The People Behind The Bots — Kathryn Sadler
Kathryn Sadler is the Head of Conversation Design at TalkVia. With two decades of expertise in the world of tech, 14 of which in voice, we hear all about Kathryns’ journey and how she has seen the industry evolve to where it is today.
So let’s get straight into it!
Q1 — What drew you to the Conversational AI industry?
Kathryn: It wasn’t really a conscious decision — I just got lucky! I started working in voice tech back in the early 2000s with Appen — a leading provider of AI training data — during their early years of growth. I had studied languages and linguistics at uni, then worked in project management, and this background was a great fit for me to lead their lexicon (phonetic dictionary) projects.
My next role was with Dimension Data as a Voice User Interface Designer — back in 2005! My first VUI design was for a major open dialogue IVR application for a leading Australian telecom company.
I spent a few years outside of voice tech (as a UX Designer) when the industry went quiet in Australia, then moved back into the field a few years ago thanks to the emergence of smart speakers.
Q2 — What skills or transferable skills helped you when entering this space?
Kathryn: My linguistics studies and love of language helped with my first couple of roles, as well as my project management background.
The experience I gained in UX design and research complements my VUI design skills. I’m also very detail-oriented and logical, which is a big help in conversation design. Building out conversation design flows requires far more left-brained thinking than some aspects of digital UX and UI design which are much more visual and right-brained.
Q3 — Were there any specific resources, tools, industry experts, that helped you along the way?
Kathryn: When I was starting out in conversation design my manager at Dimension Data, Jane Curtain, imparted so much knowledge. Our bible was the “Voice User Interface Design” book (this was well before Cathy Pearl’s book!). Speech Technology Magazine was pretty much the only other reference source around at the time.
More recently there’s been so much information out there — the many Slack groups, news sources like VUX World and Voicebot.ai and networks like Women in Voice. And of course there’s just ongoing learning from the experience gained with every new project I work on. (I often cringe looking back on my older designs, but I guess that’s the nature of the beast!)
Q4 — In a sentence or two tell us what your role entails
Kathryn: I manage the design and build of conversational AI applications from beginning to end for TalkVia’s enterprise clients, which involves research and conversation design, day-to-day project management and comms, through to assisting the development team with AI training and QA, coordinating client UAT and reviewing app analytics.
Q5 — What do you enjoy most about your role?
Kathryn: I love the combination of language, design and tech. You get to wear so many hats working in conversation design — especially with a smaller company!
Q6 — What is the most challenging part of your role?
Kathryn: Despite my experience in the industry I battle chronic imposter syndrome — it’s a constant struggle. I’ve recently completed a fantastic new course developed by Maaike Groenewege from Convocat, which provided some great tips for living with imposter syndrome.
That’s probably the most challenging part of my day-to-day working life. My inner critic is particularly loud at the beginning of a new project when I’m effectively starting with a blank canvas.
Q7 — What excites you about the future of this industry?
Kathryn: It’s so good to see how much the field is growing compared to when I started out, when VUI design was an incredibly niche role. The knowledge sharing and support networks are incredible, and so many people are pushing the boundaries. The technology is moving fast and there’s so much potential for how voice tech will grow.
Q8 — What is one piece of advice you would give to other people looking to enter this industry?
Kathryn: It’s awesome that there’s so much information out there, but it can also be somewhat overwhelming. My advice would be to learn what you can, but don’t feel like you have to know everything. Every single person out there is still learning.
There are lots of great (but expensive) courses around now but you can just as easily reference best practice guides such as Google’s Conversation Design guidelines to get the basics, and try out the many (often free) design and prototyping platforms.
Techires’ takeaways:
- Conversation design allows you to combine language, design and tech — something that is very appealing to many people.
- You will never know everything — so don’t be so hard on yourself when trying to learn new things.
- There are many platforms available to allow you to start designing and prototyping your own projects — so why not give it a go!
Thank you for reading! A special thanks to our guest, Kathryn. We really enjoyed hearing his insights, and hope you did too! Click here to follow her on LinkedIn!
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And if you’d be interested in taking part in our blog series get in touch, we’d love to hear from you!
Allys Parsons — Conversational AI Recruiter @ Co-Founder @ techire ai
