Adapting Amazon Alexa and Echo devices to the daily needs of blind users

Amazon wants its Alexa assistant and Echo devices to serve people who are blind far better than they do today. As the product manager, how would you design Alexa for this group? ```hint Look past voice Alexa already works without a screen, so "make it voice-controlled" is not a design. List the everyday tasks in a home that still depend on sight, and start there. ``` ### Clarifying Questions - Are we designing the Alexa assistant across all devices, or specific hardware, such as a screenless Echo speaker versus an Echo Show with a screen and camera? - Does "blind" mean people with no usable vision, or does it include people with low vision who can use a magnified screen? - Is this a separate product, or a mode inside the normal Alexa experience that sighted members of the same household also use? - Is success judged by blind users' independence and satisfaction, or by a business result such as device sales? ### What a Strong Answer Covers - A starting point that recognizes Alexa is already voice-first, so the opportunity lies in tasks that still need sight. - A deliberate choice of segment among blind users, such as people living alone or people who lost their sight later in life, with a reason. - Concrete pain points: identifying items and reading print, knowing who is at the door or on the line, managing medication, noticing household hazards, and finding content without scanning a screen. - Features ranked by impact, feasibility and risk of harm, including how they behave in a home shared with sighted people. - Success metrics with guardrails on accuracy and privacy, and a plan to test with blind users. ### Follow-up Questions - Your feature misreads a medication label. How should the product handle uncertainty so that a wrong answer cannot hurt someone? - How would you research and test this with blind users when most of your team is sighted? - What would you build for users who own only a speaker with no camera?