Date: Weekly, starting Thursday, December 12
Time: 11:00 AM PST | 2:00 PM EST
Duration: 1 Hour

Join us in this 5-part Twitch series to see how a designer and voice developer build a skill called “Get Down” together. Our hosts, Anna and Amit, a designer and a voice developer, build a skill called “Get Down” together, an “exercise” skill that includes lots of amped up content and features that wouldn’t normally all be included in a single skill.


Watch as Anna and Amit attempt to design, build, and make this amped up skill available on the Alexa Skill store. After each show, we’ll make new documentation and code updates available on GitHub, so you can follow along with them as they build the Get Down skill.

This weekly show will dive into these topics:

  • How to come up with a high-value, retentive skill concept
  • What makes users come back to a skill
  • Drafting scripts and storyboards
  • Testing and refining your designs
  • Skill building with memory, phrase randomization, music, and more
  • Skill certification and publishing
  • Content lifecycle and improvements post-publication


View the series schedule below for more details and register now to receive a reminder email before each show airs.

Series Schedule

Date: Thursday, December 12, 2019
Title: Get Down Series Premiere
Description: Join Anna and Amit on the pilot episode of the “Get Down” series as they work together to think of a mega-million-dollar Alexa skill idea. Okay, maybe that last part is just a bit exaggerated. They’re attempting to build an exercise skill that’s engaging and fun to keep users coming back for more. That’s pretty much the opposite of what happens to most workout plans. With the odds stacked against them, follow along to see whether they’ll get it built or go bust!
View Episode On YouTube »

Date: Thursday, December 19, 2019
Title: Voice Design Best Practices
Description: We’ll talk about how not to commit some UX design sins with a better approach to the voice design process. Just like writing for the silver screen, we’ll be scripting our dialog and starting to create storyboards for how we expect users to interact with our skill. Find out how the heck we're going to get down and design this funky thing.

Holiday Note: We're taking a holiday break on Twitch until the New Year. We'll resume the Get Down series in January. See you in 2020!

Date: Thursday, January 9, 2019
Title: Test Results from Our (Somewhat) Willing Participants
Description: We're back with results from our test with actual humans who had absolutely no idea what they were getting into! We'll use the results to both figure out if our idea is okay, and fine-tune this before we throw ourselves into the code.
View Episode On YouTube »

Date: Thursday, January 16, 2019
Title: How Do You Uproot a Couch Potato?
Description: We’ve got the general idea of this easy to use exercise skill, but how do we get people coming back for more? We're going to make users want to Get Down all the time with different retention methods used often in gaming. Unlock rewards, shatter achievement records, and much more. We’ll decide what methods are right for this skill, along with how we’re going to document and build it in.

Date: Thursday, January 23, 2019
Title: A New Year to Get Down
Description: We’re getting close to launch our skill, Get Down. For this skill, the new year is a prime time to get customers who are excited about exercising while they’re still hopeful about fulfilling their resolutions. In this episode, we’ll go over getting our skill ready for certification and publishing. Will we get our skill across the finish line in time? Or will skill publishing be our unfinished resolution?
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