The Critical Role of Voice Personas in Actions and Skills

#SMX #21A Eric Enge / Duane Forrester
You. In Control.
Everywhere.
Digital Marketing
Excellence

Your Presenters
Duane Forrester
VP, Industry Insights | Yext
Eric Enge
CEO | Stone Temple

The Reality Today

The current voice search landscape
o There is no paid option in voice today
o No one really has a lead as it’s so new
o Not much sexy here other than the interface – the work is already known
o The age of shortcuts ended several years ago
o Building for voice search and building Actions and Skills are very different
activities
o Branding now must include a persona for your business
o Success comes from a combined investment across areas

The current voice search landscape

Voice is the next generation of interface

By 2020,
50%
of searches
will be
voice search

Google
Assistant:
Support across 18 categories
Can now book appointments
FOR you

Amazon Alexa
Supports 22 categories
Has integrations with auto
manufacturers like Ford
Partners with Lennar to build
Alexa-controlled smart-homes

Here’s how a Skill/Action works
“Alexa, where is
the nearest taco?”
Ask Connect Recognize Fact Skill Answer
> 2 seconds

Public stigma
with using voice
declining fast

One
Assistant,
Available
Everywhere

One
Assistant,
Every Need

What Makes Speech
So Special?

Voice is
Inherently Social
Research performed at Harvard
suggests that:
“Language evolved primarily to
exchange social information rather than
information about the environment.”

Babies Can Recognize
their Mother’s Voice
Even when they are still in the womb
Research performed by Joseph F Kess at the University of Victoria
…

“As a Result of Human
Evolution, Humans Are
Automatic Experts at
Extracting the Social
Aspects of Speech”
Nass and Gong
Stanford University

Basic Dilemma Posted in the Study
John’s
Bedroom
Amy’s
Bedroom

Basic Dilemma Posed in the Study
John’s
Bedroom
Amy’s
Bedroom
Amy’s Parents think Amy
is living with another
woman.

Amy’s Parents
are coming to visit

Amy’s Parents
are coming to visit
Should Amy ask
John to move out?

Leverage Machines with “Gender Voices”
Uses a
MaleVoice
Uses a
FemaleVoice
Argues John
should move out
Argues John
should stay
Argues John
should move out
Argues John
should stay

Male
Arguing Stay
Male
Arguing Move
Female
Arguing Stay
Female
Arguing Move

Same Splits
for Women
Male
Arguing Stay
Male
Arguing Move
Female
Arguing Stay
Female
Arguing Move

The Research Showed
That People Identified More
With Machine Voices of Their
Own Gender

The Role of Social Identification
“Social Identification
leads to greater trust,
liking, perceived
intelligence, and other
positive judgments.”

Can Computers Have Personality?

Introverted Participants Extroverted Participants
Survey Said:
DependantVariables IntrovertedVoice ExtrovertedVoice IntrovertedVoice ExtrovertedVoice
Voice extrovertedness 3.41 (1.02) 4.43 (1.73) 3.28 (.81) 5.30 (1.53)
Liking of the voice 2.82 (1.26) 2.21 (.92) 1.69 (.96) 3.08 (1.32)
Quality of the review 5.44 (0.96) 4.96 (1.31) 4.06 (1.35) 4.79 (1.66)
Credibility of the review 6.43 (1.46) 5.06 (2.55) 4.18 (1.60) 5.46 (1.18)
Buying intention 3.68 (0.98) 3.10 (1.24) 2.93 (1.08) 3.59 (1.17)
liking of the reviewer 5.06 (2.07) 4.74 (2.37) 2.89 (1.27) 5.24 (1.88)
Credibility of the reviewer 4.98 (0.55) 4.52 (0.89) 4.40 (0.70) 5.02 (0.57)
Reviewer extrovertedness 4.68 (1.39) 5.56 (1.37) 4.22 (1.66) 5.77 (1.42)

Pitch/Pitch Range
Women: 100 to 525 Hz Men: 65 to 260 Hz

Speech Rate

Affiliation
Control
Distant
Friendly
ExtrovertCritic
Submissive
Dominant
SidekickIntrovert

Affiliation
Control
Distant
Friendly
ExtrovertCritic
Submissive
Dominant
Highpitch,Widepitchrange,
Rapidspeech
Low pitch, Limited pitch range,
LoudnessLowpitch,Narrowpitchrange,
Slowspeech
High pitch, Wide pitch
range, Soft, QuietVoice
SidekickIntrovert

Understanding how we
learn helps determine
HOW “AI”
LEARNS

Quick Answers vs. Thoughtful Dialogue
Thinking Fast
Habitual (Croc Brain)
Highly Structured
Facts for Instant Processing
Quick response, digestion, and reaction
Answers, almost instinctually delivered

Quick Answers vs. Thoughtful Dialogue
Thinking Fast
Habitual (Croc Brain)
Highly Structured
Facts for Instant Processing
Quick response, digestion, and reaction
Answers, almost instinctually delivered
Thinking Slow
Non-habitual (Neo-cortex)
Unstructured Data
Slow processing, significant thought
Slow response, additional questions
Thoughtful dialogue, meaningful exchange

For
example:
What do
you see?
Ellen Langer, Mindfulness

By adding
the slightest
definition,
the pattern
becomes
confident
Hello,
Structure!

The Five Tribes of Machine Learning
Businesses are
embracing
machine learning
because they have
no choice.
The
Symbolists
The
Connectionists
The
Evolutionaries
The
Bayesians
The
Analogizers
linguistics & analytic
philosophy
neural network & brain
science
probabilistic inference &
statistics
evolving structures &
biology
mapping situations &
psychology
ALL NEED
ACCURATE
DATA
AND
KNOWLEDGE
TO LEARN

”“
”“
What is a Persona?
The aspect of someone’s character that is
Presented to or perceived by others.
Her public persona.

We all Know Flo
But How Big
A Deal Is
She?

In 2011:
• Named #1 brand icon
by EW.com
• A Flo Halloween
costume became the
#1 selling costume on
Amazon.com.

Flo’s Profile
Quirky
Human
Loveable
Everpresent
Easy to
IdentifyWith

Personas
One of the most critical areas of investment
in Voice
But what IS a persona?
Its the aspect of someone's character that's seen by
others
3 types of Personas today:
Customer personas
AI persona
Business personas
“Alexa, Google, Microsoft and
Apple have invested a lot in
building unique personas for
their digital assistants
for a reason.”

Steps in Designing Your Brand Persona
1 - Understand the Brand
• Who have you been over the last decade?These actions help define your
persona.
• Interview stakeholders (Marketing, brand, customer experience teams)
• Review your style guide & brand book, your traditional ad material - print,TV,
etc.
• Use the product yourself to understand the experience of using it and visit your
contact center and speak to people talking to customers
• Watch social media to see what surfaces in relation to your
brand/product/service
• Visit the retail locations selling your product

2 - Understand the Customer
• Review the entire customer journey and understand context along the way
• Detail the customer demographics - attempt to understand who they are
• Map the frequency of their engagements with you
• If frequent - keep voice prompts short
• If infrequent - include deeper/longer prompts
• Define/understand customer requirements, expectations and needs
Understand the Brand

3 - Understand the task
What are the discrete elements of information needed to
accomplish the task at hand
1. Understand the Brand 2. Understand the Customer

4 - Choose the medium for the audio
• Text to speech or custom recording (voice-actor)
• Pros and Cons for each choice here
• TTS scales well, sounds robotic, cheaper
• Real Voice doesn’t scale, expensive, much more professional
1. Understand the Brand 2. Understand the Customer 3. Understand the Task

Designing Customer
Personas

Who is our target
audience
& what makes them tick?

What market are
we really in
& who are we competing
with?

What is our brand
promise
& differentiation?

How do we
showcase
& prove it?

What is the
experience
we want to deliver for
prospects and clients?
[Personality, Tone of Voice, Visual, Consistency]

How to Design a Persona Bio
Step 1
Define the degree of formality
the social context of who your
persona is going to be: peer,
boss, advisor (you may create
one of each here)

How to Design a Persona Bio
Step 2
Create a character monologue - a paragraph
or two that might be spoken in a casual
conversation that gives us a sense of who this
character is – with insight into
who they are (what they did on the weekend,
travel plans, etc.)

A B2B Example

Target Audience Personas
By Job Role
SMB
Owner
Product
Manager
Marketing
Exec
Web Dev
Exec
Strategic
Entrepreneur

CHELSEA:
The Web Dev
Exec
AGE 36
GENDER Female
OCCUPATION CTO / Director of Engineering
STATUS Single, No children
LOCATION Urban (San Jose, CA)
EXPERIENCE 15+ years in eComm
EDUCATION BS, University of Texas
• Mastery in their discipline
• The opportunity to innovate
MOTIVATIONS
• Geeky
• Analytical
• Skeptical / Cynical
• Impatient
PERSONALITY TRAITS
• Outdoor adventurer
• Hi-tech Innovations / robotics
• Competitive sports
INTERESTS
• Succinct & direct
• Calculated risk taker
• Decisive
• Opinionated
• Chaotic
STRENGTHS / WEAKNESSES
• To architect sound and
progressive solutions that improve
user experience and adoption
• To develop advanced technology
systems and methodologies that
make development more efficient
GOALS
• Inefficiency
• Being bound by outdated
processes or rules
• Unnecessary complexity
PAIN POINTS & FRUSTRATIONS
• Progressive thinkers/inventors
• Historical leaders
INFLUENCERS

A B2C Example

Wally Brill, Google I/O: https://youtu.be/tUbB_FbIqPw

Persona Example – for “Important Airlines”
Wally Brill, Google I/O: https://youtu.be/tUbB_FbIqPw

Persona Example – for “Important Airlines”

What Will Your Hear in Terrence’s Monologue?
1
2
3
4
Attention to Detail
Precision
Dependability
Formal

Persona Example
Build a detailed
persona bio
"When people hear any voice they automatically
and unconsciously assign a personality to it..."
- Cliff Nash and Scott Brave -Wired For Speech (1979)
We create an image in our mind of who we are
listening to - we can infer age, gender, educational
level, locale and register (my boss, my employee, my
peer, etc.), as well as intelligence, trustworthiness and
likability - all within one second.

What Will Your Hear in Helen’s Monologue?
1
2
3
4
Fun to be Around
Easy to Relate to
Adaptable
Still Dependable

How Does Your Persona Match Your Brand?
Your identified
brand attributes
Identifiable
persona attributes

Next Steps for Voice Assisntants
AI will get to know your digital self and eventually, it will know:
• What NOT to expose you to
• The WAY you want information conveyed to you
• HOW you want information explained
Humans are an emotional species.
Eventually, AI will get to the point where they will be able to sense changes in mood
Seamless interactions
Doesn’t matter the device or manufacturer, your assistant can work with all to execute your command

Jarvis

Duane Forrester
VP, Industry Insights | Yext
@duaneforrester
Eric Enge
CEO | Stone Temple
@stonetemple
THANK
YOU!

The Critical Role of Voice Personas in Actions and Skills

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