Expand your development capabilities with our top Office Hours sessions

Today, there are more opportunities than ever to build high-quality voice experiences and connect with users on Alexa-enabled devices worldwide. However, keeping up with new features, development frameworks, and industry trends isn’t always easy. 

To break down what it takes to develop high-quality skills, our weekly Office Hours sessions bring in experts to answer your questions and share their insights. From monetization strategies to tips that help you leverage top tools, check out some of our top sessions below and discover how you can grow with Alexa.

See what’s new with Alexa Learning Lab

Alexa Learning Lab offers trainings and workshops designed to help developers add new capabilities with real code samples and feedback. 

Melissa Kinney, a technical writer for Alexa Learning Lab, and Product Marketing Manager Helen Hasbun joined Office Hours to showcase two recent modules. Alexa skills foundations details everything skills can do and the use cases you need to know, while Build your first Alexa skill gives you hands-on experience to see how the front and back end of skills function. 

With this knowledge at hand, you’ll be able to take on more advanced lessons on certification, Alexa Presentation Language (APL), and more.

Dive deeper into monetization

If you want to turn skill users into paying customers, Principal Product Manager Sid Dube’s tips on Office Hours have you covered. Dube joined Alexa Community Manager Amanda Lange to outline the ways you can monetize skills, ranging from In-Skill Purchasing (ISP) best practices to integrating paid skills. 

In this episode, you’ll also get advice on how to optimize upsells and create flexible purchasing options for customers. Plus, learn what metrics you should take into account to determine the price of your skills.

Unpack A/B testing & account linking

Ready to optimize your skill and test your way to success? Start with our episode featuring Senior Solutions Architect Kunal Shanischara from the ASK runtime team, who shared how you can benefit from A/B testing and account linking. 

A/B testing is a powerful tool to experiment and compare different versions of a skill—allowing you to understand metrics like customer retention or engagement trends. Best of all, you can run tests against your current live skill to gauge performance in a real user environment. 

Shanishchara also covered account linking, which enables your skill to connect the skill user's Amazon identity with their identity in a different system. By utilizing account linking, you can offer a consistent cross-platform experience and re-route commands, providing more flexibility to bring your content to users.

Learn from Alexa Champion Rob Stanbridge

Rob Stanbridge is an Alexa Champion and Managing Director of Vocala, an award-winning Alexa voice design studio and agency in the UK. Vocala produces a wide variety of skills and has worked with clients across industries ranging from technology to energy and health, giving Stanbridge a unique lens into what it takes to connect with new audiences. 

Standbridge provided his perspective on how today’s voice entrepreneurs can succeed, including why games and entertainment experiences are key components of business growth. He also discussed what tools—such as APL and WebAPI—his team uses to create dynamic skills.

Want to get your questions answered and unlock even more tips? Don’t forget to tune in to Office Hours every Tuesday at 9 a.m. PT.