How SE's can shorten the sales cycle: best practices in implementation and integration

@eehayman

a tiny bit about algolia
hosted search as a service

implementation process

What are you looking for?



What is the "best"?
- User experience
- Relevancy
- Performance
- ....?

the triad





the wonderful wide world of prospects
saas

e-commerce
media



A/B test-ready working POC
Help customer understand where Algolia can provide value
Guide customer through "mini" implementation phase




the nitty-gritty
Timeline
Provide timeline with major milestones, working backwards from goal completion date
communication
- Slack channel
- Weekly check-ins
- Email threads
- Etc.


milestone workshops
deep-dives into the product
- Help frame the upcoming phase
- Tackle bite-size chunks at a deeper level

tooling
SE Tools
Command line interface to run diagnostics on indices
side-by-side comparison
User interface to let customer test queries against two different indices



data indexing
- Offer data structure or format suggestions
- Write a script to update data
- Review data for potential optimizations
- Provide technical debugging of indexing issues
configure ranking & relevancy settings
- Identify problem queries and help debug relevancy issues
- Set up a side-by-side comparison tool to review relevancy across indices
- Provide suggestions to fine-tune ranking based off use-case / data

build the front-end user interface
- Create designs or wireframes to guide the user experience discussions
- Troubleshoot JS questions related to an Algolia library
- Build a full-fledged demo

"no battle plan survives contact with the enemy."
~ Helmuth von Moltke the elder

where will your hand-holding provide the most value?

Consider the context:
- Internal resources available
- KPIs identified
- Etc.
questions?
Solutions Engineering - Lessons Learned
By ehayman
Solutions Engineering - Lessons Learned
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