LAURENCE MORONEY: Today I'm chatting
with Amit Chopra about Google's Agency program
and how it works to connect developers, customers,
and of course, agencies.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
So Amit, we finally got you on the show.
It's really great to have you here.
We finally got schedules lined up and all that kind of thing.
So tell us, what is it that you do here at Google?
AMIT CHOPRA: Great.
Thank you, Laurence, for having me on the show.
Super excited.
Before I jump into what I work on,
let me give a quick introduction of what my team actually does.
LAURENCE MORONEY: OK.
AMIT CHOPRA: So I'm part of a team called the Developer
Relations Ecosystem Team, and our team
is responsible for running a number of very scalable
global outreach programs.
LAURENCE MORONEY: OK.
AMIT CHOPRA: Some of them you might have heard of,
the Google Developer groups.
LAURENCE MORONEY: Love the GDGs.
AMIT CHOPRA: Perfect.
Yeah, we have hundred--
LAURENCE MORONEY: Good call out.
AMIT CHOPRA: We have hundreds of chapters
out there, you know, exciting people to build apps and learn
about technologies.
We also run Woman Techmaker--
LAURENCE MORONEY: Right.
AMIT CHOPRA: --the Launchpad program, and the Google
Developer Experts.
LAURENCE MORONEY: Lots of good stuff.
AMIT CHOPRA: Lots of interesting programs,
very large scale programs.
LAURENCE MORONEY: Now you've added to that with the Agency
program.
AMIT CHOPRA: Yes, we have.
And the Agency program is a program
which is specifically focused towards development agencies.
Not ad agencies, this is for development agencies.
I generally call that out because it gets
kind of overloaded at times.
LAURENCE MORONEY: You get a cool jacket to also describe it, so.
AMIT CHOPRA: Yes, you do.
We have got more cool swag as well.
You can take some after the show from me.
LAURENCE MORONEY: That's not the only reason I had you on here.
AMIT CHOPRA: OK, perfect.
LAURENCE MORONEY: It's an added bonus, but anyway.
AMIT CHOPRA: I came for your car.
LAURENCE MORONEY: [LAUGHS]
AMIT CHOPRA: This is pretty nice.
LAURENCE MORONEY: So tell us a bit more about the program.
AMIT CHOPRA: OK.
So what the program does is identifies.
Let me give you what I call the elevator spiel on this one.
We identify, upscale, certify, and promote
development agencies.
That's quite a mouthful, but it actually
summarizes almost everything that we
do about this program with development agencies.
LAURENCE MORONEY: Now, in a world
where there's a demand for richer and richer and richer
UX, agencies play a really important role, right?
So how is it that you foster that?
AMIT CHOPRA: Yeah, absolutely.
In fact just to step back a little,
the whole crux of why we started this program was,
we were looking at--
my team focuses on making sure that app quality comes
out really great.
Anyone who's developing understands
what it means to build a great Android app,
use material design, use it in the right way.
Not just use it, but use it correctly.
LAURENCE MORONEY: Right.
AMIT CHOPRA: And we were seeing that a lot of apps
are not kind of following the guidelines, UX guidelines,
things to do with general design,
battery usage, network usage.
And we would go and talk to a lot of developers.
We would-- through Google Developer Summits
or through other events that we're doing.
But what we found was that a number
of these large organizations are actually using agencies
to build their apps, you know?
They basically bring somebody on board
who does the work for them.
LAURENCE MORONEY: Got it.
AMIT CHOPRA: And we had no connection point for them.
LAURENCE MORONEY: OK.
AMIT CHOPRA: And so we said, hey,
let's start a program that works directly with them.
And this was piloted about 18 months ago back in India.
So one of my colleagues said, I'm going to experiment.
Like in all Google things, we're like, yeah, go for it.
And, you know, after a few months we started looking at,
did it actually make any impact?
And yes, we started to see a change in the app quality
coming out for these apps.
LAURENCE MORONEY: So if developers were outsourcing
to agencies, then it was, if we can train the agencies,
then we can scale out really nice.
AMIT CHOPRA: It scales out really nice.
And you know, if you train agency once,
all the clients get the benefit.
So this was very successful in India.
Then we said, OK, let's try it in a slightly different market.
So we went and explored it in UK and Russia.
LAURENCE MORONEY: OK.
AMIT CHOPRA: They were the other two places
where we started this thing.
The program turned out really well in other regions as well.
And then last year when I came and started
working on this particular team, we scaled this out
in North America as well.
LAURENCE MORONEY: Cool.
AMIT CHOPRA: So we've had a pretty good outreach
of this particular program running in almost 17 countries
now.
LAURENCE MORONEY: So if somebody wants to learn about it,
where would they go?
AMIT CHOPRA: So you can go to our website,
developers.google.com/agency.
LAURENCE MORONEY: And we'll put a link in the description box.
AMIT CHOPRA: Yeah, we'll always have a link in the description.
LAURENCE MORONEY: Right down there.
AMIT CHOPRA: OK, right down there.
And if you were an agency, you can see all the benefits
that we generally provide to an agency.
If you are part of this particular program,
we invite you to trainings, we arrange UX reviews,
which is something very--
LAURENCE MORONEY: That's really handy.
AMIT CHOPRA: --popular.
Yeah.
I mean, we can't do a lot of them,
but we kind of identify the right opportunities.
And make sure before you submit an app,
we can spend some time with you on that.
We also provide you a lot of trainings.
Some of them are trainings that we dedicatedly
run for agencies.
LAURENCE MORONEY: Nice.
AMIT CHOPRA: In fact, as we are talking,
there is an event happening in New York where
we are teaching agencies how to run design
sprints with their clients.
LAURENCE MORONEY: Oh, cool.
AMIT CHOPRA: So we bring them in and we train them
on best practices.
And we also invite agencies to a lot of other events
that my team runs from time to time.
So training is a big focus.
All that information is on the website.
LAURENCE MORONEY: Nice.
AMIT CHOPRA: Including a list of certified agencies.
LAURENCE MORONEY: So before the certified agencies-- so
if I'm an agency and I want to find out
about these great trainings like the one you mentioned
in New York, that's all going to be on the site?
AMIT CHOPRA: We don't list all the trainings on the website.
What do you need to do is, you go there and apply.
If you're not part of the program, submit an application.
We generally go through an evaluation process
and make sure that we are inviting
agencies, the right kind of agencies,
to this kind of program.
And once you are in the program and you've
gone through a certain number of trainings,
we then invite you to get certified as well.
LAURENCE MORONEY: Cool.
So tell us about this certification.
How is that an enhancement?
AMIT CHOPRA: Yeah, so what certification really
is designed to do is identify the best-of-breed agencies.
We do a thorough evaluation of the Android apps
that they have built over the past 18 months.
They go through a submission process.
And it's very similar to how we generally
go about evaluating apps for editorials.
So that's one aspect.
We look at the quality of the apps,
the ratings, the download.
We look at the competencies that the team has.
So based on that overall view that we built of the agency,
we can give them a certification status.
And we have that list also on our website right now.
LAURENCE MORONEY: So it sounds really nice.
Like, if I'm a developer looking to have an app built,
and as you mentioned, they're usually going to agencies
anyway, but you're helping join the dots so that these agencies
become, first of all, trained and then also maybe certified.
So now if I'm a developer, also if I'm
looking to find an agency, can I find it on the site?
AMIT CHOPRA: You can absolutely find it on the site.
We have a directory of certified agencies,
and you can look them up based on the place where you are.
And we have, at this point, roughly
about 35 agencies that have been certified.
We certify every six months.
So we just completed one cycle mid-year.
And so our list is available on the website.
You can take a look.
You can contact the agencies directly from there.
LAURENCE MORONEY: Cool.
AMIT CHOPRA: And these are the ones
that we have worked with over a period of time
to feel fairly confident about what they're doing
and what they're building.
LAURENCE MORONEY: So it's a great benefit if I need an app,
that I can find a certified agency that's
been certified by Google--
AMIT CHOPRA: Yeah.
LAURENCE MORONEY: --to be able to build a great app for them.
And if I'm an agency and I can get
into that certified program, it helps me
to find new customers, right?
AMIT CHOPRA: Absolutely.
It's a huge benefit, I think, not just getting more business.
Being certified definitely helps an agency get more business,
and we're hoping that that is the case, but I think--
I especially focus a lot on upscaling the agencies.
LAURENCE MORONEY: OK.
AMIT CHOPRA: A lot of trainings we have done
have been at a very developer level, you know?
Even teaching them some ins and outs of using Android Studio.
This saves them a lot of This has been one of the factors
that has drawn a lot of agencies to our training program
as well where we can give them these best practices that,
on a day to day basis, help them save a lot of time, right?
And that's value.
LAURENCE MORONEY: Yeah, definitely.
AMIT CHOPRA: I mean, that's the value
we're adding for them as well.
LAURENCE MORONEY: Cool.
Now, you started in India, then you
extended to Russia and the UK, and then
you've come to North America.
I'm sure there's some great success stories.
AMIT CHOPRA: Absolutely, lots of them.
LAURENCE MORONEY: Always inspired
by the success stories.
AMIT CHOPRA: Always, yeah.
So what we actually did was, with the success stories,
we have started what we call as the Spotlight video series.
You know, we go out to these certified agencies,
we spend some time and talk to them
about the kind of projects they have worked on,
the interesting things that they have done.
A lot of them are project-dependent,
but I think one interesting one, and you can actually see
the TechGenie spotlight video on that as well--
LAURENCE MORONEY: OK.
AMIT CHOPRA: --was one of the dev leads.
You know, she said that she went on a maternity leave,
and when she came back her team was
so well-trained because they had been attending these trainings.
She was really surprised.
LAURENCE MORONEY: Nice.
AMIT CHOPRA: She comes out really
well in terms of sharing her experiences.
So there are interesting soft stories,
success stories around certain aspects of how the agency has
benefited the agency.
LAURENCE MORONEY: Excellent.
AMIT CHOPRA: Also a lot of case studies
that are in the spotlight videos that
talk about how they were able to get UX reviews, for example,
and then get an app out much faster for the clients, which
is beneficial to the client and also for the clients' end
users, people like you and me who have to use their apps.
They see a very consistent design,
they see a very robust app that you can use.
LAURENCE MORONEY: Nice.
So if I want to learn more, it's developer.google.com/agency?
AMIT CHOPRA: /agency.
And it's all down there in the description,
as you called out before.
LAURENCE MORONEY: Right there.
AMIT CHOPRA: Yeah, right there.
And if you're an agency, go sign up.
You know, we have a show interest form.
And, you know, it's not running in all the countries right now,
but gradually we are expanding that.
The expansion, in fact, to Brazil is coming up very soon.
LAURENCE MORONEY: Cool.
AMIT CHOPRA: So we'll be signing up agencies in that region.
And gradually we'll move to other parts of the world
as well as we're starting to see interest from the agencies
worldwide.
LAURENCE MORONEY: So it's never too late to sign up.
AMIT CHOPRA: Never too late to sign up, absolutely.
LAURENCE MORONEY: So thanks so much, Amit.
I've really learned a lot.
AMIT CHOPRA: Thank you, Laurence.
This was great to be here, and talk to you about the program
and talk to our audiences about the program as well.
LAURENCE MORONEY: Sounds like a great program.
So thanks for watching this episode of Coffee
With A Googler.
If you want to learn more about the Agency program,
just take a look at the links in the comments below.
And if you have any questions for me
or any questions for Amit, just leave them
in the YouTube comments.
Thank you so much.
AMIT CHOPRA: Thank you very much.