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"Fly" with Virtual Agent

[SN Dev Meetup April 2020]

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Who Am I?

Andrew Albury-Dor, SN Technical Lead @ Auto & General

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What Did We Do?

  • Launched VA inside a 2 week sprint
  • Used OOB ITSM Interactions
  • Customised enough to give it a personality
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Meet Budgie!

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Budget Direct leads to Budgie

Where It All Started

  • Now Learning Micro Certs
  • Came up with the name on a whim
  • Configured the basic OOB experience on my PDI
  • Left it alone for a few months...
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And Then...

  • While talking to someone from the Service Desk they mentioned Chatbots
  • I showed them Budgie running in my PDI
  • They loved it and insisted we show TL / Manager
  • They also loved it, and really loved that my estimate to live was ~2 weeks
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What Have I Got Myself In To?

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Nothing.

I'm a Good Developer*

[* That's what my wife tells me at least]

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What did I have to do?

  • Agree on a Minimum Viable Product.
    • Not that difficult. Let's go basic ITSM and see how much I can fit into a sprint
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What did I have to do?

  • Agree on a Minimum Viable Product.
    • Not that difficult. Let's go basic ITSM and see how much I can fit into a sprint
  • Turn a "Virtual Agent" into a talking birb you want to scritch
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What did I have to do?

  • Agree on a Minimum Viable Product.
    • Not that difficult. Let's go basic ITSM and see how much I can fit into a sprint
  • Turn a "Virtual Agent" into a talking birb you want to scritch
  • Learn the Virtual Agent Builder tool (snazzy, but odd)
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What did I have to do?

  • Agree on a Minimum Viable Product.
    • Not that difficult. Let's go basic ITSM and see how much I can fit into a sprint
  • Turn a "Virtual Agent" into a talking birb you want to scritch
  • Learn the Virtual Agent Builder tool (snazzy, but odd)
  • Use the Virtual Agent Builder tool
12 / 54

What did I have to do?

  • Agree on a Minimum Viable Product.
    • Not that difficult. Let's go basic ITSM and see how much I can fit into a sprint
  • Turn a "Virtual Agent" into a talking birb you want to scritch
  • Learn the Virtual Agent Builder tool (snazzy, but odd)
  • Use the Virtual Agent Builder tool
  • Find copyright-free pictures of budgerigars
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What did I have to do?

  • Agree on a Minimum Viable Product.
    • Not that difficult. Let's go basic ITSM and see how much I can fit into a sprint
  • Turn a "Virtual Agent" into a talking birb you want to scritch
  • Learn the Virtual Agent Builder tool (snazzy, but odd)
  • Use the Virtual Agent Builder tool
  • Find copyright-free pictures of budgerigars
  • Spend too little time Photoshop-ing on a headset
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What did I have to do?

  • Agree on a Minimum Viable Product.
    • Not that difficult. Let's go basic ITSM and see how much I can fit into a sprint
  • Turn a "Virtual Agent" into a talking birb you want to scritch
  • Learn the Virtual Agent Builder tool (snazzy, but odd)
  • Use the Virtual Agent Builder tool
  • Find copyright-free pictures of budgerigars
  • Spend too little time Photoshop-ing on a headset
  • Spend too much time looking for funny Jiffs Gifs
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Let's Do The Thing

or, How I Did The Thing

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Initial Steps

  1. Check for The L Word
    • We were talked up to ITSM Premium which includes Virtual Agent
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Initial Steps

  1. Check for The L Word
    • We were talked up to ITSM Premium which includes Virtual Agent
  2. Activate The Plugins (on Dev - of course)
    • Glide Virtual Agent (com.glide.cs.chatbot)
    • ITSM Virtual Agent Conversations (com.snc.itsm.virtualagent)
    • ITSM NLU Model for Virtual Agent Conversations (com.snc.itsm.nlu)
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Initial Steps

  1. Check for The L Word
    • We were talked up to ITSM Premium which includes Virtual Agent
  2. Activate The Plugins (on Dev - of course)
    • Glide Virtual Agent (com.glide.cs.chatbot)
    • ITSM Virtual Agent Conversations (com.snc.itsm.virtualagent)
    • ITSM NLU Model for Virtual Agent Conversations (com.snc.itsm.nlu)
  3. Make him Purdy <3
    • Update the Branding and Chatbot Profile
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Initial Steps

  1. Check for The L Word
    • We were talked up to ITSM Premium which includes Virtual Agent
  2. Activate The Plugins (on Dev - of course)
    • Glide Virtual Agent (com.glide.cs.chatbot)
    • ITSM Virtual Agent Conversations (com.snc.itsm.virtualagent)
    • ITSM NLU Model for Virtual Agent Conversations (com.snc.itsm.nlu)
  3. Make him Purdy <3
    • Update the Branding and Chatbot Profile
  4. Enable / Copy and Edit all the Conversations ("Topics") we wanted to use
    • Check Ticket Status
    • Check System Status
    • Raise a Ticket
    • Raise a Request
    • Search KB
20 / 54

Initial Steps

  1. Check for The L Word
    • We were talked up to ITSM Premium which includes Virtual Agent
  2. Activate The Plugins (on Dev - of course)
    • Glide Virtual Agent (com.glide.cs.chatbot)
    • ITSM Virtual Agent Conversations (com.snc.itsm.virtualagent)
    • ITSM NLU Model for Virtual Agent Conversations (com.snc.itsm.nlu)
  3. Make him Purdy <3
    • Update the Branding and Chatbot Profile
  4. Enable / Copy and Edit all the Conversations ("Topics") we wanted to use
    • Check Ticket Status
    • Check System Status
    • Raise a Ticket
    • Raise a Request
    • Search KB
  5. Update all the "Setup Topics" and default messages to be more "small birb appropriate"
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There are a lot of topics...

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Simple Customisation

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Just Show Me The Damn Bird Already!

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Demo

Live Demo

25 / 54

Obligatory Cake Shot

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Obligatory Cake Shot

27 / 54

What did I learn break and have to fix?

28 / 54

What did I learn break and have to fix?

  • Documentation for VA is a little light on technical details

    • (There's a few APIs which aren't documented at all, and they seem to be quite useful)
29 / 54

What did I learn break and have to fix?

  • Documentation for VA is a little light on technical details

    • (There's a few APIs which aren't documented at all, and they seem to be quite useful)

  • There are a whole bunch more System Properties than in the "Properties" module

    • see com.glide.cs
30 / 54

What did I learn break and have to fix?

  • Documentation for VA is a little light on technical details

    • (There's a few APIs which aren't documented at all, and they seem to be quite useful)

  • There are a whole bunch more System Properties than in the "Properties" module

    • see com.glide.cs

  • Mark Roethof is The Guy when it comes to VA (And another Developer MVP!)

31 / 54

What did I learn break and have to fix?

  • Documentation for VA is a little light on technical details

    • (There's a few APIs which aren't documented at all, and they seem to be quite useful)

  • There are a whole bunch more System Properties than in the "Properties" module

    • see com.glide.cs

  • Mark Roethof is The Guy when it comes to VA (And another Developer MVP!)

  • People love characters! Something I came up with on a whim really resonated with everyone.

32 / 54

What did I learn break and have to fix?

  • Documentation for VA is a little light on technical details

    • (There's a few APIs which aren't documented at all, and they seem to be quite useful)

  • There are a whole bunch more System Properties than in the "Properties" module

    • see com.glide.cs

  • Mark Roethof is The Guy when it comes to VA (And another Developer MVP!)

  • People love characters! Something I came up with on a whim really resonated with everyone.

  • Don't plan deploys around your renewal dates :(

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We had the change logged (HA! CHANGE!) and ready to go on a Friday afternoon, but couldn't enable it because our subscriptions hadn't pulled through yet. GARETH! Ended up doing it on a Saturday :(

So What, Do People Use It?

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...Kinda?

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Outcomes

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Outcomes

  • After Launch (March - April) we had had ~130 conversations Started
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Outcomes

  • After Launch (March - April) we had had ~130 conversations Started
  • Only 20 came to a complete end (not abandoned etc)
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Outcomes

  • After Launch (March - April) we had had ~130 conversations Started
  • Only 20 came to a complete end (not abandoned etc)
  • Only 2 incidents had been logged using Budgie
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Outcomes

  • After Launch (March - April) we had had ~130 conversations Started
  • Only 20 came to a complete end (not abandoned etc)
  • Only 2 incidents had been logged using Budgie
  • Only 1 person had completed a survey, and it was... well I don't talk about it
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Outcomes

  • After Launch (March - April) we had had ~130 conversations Started
  • Only 20 came to a complete end (not abandoned etc)
  • Only 2 incidents had been logged using Budgie
  • Only 1 person had completed a survey, and it was... well I don't talk about it

    Update from Launch to August:

  • Only 258 total conversations started
  • Only 40 came to a complete end
  • 5 incidents raised using Budgie
  • 4 total survey responses
    • 3 Good / 0 Neutral / 1 Bad
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BUT(T)

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We (still) haven't actually "Sold" budgie.

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After all the Covid bizniz, he's been left in his cage for now. We were planning a big launch, but it has been rather soft.

class: middle, center

ANYWAY.

To The Future!

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What's to come?

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What's to come?

Obviously there's a lot Budgie can do. We have plans to:

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What's to come?

Obviously there's a lot Budgie can do. We have plans to:

  • Integrate him to Robotic Process Automation to solve repeatable issues for users (Picture a bird yelling at Alexa)
47 / 54

What's to come?

Obviously there's a lot Budgie can do. We have plans to:

  • Integrate him to Robotic Process Automation to solve repeatable issues for users (Picture a bird yelling at Alexa)
  • Let him out of his cage via APIs to Get. Stuff. Done. Cheep.
48 / 54

What's to come?

Obviously there's a lot Budgie can do. We have plans to:

  • Integrate him to Robotic Process Automation to solve repeatable issues for users (Picture a bird yelling at Alexa)
  • Let him out of his cage via APIs to Get. Stuff. Done. Cheep.
  • Teach him the local vernacular Maaaate (Update the NLU to be more in line with our business language)
49 / 54

What's to come?

Obviously there's a lot Budgie can do. We have plans to:

  • Integrate him to Robotic Process Automation to solve repeatable issues for users (Picture a bird yelling at Alexa)
  • Let him out of his cage via APIs to Get. Stuff. Done. Cheep.
  • Teach him the local vernacular Maaaate (Update the NLU to be more in line with our business language)
  • Give him a phone with Slack so he can let people know when jobs are assigned to them or help people directly in-app.
50 / 54

What's to come?

Obviously there's a lot Budgie can do. We have plans to:

  • Integrate him to Robotic Process Automation to solve repeatable issues for users (Picture a bird yelling at Alexa)
  • Let him out of his cage via APIs to Get. Stuff. Done. Cheep.
  • Teach him the local vernacular Maaaate (Update the NLU to be more in line with our business language)
  • Give him a phone with Slack so he can let people know when jobs are assigned to them or help people directly in-app.
  • Get stickers and (maybe) plushies made! (Once we start marketing him a bit more)
51 / 54

What's to come?

Obviously there's a lot Budgie can do. We have plans to:

  • Integrate him to Robotic Process Automation to solve repeatable issues for users (Picture a bird yelling at Alexa)
  • Let him out of his cage via APIs to Get. Stuff. Done. Cheep.
  • Teach him the local vernacular Maaaate (Update the NLU to be more in line with our business language)
  • Give him a phone with Slack so he can let people know when jobs are assigned to them or help people directly in-app.
  • Get stickers and (maybe) plushies made! (Once we start marketing him a bit more)
  • Find more gifs, of course ;)
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Thanks for coming to my TED sndev talk!

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Questions?

Other stuff I've been working on:

54 / 54

Who Am I?

Andrew Albury-Dor, SN Technical Lead @ Auto & General

2 / 54
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