You all may know I'm not a software engineer, this means that every time I decide to learn something tech-related I face some challenges. This is not a complain: I'm super proud about it. Welcome to this new entry about my experience with Power Virtual Agents 😊
When I had my first meet up session with Alex Rostán - AWESOME MVP - back in middle September, I shared content about D365 HR and Alex about Power Virtual Agents. We talked about the amazing stuff we can build together, so after a few days, I decided to create my own chatbot. At the beginning it was a nightmare: I'll be honest with you. But I failed fast, and this means that I learned even faster.
Back in October, I decided to create a simple chatbot gathering information about D365 HR, community content, worldwide user group, docs, and so on. I posted on Twitter asking for people interested in testing it, and the amazing Malin Martnes and Jon Levesque were there to try it. Both of them gave me pretty good feedback, BUT the best part came when Mark Christie review the chatbot and gave me some of homework.
Where am I now?
- Created version 2.0 of D365HR Chatbot
- Waiting for the amazing Alex to build something together
- Thinking how to innovate with the combination of this solution with D365 HR always keeping in mind that human relationships are important in HR processes 🚨
After studying, changing and creating a new - and enhanced - experience for the user I can say I'm more than proud of what I achieved so far. So, let's gather a few lessons learn and piece of homework for future Ana.
🔧 Lessons learn:
- User experience must be #1 priority: remember that the user is talking to a bot, if the experience is bad, you may lose a prospect, customer or a potential candidate.
- Draw your process before starting: may sound obvious, but for people with a similar amount of anxiety as me LISTEN: design the process (including questions, answers, and everything you think you'll need). Once you have it all written you can start with PVA. From the first design, till the final version changes may occur, that's expected.
- Ask for help: I thought my first chatbot was AWESOME until I had some feedback that made me think about all this. Things I wasn't planning or even thinking about. Community is what makes us stronger, we rise by lifting others.
✍️ Homework for future Ana (and open to anyone who wants to come onboard):
- Create a PVA solution connected with D365 HR extracting specific data.
Isn't awesome how much we can create by only learning? I can't believe I'm able to create this kind of solutions with no tech-background.
To be honest knowing HR processes from the inside gave me the structure to build this amazing career, added to the solutions available (mostly my beloved D365 HR) + support of community and colleagues. So... at the end of the day is all about my three favorite topics:
⚡️ Mindset + Technology + Community ⚡️