​Technology is all about making life simple – assign chores to the digital robot so that you can achieve more productivity in your work or get more free time for yourself. Voice-first access is one such feature in technology that is slowly caving its way to become the customer’s favourite. Many companies are trying to come up with products that have their own branded voice like Alexa.
It would be like having a genie, “Your voice will be Alexa’s command!” Customers get attracted to technology that has a voice access control. It is convenient and also easy to multi-task with a voice-first access gadget. These products definitely have a greater edge than the existing brands that require more attention.
So, how would you like to plan an Amazon Alexa skill? Let’s get introduced to Alexa and learn Alexa skill development tricks.   

​The one question that all product managers have is how to prioritise a product’s roadmap and lead it to a successful destination. Firstly, we need to align the product features in their order of importance. There are two approaches that we can use:

• Take a consensus of the team and stakeholders on which features do they think will work out.
• Sort the features that the user will have the highest engagement with – and then see the biggest drop offs i.e. where the users are getting stuck. The user’s feedback is of utmost importance. 

Although most product managers tend to gravitate towards the first approach rather than a data informed, educated hypothesis. Here is a word of caution; companies that do not follow statistics, numbers and keep the users in the forefront most likely do not succeed 

So, how exactly do you build a step-by-step framework to prioritize a beneficial roadmap?
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In this stress induced corporate world, our bodies are as exerted as our mind. Sitting on the chair for hours, staring at the computer screen would earn us some money but it sure won’t keep us healthy. In today’s world, we all know that a balanced life is a healthy life. Social media has played a huge role in making people realise the benefits of exercising, giving them convenient options to workout at home and valuable diet tips that help you stay fit. This has also led to a digital fitness revolution in the app industry. There are several apps in the store that allow you to keep a track of your daily calorie intake, tell you how many steps you’ve taken each day and also store medical health information.
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Since wearable technology is the next IT thing, software developers and healthcare professionals are ensuring that every person is able to track their health in the most convenient way possible. Apple and Google are both front runners for coming up with their own solutions to accumulate health and fitness data. Apple introduced HealthKit and Google introduced Google Fit. Each of them has their own strong points in their own segment of services. Let’s understand what each of these platforms has to offer. 

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​Public transportation in Vancouver is an area that is going to see large growth over the next decade. Over the past twenty years, there has been an increase of around 800,000 people who use TransLink’s services and metro Vancouver is the fastest growing in terms of ridership numbers in Canada and the United States (source). Furthermore, the number of licensed drivers as a percentage of age group has been decreasing, showing that private car ownership has decreased (source). While there has been a large growth in demand for public transport in metro Vancouver, transportation is the second largest pain point in Vancouver, with over 85% of people agreeing that they would not accept a job due to an inconvenient commute (source). Moreover, 50% of commuters in Vancouver agree that public transportation services have worsened over the past half-decade, with 90% of people wanting an improvement in bus services (source).

​The Blockchain technology has triumphed in the Bitcoin market making it the most sought after technology for web-based and mobile applications. One of the biggest merits of Blockchain is that it is a peer-to-peer network, which means that no third party is involved and that you are in control of your own data.
​A public Blockchain becomes convenient when the goal is to develop a decentralized, interoperated and independent security channel of data as it helps create trust in the minds of citizens. It becomes a competitive advantage for public services or the government by creating an intelligent Blockchain strategy at a national and local level. 
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Reasons why public services should adopt Blockchain technology: 

• Transparency of data allows transactions to be verified. This ensures less corruption in the system.

 

• By building a decentralized application, one can manage information and transfer values in a fast and secured manner.

 

• Security of data cannot be breached – the hackers would need to hack thousands of computers or systems at the same time to obtain a single data source.

​Humans are not very far from making you realise that you might be living in the magical world of Harry Potter. Technology is reaching new heights especially since the last decade. Augmented Reality is one such spectrum of technology that is transforming the user’s experience like never before. This transformation started a few years back with Virtual Reality 

​So what’s the difference or similarity between VR and AR? Let’s find out!

Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality
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Virtual Reality (VR) is basically, a three-dimensional experience which is generated by the computer which makes you feel like the environment you are in is real. For instance, watching a 3D movie makes you feel like you are amidst the scene. VR puts a user in an isolated reality, i.e. it creates a fantasy world for the user.
Augmented Reality (AR) is also a three-dimensional experience that combines digital information with your own environment. AR uses the existing surroundings to create a 3D reality user experience. The computer algorithm in AR uses sensors and markers to spot a real-time position of an object and determine the location of a stimulated one. 

​There are more people using smartphones than laptops, desktops and tablets to access the internet in this day and age. Since the growing millennial use the smartphone more than any other device to access the internet, it is relatively important to ensure that your business site is compatible for mobile users.
A mobile app analytic tool is the key to this lock! Mobile analytics tool support data such as the location of your customers, apps and services that they use, feedback about your website, number of times they visit the site and how many utilise it through the mobile application. These tools make you aware of the where the app is lacking and give you appropriate solutions to solve the issue.
Many mobile analytic tools are available in the market today. Let’s take a look at 10 mobile app analytic tools to track your application’s performance.

Flurry Analytics
Flurry is one of the most used analytic tool that is used to track the performance of an app. Flurry has an ad network, which means that the user can get information about how the advertisements are being viewed on the app and detailed user acquisition reports.
This tool is compatible with iOS, Android, Blackberry, Windows phone and mobile web. It gives you information about frequency, number of users, number of active users, session length, etc. On the top side, Flurry is absolutely free.
The advantages are: it is detailed and extensive and you can create up to 10 custom dashboards. On the other hand the disadvantages are: it can be complex to reach the information. The user will have to click many times to get information. In case of a bug, it is difficult to find what the error is.