Storyline with Vasili Shynkarenka #21

In this episode, Teri welcomes Vasili Shynkarenka, Co-Founder and CEO of Storyline, to talk about his new platform that allows anyone to make Alexa skills without any coding!

Welcome Vasili Shynkarenka from Storyline!

Vasili Shynkarenka in the co-founder and CEO of Storyline, a platform that allows you to create skills for Amazon Alexa in the most simple way, without requiring any knowledge of how to code. If you can type, drag and drop, and most importantly, come up with a good idea, you too can create a successful Alexa skill with Storyline!

Vasili’s background is in computer science and marketing. He previously worked in voice design for 3 years, designing conversational interfaces for various brands and businesses.

Key Points Discussed on the Podcast

We covered a lot of ground in this interview with Vasili. Here are some of the key points that we discussed:

Storyline is a tool that allows anyone to create a skill for Amazon Alexa without writing any code. It is a visual interface, designed to be incredibly user-friendly.Storyline launched Sept 2017Non-technical people as very good at building excellent and engaging Alexa skills.A good idea is more important than the ability to code when it comes to building Alexa skills.Alexa is more similar to YouTube than an iPhone app.Children are able to dive right in and create excellent skills for the first time (as opposed to other technologies).There are currently 550 skills live that were built on StorylineStoryline users range from age 7-87 years oldStoryline allows users to update content in real time without having to submit a skill for recertification with AmazonSkill discovery is still a major challenge for the average usersKids Court, by Adva Levin (Pretzel Labs)Completely created in StorylineWon the Global Alexa kids Challenge!Kids Court is a relatively technically easy skill to create, but the concept is very unique and engaging.Tips for Creating a Good SkillCreate skills tend built around daily habits; e.g. soundscape skills and newsChoose a relevant invocation name (i.e. command to use/open the skill)Regularly update your contentCreate a repetitive experience – something that will encourage users to return to the skillRecent Storyline FeaturesYou can now add long audio files and livestream audio in your skillsThis allows for interactive radio: Alexa can start live streaming your audio, but you can also add commands that users could say during the livestream.Alexa now supports pre-built variables; you can use these for all types of information.For example, you can have Alexa learn a user’s name and Alexa can use that in the course of the experienceYou can now store phone number in skills through Alexa, which are stored on the Amazon server. These would be accessible only by the developer. The users would be able to unsubscribe if wanted.The ability to cross-promote skills built on Alexa will help with skill discoveryThe Future of StorylineAn initial goal is to increase the number of skills in the Skill storeEventually Storyline will be published to other platforms, such as Google HomeThank you Vasili!

Thank you for sharing your information, experience, and incredible product with all of us! I look forward to watch how Storyline evolves over time!

List of resources mentioned in this episode:StorylineStoryline Community on FacebookStoryline YouTube ChannelWhat I Learned From 5000 Reviews of Top 5 Alexa Skills, by Vasili ShynkarenkaReviews of top Alexa Skills in CanadaPlease leave a review on iTunesShopping on Amazon.ca

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