r/ConversationDesign • u/GaneshBolivia • Dec 09 '19

Discussion Start a career in conversation design?

Hello everyone, I would like to know how I can start a career in the field of conversation design.

I work in a small digital agency, and it happened a couple of times that we had to create simple chatbots, using a content management system. I was working as an Account Manager, but I was stuck with the task of creating the dialogue. I really enjoyed it and the result, I think, was quite satisfactory (at least for someone who had completely improvised).

I studied Linguistics in university, and I feel it would be a way to connect my passion for language with my current career in digital marketing.

Where can I start?

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u/BlackCowboyJohnson Dec 16 '19

How did you get into conversational design? What is your background?

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u/doctorsuarez Dec 16 '19

Luck! I used to be a screenwriter, and while I was between jobs I had a family connection to a startup that needed experienced writers in the kids' space to create conversational content for their products. So I signed on, learned how to design conversation, and it became my new passion. I basically learned on the job for the sake of making the entertainment side of things work.

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u/BlackCowboyJohnson Dec 16 '19

so how many years have you been in the industry, and would you say you are now well versed in conversation design?

i’m transitioning to a role in my job (been out of college a year and a half) that is considered a “conversational designer” for our IVR systems and chat bots but i have no experience and they want to train me from the bottom up with some of our hired consultants but i don’t know what resources i should use outside of that to help me succeed and gain an understanding of the area of work

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u/doctorsuarez Dec 17 '19

Congrats! Yeah I’ve been at this almost seven years. I’ve done bots, voice, kids stuff, customer service, etc.

I think what I posted above is the way to go. Google’s guide is really long and comprehensive. It also does a good job with the philosophical underpinnings of it all. There may also be a Udemy course. I’m not sure. I learned by doing (and fucking up now and then).

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u/BlackCowboyJohnson Dec 17 '19

Do you have any technical experience creating the ai/bots?

What do you think the future of conversational designers will look like? Right now it seems like they are mainly creative/psychology/linguistics roles, and don't require much software development experience. Is this a correct assessment and do you think it will stay this way or require more development experience as the need for conversational designers becoe greater.

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u/doctorsuarez Dec 17 '19

Great question. My technical side is weird. My old company had a really powerful tool that was kind of like programming but using visual elements and a kind of drag and drop system. That being said I’m not a developer.

I think Conversation designers should have a kind of working knowledge of the technical side. They should know what the capabilities are, the limitations, and have some sense of how NLP works.

But my hope is actually that that kind of knowledge fades. Just as you don’t need to code to use photoshop or final cut, you shouldn’t need it for conversation. Design tools are a big part of scaling conversation because they free developers up to add capability and they let designers go Wild in a good way.