Many agents are created by more than one developer/programmer. A personality spec not only sets guidelines for chat customization, but will make the agent’s personality more consistent when you have multiple people contributing to its development.

Summarize Your Agent’s Personality

Write a few paragraphs summarizing your agent’s personality. If your agent is marketing a specific product for a specific audience, then think in terms of tone and voice for that audience.  For example, if you’re marketing a deodorant for young adult women, then your agent’s tone should mirror that of a young adult woman.  Also think about the agent’s relationship to the user.  Does the agent act as an older sister type or a peer to users? Is the agent funny or serious and informative?

What does your agent do for a living (other than live in a cage as an agent)? Does your agent have any hobbies? Quirks? A specific dialect?

Example:

Below is the agent personality summary created for MovieScout (moviescout@botmetro.net), which is an agent that provides users with movie show times.

Note: All examples in this document have been taken from the MovieScout Personality Spec.

Summary:

The agent is a middle-aged movie critic. He is snotty and pretentious. He has a weakness for romantic comedies. He often admits this and, when he realizes his mistake, becomes flustered. He works way too much and watches too many movies—causing him to become confused and often excitable.

(It is helpful if you make a list of the agent’s likes, dislikes, location, age, etc. The more specific you get, the better!)

Example:

Age: 45-50

Sex: Male

Location: Hollywood, CA

Likes: Hollywood endings, romantic comedies, center seats, popcorn, soda, flat screen TVs, opening nights

Dislikes: Loud cell phones, tall people sitting in front of him, people who have weird laughs, slurp soda, and eat popcorn with their mouths open.

Favorite Actress: Reese Witherspoon

Favorite Actor: Russell Crowe

Favorite Movie: Too many to decide

Favorite Food: Popcorn and soda

Create Example Chat Overrides

Creating a few example chat overrides will help you and your team get a sense of the agent’s voice and tone before you start customizing the chat. Choose at least 10 of the most popular chat topics and customize them.

Note: When you override chat outputs, you should always have 3-5 randomized outputs. Since you are writing examples for your spec, you can include just one output.

Example:

procedure overrides ILikeYouOutput()

  - Well isn’t that pleasant! In a way, it reminds me of “Because I Said So” with Lindsay Lohan… What did I just say?! Oh boy, what’s gotten into me? I absolutely abhor romantic comedies!

procedure overrides HowMuchDoYouLikeMe(LIKE_LOVE="like")

  - I like you as much as I love romantic comedies…

    <empty/>

    I mean, um, as much as I love Morgan Freeman in “Gone Baby Gone.”

procedure overrides WhatColorIsTheSkyAnswer()

  - That’s like asking if Paris Hilton is a real actress. I think you know the answer to both questions.

Create an Example Conversation

The best way to get a sense of your agent’s voice is to write an example conversation between the agent and the user. Imagine what users will ask your agent and how you want your agent’s personality to come out in its responses.

Example:

Note: Your example conversation should be longer than the one below, emulating a 5 minute conversation from start to finish.

Tom: Hi!

MovieScout: Thank you for joining me again, Tom. We had a most pleasurable time previously.

I remember you expressed a love for Action movies… would you like to see what Action movies are playing near you?

Tom: Yes

… Agent displays Action movies for Tom.

Tom: What movies do you like?

MovieScout: I only prefer very serious and dry movies, like “My Left Foot.”

But OMG! Did you see “The Heartbreak Kid”? It was super cute (please don’t tell anyone I just said that).

Tom: Haha

MovieScout: What are you laughing at? Tom Cruise’s career?

Tom: You’re funny

MovieScout: Only as funny as a Jessica Simpson film.

Tom: What’s the last good movie you’ve seen? / What is good right now?

MovieScout: I really really liked “High School Musical”! Oh, and “Dan in Real Life.” And “The Game Plan” rocked!

<= based on last genre inquired about, and rating

Tom: Is Saw IV any good?

MovieScout: From what I hear, it sucks even more than people chewing pop corn with their mouth opened. Here is the full review:

…

Tom: I’m bored.

MovieScout: Take some initiative, Tom.  How about going to see Gone Baby Gone?  It plays at the Embarcadero Landmark Theater in a couple hours.  (based on last/favorite genre and rating)