Serverless + Chatbots == Silver bullet for Startups?

Transcript

1. Serverless + Chatbots == Silver bullet for Startups? Ivan Čuljak @CuljakIvan / ivan@culjak.xyz
2. A bit about me • Ivan Čuljak • Cloud Solutions Architect @ Celeste Maze • Shouting at clouds since 2012??? • Salvaging wrecks/putting out fires for a living • Freelancer & Azure MVP
3. Evolution of "app hosting" [1/2] • a shared server • a server • a farm of servers • VMs on a server • VMs on a farm of servers
4. Evolution of "app hosting" [2/2] • VMs running containers • containers orchestrator running on top of VMs • let's just forget it's all there and do our dev job...
5. What serverless is NOT • Execution model • Managed service • Operational construct • Spectrum • Technology Big tnx to Jeremy Daly for this <3
6. Serverless IS a methodology Big tnx to Jeremy Daly for this <3
7. Business shift All messed up • product strategy • design • budgeting • resource planning Big tnx to Jeremy Daly for this <3
8. Current state of serverless
9. Focus on core values "Outsource" everything else
10. Less demand for mythical creatures
11. Less experienced people can provide more value, and onboard faster
12. Enough about the backend, where's the frontend?
13. Are you completely sure the frontend has to be YOURS?
14. UX/CX is crucial [1/2] • Spend as much time as you need to polish it • UX on a chatbot is more important than UX in mobile apps • It's hard for users to use their intuition to guess where you've hidden something
15. UX/CX is crucial [2/2] • Don't bombard the user with information • Make everything simple and visual • Skip text entry as much as you can
16. $$$ • It's cheaper to develop • It's cheaper to maintain • It's cheaper to extend • It requires less skill to code
17. Time • Initial time to market is lower • Time required for any change is lower • Deployments are available right away • There's no procedure for users to update
18. Support • Your app not working on some random Chinese phone/ tablet isn't your problem • If a user can't get it working it means that the messenger isn't working on their device • You can easily debug what's going on in each conversation • You can support multiple messengers
19. Development • No special hardware required • No special subscriptions/licences required • You can handle almost everything from something like Visual Studio Code
20. Testing • You can run tests on your dev machine, instead of automating them over a farm of mobile phones • If it works on one iPhone it will work on all of them • If it works on one Android it will work on most of them
21. Deployment • There is no in-house/ad-hoc/enterprise/hidden builds/ deployments • There's no need to download anything on the client side (except the messenger) • You basically deploy a web app if you're coding it, or you hit the save button if you're using some visual dev tool
22. Analytics • All the analytics come from your backend, and hence you can easily collect them • There's no mobile app crash analytics that won't get to you, and hence you might miss them
23. Use cases
24. Fish app • Their MVP was based on WhatsApp... manually typing WhatsApp • Their budget was too small to build anything serious • Yet they were convinced they really need a mobile app for Android and iOS
25. Checking codes app • Someone can register on a web site and get a code to redeem a package • Packages are being handed out by students • Students are using their own mobile phones • Viber to the rescue
26. Getting a loan pre-approval • Chat with a bank bot to go through the loan questionaire • Get a pre-approval • Runs on functions • Cold starts and scaling "penalties" don't seem to matter to chat users :)
27. Various startups • If you can think out-of-the-box • If you can "shift" the way society made you think • You could figure out that chatbots & serverless may solve your needs... at least for an MVP
28. Thank you <3 Any questions? @CuljakIvan / ivan@culjak.xyz