Knowledge Skill Case Study

The following is a fictional case study on how Doe's Bookstore & Cafe created a knowledge skill to answer questions about their business.

Problem
Getting the data
Mapping the data to templates
Example data
Related topics

Problem

Doe's Bookstore & Cafe aims to delight customers through its wide book selection, cafe menu, and weekly events. The shop spans three stories of a downtown building, but customers currently can only ask questions to team members on the first floor.

To assist customers who are shopping on floors two or three, the staff decided to build an Alexa skill.

The skill should be able to answer questions such as the following:

"Where can I find biographies?"
"What's the next Live Poetry Night?"
"What's the wifi password?"
"What floor are mystery books on?"
"What are some vegetarian options for lunch?"

Getting the data

The bookshop staff then went to work collecting data to answer these types of questions. The team sorted the data into four categories:

General bookshop information – wifi password, bathroom code, hours of operation, loyalty club membership details
Upcoming event schedule – book club meetings, author readings, open mic nights
Book navigation – locations for each genre by floor and aisle
Cafe menu – menu items, vegetarian options

Mapping the data to templates

Based on the previous categories of data and question types, the team then determined which knowledge skill templates to use. They mapped their data to the following templates.

Data Category	Template	Why	Sample Questions
Upcoming Event Schedule	Events	This template provides time, location, and other information about events. This data helps users find information about the bookstore's recurring events.	"When is the next book club meeting?" "What time does the open mic night start?"
Book Details	Products	This template helps users answer questions about book locations and prices.	"Where can I find Capitalism and Freedom?" "What are some economics books?"
Cafe Menu Items	Menu Items	This template helps users answer questions about individual menu items (for example, price, calories, and ingredients) and about item categories (for example, hot foods, gluten-free foods, and drinks).	"What's the price of coffee?" "How many calories does the club sandwich have?"
Enrollment Information	How To	This template is used to answer questions about processes and procedures. Thus, we're using it to answer questions about how to enroll in the loyalty program and request out of stock books.	"How do I join the loyalty program?" "How do I request an out of stock book?"
General Bookshop Information	Glossary	This template, in addition to providing definitions, can be used to answer description questions about any subject you'd like. Thus, it's useful for general information that may not be covered by another template.	"What's the wifi password?" "What's the loyalty reward program?"

Example data

After the team determined which templates to use, they downloaded the templates from the Alexa Skills Kit developer console and began to fill in the rows using their data.

Events

Click the following figure to see data that the team added to the Events template.

Products

Click the following figure to see data that the team added to the Products template.

Click the following figure to see data that the team added to the Menu Items template.

Knowledge skill menu items data example.

How To

Click the following figure to see data that the team added to the How To template.

Glossary

Click the following figure to see data that the team added to the Glossary template.