there was a real opportunity to provide a product that would protect people and assets.” As James explained, “we are working with core insurers and, all of them are interested in the concept of Brisk.”\n\n> The app is helping the large insurers understand that some smaller companies might be a better risk than they thought, this leads to discounts and incentives for the company.”\n\nAnother benefit of the Brisk app means that companies will be asked fewer questions and won’t be burdened by filling out lots of forms. Insurance actuaries were nervous with this until they understood that by using AI and data together the app will help them record more accurate and current details about the client, therefore offering a more competitive deal.\n\n## Do you have competitors?\n\n**The Brisk app is a new way of doing things.** James believes that, “most of our competitors are still asking the consumer to visit their website and click to buy the product they want. Of course, this model assumes that the customer is knowledgeable about the insurance market and not all are.” By recognising that many businesses still want the assurance of a broker, “our technology is available to the broker to help them service their clients more efficiently.”\n\nCurrently the app is a web-based application, but it can be viewed on a smartphone and it is responsive.\n\n## Where would you like Brisk to be in five years?\n\nAs for future plans, in a recent article in Insurance Post James explains Brisk has sought Financial Conduct Authority regulatory approval because the company has ambitions to offer insurance to those utilising Brisk technology.\n\n“If we were purely a data provider we would not need to get regulated but the ultimate goal is to offer insurance products direct to businesses, and as an introducer we need to be authorized,” James explained. Brisk is currently working with four insurers and they’re all interested in the concept.\n\n***\n\n### _This article was originally published in the nor(DEV): Magazine 2020, grab your copy below:_\n\nimport MagazineCard from \"../../../components/MagazineCard\";\n\n\n

\n Featuring; Interviews with the Ladies Hacking Society of\n Norwich. Articles on Train Wreck, Ramblings on Micro services,\n Tom's Top Tips for 2020, & What is design?\n

\n","path":"/posts/2020-03-01-meet-the-community-james-russell"},{"date":"2020-03-01T09:00:00Z","layout":"post","title":"Stop Press: Norfolk news shorts.","author":["Celina Bledowska"],"tags":["Article","MeetTheCommunity"],"excerpt":"Here at nor(DEV): we’re always proud to celebrate achievements in the local tech community. Now’s the time to raise a cheer and congratulate many very worthy winners. East of England Tech 50 Out of an impressive list of tech firms from our region, Norwich based companies managed ...","body":"\nHere at nor(DEV): we’re always proud to celebrate achievements in the local tech community. Now’s the time to raise a cheer and congratulate many very worthy winners.\n\n## East of England Tech 50\n\nOut of an impressive list of tech firms from our region, Norwich based companies managed to secure 8 places in this annual review of the top 50 tech companies in the East, with Pickl coming an impressive sixth. The list of companies is judged by both the public and a more formal judging panel made up with Thea Goodluck from TechNation, Liz Clayburne, Director of the Norwich - Cambridge Tech Corridor, James Gotz, director of ventures, at business support company, Allia, John Gourd, CEO of Cambridge Network and, Jonathan Symcox, editor, of BusinessCloud.\n\n## Capturing a trend\n\nAs an increasing number of people are using Airbnb accomodation for business and leisure purposes. Pickl soon realised that many owners would have problems getting insurance for their properties as short term lets with constantly changing tenants were notoriously difficult to insure. By recognising this, the company set up as a specialist short term insurance broker and embraced the burgeoning sharing economy. By adding Just Park to their portfolio, Pickl was able to bridge a gap overlooked by many other companies in this field.\n\n> Companies like Pickl are breaking the mold through their innovative business.\n\n## Tech Nation Rising Stars\n\nThis prestigious competition is lucky enough to have had Norwich based, digital staffing platform, Pickr among it’s semi-finalists. Sadly, the company didn’t make it through to the finals, but to have achieved this status among some very strong national competition is impressive. But Pickr has been shortlisted for many other awards, including the National Technology Awards. Way to go.\n\n## Other news\n\nMore recently, developers from North Norfolk’s, Engage Health Systems, gave a presentation at Cardiff’s NHS Hack Day in late January. Rupe is the name of a boy suffering from epilepsy and the presentation was named for him. This easy to use and, cost effective system will provide a record of heart rate spikes and dips during the night. The team consisted of Adam Groom with Paul Peacock and Mark Edmunds.Constructed as an Apple watch app, it can provide real time data to assist carers and parents.\n\nBig alterations in the heart beat can indicate an epileptic seizure while someone is sleeping, or about to have a seizure during the day. By using a companion app on a smartphone, Rupe’s mother, teachers and carers would always be aware of the boy’s seizure record and will be able to respond quickly in an emergency.\n\nDevelopment is set to start “as soon as possible,” said Jon Witte, Engage Health System’s managing director.\n\n## New developments\n\nWith Tech Nation publishing stats showing that the east of England has a digital turnover of £8.33 billion, and Norwich being home to many innovative tech startups and companies, we are a region of tech status and connectivity. UKTechNews (UKTN) published figures in March 2019 that revealed that we are a vibrant region for technology.\n\nThe figures show that the East of England growth for start-ups rose by 5%.and, “science and technology firms based in East Anglia secured almost £300m of venture capital investment in quarter two of 2018.”\n\nIn 2020, Norwich’s Rainbird CTO, Ben Taylor, has predicted that. “machine intelligence can enable businesses to solve complex problems before they ever reach the customer.”\n\n**We are a region on the move.**\n\n***\n\n### _This article was originally published in the nor(DEV): Magazine 2020, grab your copy below:_\n\nimport MagazineCard from \"../../../components/MagazineCard\";\n\n\n

\n Featuring; Interviews with the Ladies Hacking Society of\n Norwich. Articles on Train Wreck, Ramblings on Micro services,\n Tom's Top Tips for 2020, & What is design?\n

\n","path":"/posts/2020-03-01-meet-the-community-norfolk-news-shorts"},{"date":"2020-03-01T09:00:00Z","layout":"post","title":"Meet the community - Steven Beresford","author":["Celina Bledowska"],"hero":"/static/images/pages/posts/2020-03-01-meet-the-community-steven-beresford/hero.jpg","tags":["Article","MeetTheCommunity"],"excerpt":"Steven Beresford is a 24 year old who happens to be pretty decent in front of a computer. Steven is a junior software developer. His work experience is similar to many young people trying to get into the tech industry. It’s not always plain sailing. Education In a bid to learn m...","body":"\nSteven Beresford is a 24 year old who happens to be pretty decent in front of a computer. Steven is a junior software developer. His work experience is similar to many young people trying to get into the tech industry. It’s not always plain sailing.\n\n## Education\n\nIn a bid to learn more about software and garner an education, Steven spent four years studying Computer Science at the University of Essex,\n\nThis course was made up of a foundation year and then a further three years. During the foundation year the basics were taught to get everyone up to the same level. In the first year, the focus was database handling and coding websites. The second year was taking the first year’s topics and going into more detail, it also had modules like game programming, which included elements of AI and games themselves etc. The final year consisted mostly of application of all the things previously learnt. This course allowed students to pick more specific modules so they could narrow down their learning. For his dissertation Steven created an 80s arcade game that was played over a network so users could play other people.\n\n## Experiences\n\nWith a degree under his belt, Steven graduated university and went straight into working as a Games Tester at Rockstar Games. Steven explained:\n\n> “The work entailed chasing bugs and then handing those over to the development team with snippets of code. I worked a lot of hours especially in the months before Red Dead 2 was released (great game by the way…) and even afterwards. It was challenging and pressurised and I enjoyed it massively.\n> Unfortunately, I didn’t have the experience working as a developer and was therefore not able to successfully apply for a development role within Rockstar Games.\n\n## Problems getting Work\n\nTalking about the difficulties of getting a foot in the workplace, Steven said, “A lot of the companies that I’ve applied to in the past required so much experience for their Junior positions that it’s almost impossible to get a foot in the door. I can appreciate that many places do want someone who can hit the ground running, especially if it’s to fulfil a specific project but it reduces the opportunity for learning.\n\n> I was verbally offered a job in Norwich, but after leaving Rockstar I was contacted and told that as a project had fallen through, they couldn’t take me on. These things happen!\n\nWhile Steven can appreciate that some companies may need someone, who is extremely experienced, immediately due to project needs, he adds “it’s hard to then gain that experience if places aren’t willing to teach new recruits.”\n\n## Current role\n\nSteven is currently a Junior Software Developer at a large family run company just outside Norwich. Steven described his role as part of a small team. “We make applications for pretty much every team in the company. This essentially means every application used by any team (warehouse staff, HR, shop floor, finance etc.) is built by the development team. User testing is a real part of the position, as it should be with any sort of role. I really enjoy building applications for real people and getting them to review and give feedback so I can make sure it’s as useful as possible for them. It’s always nice to go into the warehouse and see colleagues using what I’ve built - it’s a really good feeling of accomplishment.\nWhen talking about his future, Steven is optimistic, “The dream is to get back in the games industry, but at the moment I’m really enjoying learning at work and then doing a bit more individual learning when I get back home. I also spend a fair amount of time at home playing Untitled Goose Game… I would highly recommend it”.\n\n## Networking helps\n\nIn a bid to broaden his horizons, Steven has found ways of engaging with the local tech community.\n“I’ve also started to go to a few more tech meet-up events in the city. I went to RollUp last year and a SyncNorwich event called Lets Sync A Few which I think was great. I was also thinking of taking part in Sync The City next year after seeing how great it looked, I don’t drink coffee but maybe if I take part I’ll need to…”\n\n***\n\n### _This article was originally published in the nor(DEV): Magazine 2020, grab your copy below:_\n\nimport MagazineCard from \"../../../components/MagazineCard\";\n\n\n

\n Featuring; Interviews with the Ladies Hacking Society of\n Norwich. Articles on Train Wreck, Ramblings on Micro services,\n Tom's Top Tips for 2020, & What is design?\n

\n","path":"/posts/2020-03-01-meet-the-community-steven-beresford"},{"date":"2018-05-17T18:22:43+01:00","layout":"post","title":"Norwich Gaming Festival","author":["paulgrenyer"],"hero":"/static/images/pages/posts/2018-05-17-norwich-gaming-festival/hero.jpg","tags":["Article","MeetTheCommunity"],"excerpt":"the most fantastic thing about the Norwich scene is the amount of support and events available for young people __ @NorwichGFest When talking tech we often think of software development in a commercial sense, to solve a problem or cut expenditure. But tech isn’t just about busine...","body":"\n> the most fantastic thing about the Norwich scene is the amount of support and events available for young people\n\n__\n\n[@NorwichGFest](https://twitter.com/NorwichGFest)\n\nWhen talking tech we often think of software development in a commercial sense, to solve a problem or cut expenditure. But tech isn’t just about business processes or entrepreneurial start-ups, it can also be for pure entertainment! With that in mind, the 28th May marks the beginning of the week long Norwich Gaming Festival, hosted by The Forum. Featuring classic arcade games right up to virtual reality (and even some board games) it has something for every age and every level. There’s even talks to give you the lowdown on what it takes to be a game developer and code clubs to give you a head start in the industry! And it’s all for FREE! We spoke to Dan, one of the brains behind the festival, to get the inside track and, more importantly, if he’s Xbox or Playstation (turns out he’s neither!)\n\n**When did Norwich Gaming Festival begin?**\n\nNorwich Gaming Festival started life as Retro Arcade in 2012, as a way of offering something free, interactive and unique to young people and families during the Easter holidays. Norwich Gaming Festival is a non-profit event run by The Forum Trust, a self-financing charitable organisation which manages The Forum building in Norwich. All money raised by the festival is invested back into the event.\n\n**What was the impetus for starting a festival like this?**\n\nThe original inspiration and suggestion came from one of The Forum team members who loved retro gaming and suggested that The Forum should host a retro gaming event to offering something free, interactive and unique during the Easter holidays.\n\n**Why should a whole festival be dedicated to gaming?**\n\nGaming is a fantastic medium to dedicate a festival to, as a result of the variety of experiences available - and the number of different job roles required to make games possible. From game designers, to writers, programmers & lawyers - the festival allows us to explore all the different elements of development and the games industry as a whole. We often find that although young people know they would like to look at getting into the games industry - it's often difficult to know where to start, or what roles in industry actually exist. It's also a great way to demonstrate transferable skills - as the skills required to create elements of a game can transfer into other fields. For example, one of our guest speakers turned their passion for games into a career as a games industry specialised lawyer.\n\n**What is the demographic of attendees?**\n\nWe pride ourselves in being a family friendly event – targeting demographics that other gaming events can struggle to reach. We aim to reach: Gaming enthusiasts, Newcomers keen to learn more, Young people, Families and older generations, Game developers, industry freelancers, and gaming course students and graduates.\n\n**What are some of the highlights people can look forward to this year?**\n\nThis year, we have a record number of developers joining us for the Festival - with over 50 games announced so far, and we'll be adding more games in the run up to the Festival. On the 1st & 2nd of June, we'll be running the Industry Days, presented by our Lead Educational Partners, Norwich University of the Arts; with speakers from various backgrounds in the games industry running free talks - which we'll be announcing in the run up to the Festival.\n\nOne of the additions we're most excited about is the creation of our relaxed sessions in the evenings of the 29th & 30th of May. These sessions are designed for children with additional needs, allowing them to enjoy a visit without the usual crowds, at their own pace.\n\n**Is there anything new for this year?**\n\nOne of the most interesting new additions to the Festival this year, I feel, is the GameMaker workshops delivered by game developers Shaun Spalding & Tommy Thompson. These are introductory sessions to game development where, using the audiences concepts and designs, Shaun & Tommy will be building a playable game in just an hour - which visitors will then be able to play at the Festival! We ran these sessions as part of our learning week in February and the results were fantastic - we can't wait to see what our visitors come up with!\n\n**Are there any trends in gaming you’ve noticed?**\n\nSince I first got involved with the Festival in 2015, the main trend I've noticed is people treating gaming as more of a social activity and looking for more varied and unique experiences. In the previous generation of consoles, online gaming was a huge focus, and local multiplayer games were quite difficult to find; but this niche has come back in a big way with social games from smaller studios such as Overcooked by Ghost Town games, or with experiences such as PlayLink on the PS4 with games like Hidden Agenda.\n\n**How does the Norwich tech scene compare to other regions do you think?**\n\nAs only ever having really been part of the Norwich tech scene, I'm not sure how it compares to other regions - but I think the most fantastic thing about the Norwich scene is the amount of support and events available for young people. There are so many fantastic jams & events happening over Norfolk and everyone is always happy to help to deliver more opportunities to young people, which I think is fantastic.\n\n**Do other areas have gaming festivals? How does Norwich’s fest compare?**\n\nThere aren’t as many regional gaming festivals as you might expect. We aren’t as big as London Games Festival or Insomnia but that’s a good thing as size isn’t our focus. We’re different because of our family friendly and indie developer focus.\n\n**Are you a gamer yourself? What platforms do you play on and what is your current game of choice?**\n\nAs well as being a gamer, I'm also a game developer - which means I often struggle to find the time to play games! I currently make use of my Nintendo Switch the most - as it has a tonne of great indie titles and it's portability makes the games super accessible, without having a negative impact on the experience.\n\n**Lastly, how can people get involved in Norwich Gaming Fest?**\n\nThere's a handful of ways that people can get involved with this year's festival; we offer free exhibition space to game developers hoping to show their projects, and applications are open on our website. Young developers who have made something they'd like to bring along can apply to bring their projects to our Warp Zone on the 29th of May; these projects can be anything game or tech related - and could have been crafted at home, at school, or even as part of a jam! On the evening of the 31st of May, Code Club will be running a volunteer training session for anyone confident with technology or code, and are keen to find out more about running their own Club Event.","path":"/posts/2018-05-17-norwich-gaming-festival"},{"date":"2017-11-30T22:01:55Z","layout":"post","title":"DevelopHER Awards 2017","author":["lauren"],"hero":"/static/images/pages/posts/2017-11-30-developher-awards-2017/hero.jpg","tags":["Article","MeetTheCommunity"],"excerpt":"Keen to grow the East Anglian network, founder Vickie Allen held the third DevelopHER Awards in Cambridge this year. Hosted by the stunning Corn Exchange, there were pink and silver balloons hovering above every table and goody bags on every chair - the venue was ready for an ama...","body":"\nKeen to grow the East Anglian network, founder Vickie Allen held the third [DevelopHER Awards](http://developherawards.com/) in Cambridge this year. Hosted by the stunning Corn Exchange, there were pink and silver balloons hovering above every table and goody bags on every chair - the venue was ready for an amazing event.\n\nThere were nearly 200 nominations for the fifteen awards and all the winners were humbled when their names were announced, and more than a few were taken by surprise! Nikita Hari, winner of the Entrepreneur award, said she was flattered to be sharing the stage with such impressive women and Gabriela Garrido, who took home the Innovation award, hadn't prepared a speech she said, because she was sure she wouldn't win as the other nominees were of such a high caliber.\n\nTech Star winner Sylvia Lu, in her acceptance speech, said that results have no gender and Jenny Cham spoke of the possibility of 'having it all' when collecting her award for User Experience. The winner of the Inspiration award quite rightly also won the overall DevelopHER Award. Hazel Cottrell had been nominated by multiple people, in and outside of the industry. As a hard worker with Creative Content Company, she also volunteered with social causes and helped school children with their future careers. Collecting her awards clearly meant a lot to Hazel as she shed a few tears, both times.\n\nOnce again the DevelopHER Awards showed the valuable contribution that women make to the tech industry, and how that contribution is growing year on year.\n\nNext years awards are due to take place on the 28th November in a venue yet to be announced, and if this years event is anything to go by it is sure to be inspirational (and very pink!)","path":"/posts/2017-11-30-developher-awards-2017"},{"date":"2017-11-06T21:10:05Z","layout":"post","title":"Meet The Community: Norfolk Developers","author":["lauren"],"hero":"/static/images/pages/posts/2017-11-06-meet-the-community-norfolk-developers/hero.jpg","tags":["Article","MeetTheCommunity"],"excerpt":"Norfolk Developers almost need no introduction. If you’re reading this magazine, you know who they are. Considering the group’s importance and influence in the region’s tech scene, they were an obvious choice to feature in our ‘Meet The Community’ feature. We spoke to founder Pau...","body":"\n**Norfolk Developers almost need no introduction. If you’re reading this magazine, you know who they are. Considering the group’s importance and influence in the region’s tech scene, they were an obvious choice to feature in our ‘Meet The Community’ feature. We spoke to founder Paul Grenyer about nor(DEV): about his favourite moment of past meet-ups and what the future holds for the deep-tech group.**\n\n**When were you founded?**\n\nJuly 2013, by Paul Grenyer, Dom Davis & Ben Taylor\n\n**What inspired you to start Norfolk Developers?**\n\nPaul Grenyer started a group 18 months before, called Agile East Anglia (), which was one of the groups which merged to form [SyncNorwich](https://www.meetup.com/syncnorwich/) in 2012. After he left SyncNorwich, Paul ran a small MongoDB based meetup group, which had three events, before he realised there was an appetite for a purely technical group in Norwich. So he formed Norfolk Developers with Ben and Dom.\n\n**How has Norfolk developers evolved since it first began?**\n\nIn lots of ways. As well as regular monthly evening events featuring two, fortyfive minute tech sessions, Norfolk Developers now also run quarterly breakfasts and a monthly networking event call NorDevBiz. The jewel in the crown is the yearly Norfolk Developers Conference. Norfolk Developers as also run lunches and Agile on the Bench sessions in the past.\n\n**Is it what you imagined it would be now?**\n\nNo, it’s much bigger and does so much more.\n\n**What is your favourite part/memory/aspect of Norfolk Developers?**\n\nWhen Robert “Uncle Bob” Martin came to speak a packed room just before Christmas 2015: \n\n**And the groups greatest achievement?**\n\nProbably over 400 people for the main conference day in 2016.\n\n**Where do you see Norfolk Developers going in the future?**\n\nHopefully the membership will continue to grow. Attendance will grow and it will help Norwich and Norfolk be seen as the place where tech entrepreneurs come to start their businesses.\n\n**One thing people might not know about Norfolk Developers?**\n\nNorfolk Developers meetups were originally held in Virgin Wine’s meeting room at St. James Mill before moving to the King's Centre.","path":"/posts/2017-11-06-meet-the-community-norfolk-developers"},{"date":"2017-11-06T21:03:28Z","layout":"post","title":"Building A Successful Chatbot","author":["lauren"],"hero":"/static/images/pages/posts/2017-11-06-meet-the-community-norfolk-developers/hero.jpg","tags":["Article","MeetTheCommunity"],"excerpt":"First things first, what exactly is a chatbot? A quick Google will give you lots of different answers to this simple question. I have attempted my own definition with the caveat that this fledgling technology is constantly evolving so this may well be out of date by the time you ...","body":"\n**First things first, what exactly is a chatbot?**\n\nA quick Google will give you lots of different answers to this simple question. I have attempted my own definition with the caveat that this fledgling technology is constantly evolving so this may well be out of date by the time you read it. Here goes:\n\n> A chatbot is a software program that an end user interacts with via a conversational interface such as Facebook Messenger, Slack, Telegram, etc. The software program itself can utilise artificial intelligence to simulate conversation using natural language understanding (NLU), it can also be rule/flow based with the goal of directing a user down a specific path, or it can be a combination of the two.\n\n**Background**\n\nI have been building enterprise-level chatbots at[ubisend](https://www.ubisend.com)since early 2016. The spectrum of projects we have been involved with has been huge and includes everything from sales tools to celebrity personas to daily news briefings. Even though the scope of these projects has been so varied, I have come to the conclusion that many of the key concepts to building a successful bot remain consistent no matter what the goal or scope.\n\nThe rest of this article will provide you with an overview of these key concepts. I would recommend you keep these in mind if you are building a bot.\n\n**Key concepts**\n\nManage expectations -\n\nFor me, this is one of the most important points of all. At the very beginning of the user journey, set the expectations of what your bot can do. This would usually be in the very first message or at the end of the onboarding sequence if you have one. It should be a concise overview of the main purpose of your bot. The [Golden State Warriors bot](https://www.messenger.com/t/warriors) is a great example of how to do this well.\n\nPersonalisation -\n\nPersonalising messages can be as simple as using the name of the user when chatting, right up to building a full user profile you can use later to tailor the content of your messages. The more information you have, the more personal you can make your service which will serve to delight your users.\n\nDon’t try to know everything -\n\nTrying to respond to every question should not be the goal of your bot. In my experience, you will waste a lot of time setting up your bot for questions that its users will never ask and lose focus of the core objectives.\n\nHave defined goals -\n\nNo matter what the purpose of your bot, make sure you know what it is you are trying to achieve. If you are new to bots, you are likely working with a completely different interface than you are used to. One that you have little control over. This can make it more difficult to direct a user where you want them to go or even educate them on what they can achieve with the bot. Keeping your goals in mind can help you to focus better on the user journey.\n\nKnow your subject matter -\n\nThis is aimed more at those bots utilising NLU to determine the intent of the user’s input and respond accordingly.\n\nNow that you have a set of defined goals and have set the expectations of the user, your bot better be able to do what you say your bot can do! Failing to answer a question on a subject you have told the user they can talk about ends in a pretty bad user experience.\n\nBe clever with your content -\n\nIf it’s a bad experience for the user when your bot can’t answer a question, it’s even worse when the bot asks the question and can’t understand the response. With that in mind, try not to ask questions in your responses unless you are confident you will be able to handle it and reply accordingly. I have made this mistake in the past…\n\nError handling -\n\nIt’s inevitable that your bot will get it wrong and this is OK. Users tend not to be put off as long as you give them a way of getting back on track. Consider using what I like to call conversation aligners. If your bot is stuck, give the user a way to move on and perhaps reaffirm the scope of your bot to try and guide the user into talking about something you can handle. We built this into the PG tips Monkey bot to great effect.\n\nIf things are going really wrong, you may also want to consider giving the user an option to speak with a human.\n\nKeep learning and iterating -\n\nFinally and most \\\\importantly, analyse the conversations your bot is having and learn from them. If you are using NLU, figure out where your bot is getting it wrong and train it so it doesn’t make the same mistake again. If you have a flow-based based bot, make sure there are no bottlenecks where users are getting stuck. As with most pieces of software, learning from your users is \\\\important.\n\nThe great thing about bots is you’re not reliant on feedback from the user. You are getting the feedback in real time as you can see exactly what the user is asking and what they are trying to do. You’ll quickly be able to see what is working, what isn’t and what the most obvious features are that you need to add.\n\n**Summary**\n\nAs with most software projects, building bots can be very challenging and equally very rewarding. Watching conversations in real-time is an unusual experience as it’s not often you get to see exactly what your user is seeing. This is the best feedback you could possibly get to help iterate and improve things for your users. Keep things simple, defined and allow a user a way out if they get stuck and you will be well on your way to a successful chatbot.\n\n***\n\nI hope this has been useful. If you have any feedback, please feel free to get in touch.\n\n[**Joe Dixon**](https://twitter.com/_joedixon)","path":"/posts/2017-11-06-building-a-successful-chatbot"}],"total":7,"tagSlug":"MeetTheCommunity"},"__N_SSG":true}