Zalo AI leader tells behind-the-scenes story of Vietnamese voice assistant Kiki

Behind the number of 500,000 is the great effort of the Zalo AI team. Tran Duc Anh (Product Executive at Zalo AI) - the person who looks forward to the number of Kiki Auto installations every day, recounts part of the above journey.

Race every week

Around September 2022, the growth of Kiki in-car installs showed signs of slowing down around 130,000. This was not as expected. The members of the product development team all thought that it was impossible to achieve the set goal.

People are not in a good mood. Every day, I sit and look at the real-time data screen and always wonder, why is the growth so slow? Is there a new feature of Kiki that affects the usage process? Maybe that feature, we think brings value but it is actually an obstacle for users? Is there an event that affects the growth index or is this a general trend of the market?

A series of questions appeared in my mind. I sat down to carefully consider the factors, situations and raised issues to discuss with the whole team. At that time, all members of the product development team sat down, we analyzed both internal and external factors affecting the users.

Not only that, we discussed with other groups related to Kiki. Dig into every detail to evaluate, give many solutions to implement to solve the problem, improve the product installation index.

It was a truly unforgettable time. There was a lot of pressure, but also encouragement from superiors.

“We set high, difficult goals. Then we think of every way to manage until we achieve that result. The whole process helps us develop a lot. It feels very satisfying,” I clearly remember, this was the advice the department head gave me at that time.

At this time, to improve the growth index, our team decided to change the way we operate. For example, the frequency of meetings about Kiki products was previously once a month, but the frequency was increased to once a week.

In the morning, we meet to see where the problems are and what can be done to improve the situation. We usually meet through lunch, until 1pm, to find solutions.

There is no stopping, every week there is a plan. During that week, the product development team needs to deliver new features to the market and get certain results. Every week there are new ideas, short-term plans must be completed.

Even in short-term plans, we have a backup plan that if plan A doesn't work, we have to immediately switch to other plans like B or C.

Therefore, the whole team accepts to work overtime. We analyze data, think of ideas for product development. Every time a new feature appears, the work intensity will increase. Quality is guaranteed and the proposed progress must still be on schedule.

expert ai.jpg — Behind the number 500,000 is the great effort of the Zalo AI team.

Sweet fruit

Finally, all the efforts paid off. After 3 months of changing the way of operating, plus the support of many other departments, Kiki installations reached 220,000 by the end of December 2022. This number increased by 90,000 compared to the time before applying the improved process.

Looking back, it was a memorable time. Tired but “satisfying” in the true sense of the word for product developers. We worked together and achieved our goals. The remarkable growth in the number of installs was a great joy for the many people behind the Vietnamese voice assistant Kiki .

For myself, after nearly 2 years with Kiki, I learned many lessons in the process of developing this technology product.

We need to accept the fact that there will always be a gap between what we develop in the lab and what we bring to market. No product will ever be 100% feature-perfect. Everything has to be improved over time.

Changes in the market or the way users approach the product also force the product development team to constantly change accordingly.

Most importantly, during the development of Kiki, we learned where we went wrong and stumbled. From there, we learned what we needed to change to bring better value to users.

To be honest, the number of 500,000 Kiki installations in cars at the present time still does not make us really happy. Because the target is set higher, but this is an acceptable number and also a memorable milestone for the Zalo AI team.

kiki ai.jpg — The new milestone shows that "made in Vietnam" technology products have been truly accepted and gradually penetrated into Vietnamese people's lives.

This figure shows that "made in Vietnam" technology products have been truly accepted and gradually penetrated into Vietnamese people's lives.

However, the process of “smoothing” and improving the product still requires more time and effort. This is not a short-term process but will be carried out throughout the product life cycle. Improve old features, then adjust them better, and update new features.

At all times, the Kiki product development team is always in the spirit of repeating the same process, to bring value to users.

Tran Duc Anh (born in 1998, Product Executive at Zalo AI). Duc Anh joined the Kiki product development department in February 2022. Before that, Duc Anh went through Zalo's "Product Management Trainee" program. After the program, realizing that AI is a new field and can improve knowledge and challenge himself more, Duc Anh chose to join the Kiki product development team.

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