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Tech writers, chatbots need you!

  • Presentation
  • 24. June
  • 14:00 - 14:45 PM (CET)
  • finished
  • No presentation slides uploaded
  •  Maaike Groenewege

    Maaike Groenewege

    • Convocat

Contents

Chatbot content needs to be user centered, task-oriented, and, above all, well-structured. Sounds familiar? It sure did to me when I switched from technical writing to conversation design.

In my talk, I will take you along on my own journey from technical writing into conversational design: what skills you need, the steps I took to get there, some examples of great and not so great bots, and some tips to get started on your own.

Takeaways

Gartner predicts that chatbots will power 85 percent of all customer service interactions by the year 2020. Yet, if you look at the state of chatbots right now, the majority of our experiences with them are still quite disappointing.
Contrary to popular belief, most problems with chatbots are not because of technology, but because of poor content design choices. WIth the advent of AI, chatbots rely heavily on natural language processing to link the right question to the right answer. And in order to do that properly, chatbot content needs to be user centered, task-oriented, and, above all, well-structured.
Sounds familiar? It sure did to me when I switched from technical writing to conversation design. But to my own surprise, I found that many of the principles that are well-known to us technical writers (single sourcing, topic based writing, content architecture, writing for re-use, minimalism), are still quite novel in the conversational industry.
So if you're a technical writer considering a move into an AI career, conversation designer might not only be the job you're looking for; you might actually have a headstart because of your techwriter mindset.
In my talk, I will take you along on my own journey from technical writing into conversational design: what skills you need, the steps I took to get there, some examples of great and not so great bots, and some tips to get started on your own.

Speaker

 Maaike Groenewege

Maaike Groenewege

  • Convocat
Biography

After working as a technical writer at Dutch Air traffic control for 14 years, and a brief stint as a requirement analist, Maaike Groenewege switched careers and entered the exciting world of chatbots and voice assistants.
In 2019, she founded Convocat Conversational Expertise. She now coaches writers on how to create chatbots and voice assistants that are actually helpful.
In addition, she works as a consultant for chatbot platform suppliers, advising them on how to improve the user experience for chatbot writers, create great onboarding, and write end user documentation like a pro.
Maaike started the Dutch chapter of Women in Voice, an international movement that aims to empower women that work in conversational technology: conversation designers, linguists, developers, and UX designers, by giving them a platform to speak and making them visible in leadership positions.