This document was a joint effort across Product and Design and was instrumental in getting funding for the project


It was presented to Product, Engg and Design leadership to request approval to build this product. The group was skeptical but gave a go ahead to build an MVP and test demand.


The team was seeking new ways to engage consumers for inspiration/discovery related scenarios with potential to drive conversion downstream.


If we were to do this all over again, I'd prefer to finalize content sources, quality and scalability before building the technology. This ended up being a blocker when were ready to scale and in hindsight we should have solved the bigger problems first


We were passionate about this idea and committed to deliver a high quality experience for consumers. The idea was rejected by leadership multiple times but we kep refining our vision, execution plan and user experience till we got it right. Eventually, we acquired 1M monthly active users in the first few months of the launch. Follow your passion and intuition and dont give up at the first sound of no.


These are part of the standard FAQ template at Amazon. Every PRFAQ has to answer them


This was a true collaboration between engineering, product and design, where we debated prioritization from a user value, feasibility and gtm perspective and aligned on the phase wise approach


Rupa Chaturvedi

This PRFAQ document describes our vision for Alexa as a Nutrition Assistant and our plan to build and iterate to achieve this vision.

Alexa as your Personal Nutrition Assistant

 purpose of the document is to explain our North Star for Alexa as a Nutrition Assistant and our plan to build and iterate to achieve this vision. We will also share our learnings so far which shaped our mental model towards the North Star. Today, we want your directional inputs on 1) North Star vision, 2) where we need help and 3) our plan to build the initial set of experiments.

A typical human nutritionist evaluates the client’s nutrition needs, helps them plan their meals, offers latest nutrition updates and helps them track their nutrition to achieve their health goals. Along these lines, our vision for Alexa as a Nutrition Assistant is to help customers 1) shop healthy by offering right product recommendations 2) make informed choices by offering nutrition information during meal preparation and grocery shopping 3) stay up to date on nutrition with proactive advice across all Amazon surface areas all the while tailoring to their individual needs.

1. Product Discovery based on Nutrition – Customers go through several “micro-journeys” in their overall health journey when they are constantly on the look-out for nutritious choices when they are planning their meals (“what are some foods to boost my immunity?”), cooking (“how can I make gluten free pizza?”), shopping groceries (“what are some good keto snacks?”), cleaning out their refrigerator (“What are some vegan alternatives to regular milk?”), packing kid’s lunches (“how to add more veggies to this picky eater’s lunch?”) and more. Alexa will inspire customers with nutrition based product recommendations on whatever Amazon surface area they are on, help discover products and transition to their shopping actions smoothly.

2. Nutrition Information on Shopping Journeys – Customers are curious to learn about what to buy and once they decide on what to buy they seek more information on products and often don’t know how to seek the right information. Alexa will help customers with relevant information on different points of their shopping journey.

3. Proactive Nutrition Advice – Alexa will update customers proactively on nutrition updates, trends and advice in different Amazon surface areas that will enable customers to turn to Alexa habitually for trusted nutrition advice.

Alexa will understand customers’ unique dietary preferences and nutrition needs and offer personalized experiences. Alexa will establish herself as a trusted Nutrition Assistant by presenting information from credible sources.

Meet your new Nutrition Assistant Alexa. Make healthy choices, shop smart and stay on track with health goals.

What is healthy for me? How to make healthier choices while shopping? What is in my bag? How to stay up to date on Nutrition? Alexa guides you with a trusted nutrition advice along every step of health goals for you and your family.

SEATTLE – (BUSINESS WIRE) – October 31, 20XX. Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN) took another big step for Alexa to be your trusted Nutrition Assistant by offering nutrition information, advice and product recommendations in your journey towards your health goals. Whether you are preparing your meals for your family planning or shopping your groceries or looking for post work-out snacks to boost your performance, Alexa understands your unique nutrition needs and helps you with the right information at the right time so you can spend less time researching on web and stay on track with your health goals.

Alexa helps with discovery of food based on Nutrition. Marie (35) and her husband John (40) run a busy household of 5 in NYC and they turned digital for grocery needs to save time. “I and my husband are on keto diet and kids need a balanced diet to keep up with their energy. We are constantly looking for different food options that can meet the dietary needs of our family. We look for ideas and spend time on researching web on nutrition benefits of foods before doing grocery and planning meals. As I was shopping on Amazon Fresh, I was delighted to see Alexa’s recommendations on keto products and we discovered more options to stay keto which help break our monotony in food choices. She is very thoughtful to suggest 10 seasonal foods for boosting immunity. Our kids tried apricots in summer for the first time and they loved the fresh local taste. Alexa is also my best nutrition buddy in the kitchen, I turn to her for simple questions like “can I freeze coconut milk?” to ideas like “how can I make gluten free pizza. We shop at Amazon Go Grocery where we love Alexa’s help. We just ask “Alexa, what’s the best keto snack?” and she shows the best-selling keto snack in store. We love the fact that she is available everywhere to help us whenever we need. Saves a ton of time for our family!” says Marie on her way out to have fun family time.

Alexa helps with relevant nutrition information while shopping. “I like to stay active and fit. I spend a lot of time researching on what I should buy to stay on track with nutrition and try whew foods with great nutritional value. I was happy when Alexa taught me new ways of asking questions on my Echo Show. When I asked how much fiber in oats, she recommended that I can ask for some good sources of fiber. This is a new way to learn about something new I haven’t tried before. I was shopping on Amazon Fresh and while browsing products, I was delighted to see health benefits of foods right below the nutrition information. It is always motivating to know how these foods are beneficial to body than reading a bunch of numbers on nutrition labels so it helps me to decide what to buy. While I was browsing for oats, Alexa showed me what other customers asked about that oats on “Customers also ask Alexa”. I clicked on one of the Q&As “what are side effects of oats?” and I learnt that oats could cause internal gas and bloating. Normally, we would hear about health benefits of oats but it is helpful to know its side effects too as I have GI issues and I would choose another alternative. This helped me to learn new information about products that I wouldn’t have normally sought, some of which made me instantly add to cart. “

Alexa offers proactive nutrition advice. “I was delighted to learn about Alexa’s Nutrition Tips. I have subscribed to Nutrition tips and every day when I greet Alexa with a good morning, I can’t wait to hear this little nutrition tidbit from her whether it is waking up to water instead of coffee or filling up my plate with colors, these are simple changes that makes a massive impact on your healthy lifestyle. And I love it all the more since they come from ever dependable sources like MayoClinic and Healthline. Today, after hearing a nutrition tip, Alexa suggested that I can ask “what are some foods rich in Vitamin C?”, I never knew that I could interact with Alexa that way. Alexa is smart and quick to check if I want to add any of her recommendations to shopping list, I thought to myself, why not? It is a quick way to keep track of nutritious items on my list, I can check off later if I don’t need. When I was browsing my shopping list, Alexa suggested the questions that other customers also ask, I learnt a lot from others’ questions that motivated me to try new healthy foods. Alexa sure is my best nutrition assistant.”

“Our customers are constantly looking for new ideas to optimize their diets to look and feel their best. We want Alexa to be the best nutrition assistant that customers can turn to for nutrition advice and inspirations along their health journey” says Chuck Moore, VP of Alexa Shopping.

You will continue with your journeys on Amazon and Alexa as usual, Alexa will proactively introduce herself as a nutrition assistant intuitively wherever you are. In the kitchen, when you ask questions about nutrition, she will follow up with hints to ask more nutrition questions and/or offer food recommendations based on your interest. While you are shopping on Amazon, she will help you find products to meet your nutrition needs, introduce seasonal products with health benefits, offer nutrition info on the products on your list, and deepen your knowledge on products based on information sought by other customers. Alexa will gauge your interest and adjust her frequency and recommendations accordingly. You will be able to communicate your interest of not receiving these suggestions from Alexa at any point in time.

Why should I trust Alexa for nutritional advice?

Alexa sources information from trusted sources like USDA, FoodSafety.gov, ESHA Research, FDA, MayoClinic, 

 and choosemyplate.gov which are authored by individuals with certified credentials in nutrition. Alexa will attribute the sources so you know where this information is coming from for your information.

How will Alexa know my dietary preferences?

Alexa will learn about your preferences in two ways – A) Through your interactions with Alexa when you ask questions, the type of content you liked and based on the purchases you made on Amazon and the type of information you sought on Amazon. B) Ask you explicitly for your preferences through voice or on screen through a set of filters that you can choose to select or not while you are interacting with Alexa or shopping on Amazon.

How does Alexa choose her recommendations for me?

Alexa will learn your dietary preferences and unique nutrition needs through the questions you ask on Alexa, products you shopped on Amazon and explicit options as a part of your experience. Product recommendations will be curated based on expert opinions in nutrition and your specific needs. She will ask you explicitly if you found her recommendations useful and learn from your response as well. She will also gauge your interest level based on how engaged you are with her experiences.

How do I save or shop the recommendations from Alexa?

Alexa will help you learn how to add products to shopping lists or shopping carts in subtle ways by offering hints after the recommendations. She will provide options to save the information in your Amazon app and Alexa app so you can reference later.

Every week, about XX customers ask at least 2 questions on Alexa about Nutrition. The customer personas we broadly see are 1) Who want to get in shape by following a diet regimen (Keto, Paleo and more) 2) Who have dietary restrictions (gluten free, diary free, vegan/vegetarian and more) and 3) Who are generally watchful of their nutrition intake (mindful of macros like carbs, protein and micros like vitamins, minerals etc) for their lifestyle and/or fitness goals.

Customers are constantly looking for information to improve their nutritional intake. We identified these:

Need for nutritional info to make an informed grocery decision – XX% of questions of Alexa’s PQA mix of Grocery are about Nutrition which includes information about calories, micro and macro nutrients, health benefits and intake recommendations. We answer XX% of these questions with XX% precision which implies that we can offer a deeper advisory CX in this space. Based on a 2019 Nutrition Study by F3 User Research revealed that XX% of customers assess nutrition values when shopping online grocery with Amazon and XX% of them are interested in specific functional benefits that foods can offer beyond mere nutrition facts. F3 customer satisfaction surveys (CSAT) show that Product Facts play a key role in informing customer purchase decisions for grocery. Industry reports show that 72% of US grocery customers are concerned about the nutritional content of food. 52% of customers read product labels to inform their purchase decisions (FMI, 2018). In a USC study, 64% of the shoppers that participated said that they mainly focus on nutrition labels when shopping for groceries. For context, when customers were asked what the top pain point was with the current Fresh website experience, XX% of respondents indicated that product information on the website was sparse, uninspiring, and irrelevant. According to Google Food Trends Report 2016, “To eat right, people are going online to raise their food IQ and make more informed choices. Consumer searches on "best foods for" have grown 10X since 2005. “The top trending foods over the last two years are "healthy" ingredients like turmeric, avocado, kefir which are said to infer benefits like better skin and energy or cures for depression, insomnia, and pain (in fact, "benefits" is a term that's commonly searched for along with many of these foods). Now, the focus of people's diets is less about eliminating foods than about adding them.”

Unmet needs in grocery product inspiration, discovery and education – Based on the F3 Nutrition Study above, Amazon customers utilize services like Fresh, Wholefoods, Pantry etc to fulfill their grocery needs and often Alexa for cooking inspirations, cooking assistance and for food and health QnA. While many Amazon customers are satisfied with shopping for nutritious items on Amazon, there is a significant gap around health and wellness inspiration, food and nutritional education, healthy product discovery and overall nutrition.

Relevance in information and recommendations - Based on a Usability Study of 14 participants, almost all of them (13) mentioned that they are overwhelmed with information on the web and if they had a nutritionist at their disposal, they would ask them personalized recommendations to suit their health goals. According to Google Consumer Insights, 80% of global shoppers say saving time is more important than brands and over 50% of US consumers say they are willing to share information in the interest of seeing right product assortment for their needs.

Our goal is to address this imminent customer need by providing trusted, personalized information and product discovery experiences based on nutrition that helps customers accomplish their health goals with the convenience of voice and ubiquity of Alexa.

What has Amazon done so far to solve this problem?

Ingredient and Nutritional info on product details: Amazon product details page provides nutritional information through product images (images of nutritional labels on packaging), nutritional values like vegan, organic etc are some times added to product description and highlights.

Keyword Search : Amazon supports keyword searches like “Keto snacks”

Speciality Filtering and Refinement on Search : Amazon Search for Wholefoods and Fresh, allows customers to refine search results using refinements like “Kosher”, “Vegan”, “100 - 200 calories” , “Low sodium” etc.

WholeFoods highlights : WholeFoods store front offers banners like “Plant-based diet”, “Dietary Preferences” etc which could help customers to discover products that fits into their dietary preferences.

Alexa Tips : Alexa has launched 1) Nutrition tips to help customers learn more about nutrition and benefits of foods 2) Health and Wellness tips on Alexa, focuses providing tips and inspiration for overall health and wellness.

3P Skills on Alexa: Alexa supports several nutrition skills in Health & Fitness to track nutrition, nutrition facts lookup, nutrition wiki which are rated more than 3 stars.

While the current solution solves bits and pieces of the customer problem, we will provide a unified experience on all surfaces on Amazon centered around three themes (1) Product discovery experiences discovery experiences on Alexa customers’ grocery shopping journey across different touchpoints on Amazon. We are proposing a unified personalized experience which includes (a) showing relevant product recommendations based on their questions to Alexa and shopping context (browsing and purchase history, location/availability in in-store) and (b) helping them discover more products based on nutrition based on seasonality and availability (example – top-10 detox foods in fall) and (c) when customers ask explicit recommendations through Q&A (“what are some good sources of fiber?”) (2) Nutrition Information on customers’ shopping journey – (a) Teaching customers related nutrition questions they can ask, (b) presenting concise nutrition information which helps them make purchase decisions and (c) educating them on nutrition about products they are interested in through questions asked by other customers (3) Proactive Nutrition Advice – (a) Help customers stay on nutrition trends with Nutrition Tips (b) building habits to turn to Alexa for nutrition advice routinely and (c) transition to shopping actions smoothly. All these experiences will be built with contextual awareness based on their dietary preferences, changing seasons, Q&A they ask Alexa, shopping list and purchase history on Amazon and will help them transition to shopping actions smoothly.

What features does Alexa offer as a Nutrition Assistant?

Below is the complete feature set of Nutrition Assistant. Some of these features will be covered as separate PRFAQs on their own and some as experiment plans.

We have XXM MAU on F3 Storefront pages and XXM on F3 Detail Pages out of which only XXM are Alexa users. This presents a unique opportunity to bring more users to Alexa by exposing her Product Q&A expertise on F3. At a target conversion rate of XX% F3 users to Alexa, we would bring XXM customers to Alexa by 20XX. Alexa will add unique value to F3 by offering personalized and contextual experiences driving their OPS by TK%. ASL has XXM active shopping list users per month. Creating personalized discovery experiences on ASL would drive a sticky engagement driving their DSI by XX% and assuming a XX% conversion rate to PQ&A MAU, we will drive PQA by XX%. With the initial launch of Nutrition Tips we had XXM MAU. By making it habit forming and spreading awareness about this feature we will drive MAU by XX and HVA by XX% driving a DSI-OPS of $XX per customer.

How will we measure success? How do you measure the quality of the CX?

Our primary goal is to drive engagement and high value shopping actions for Alexa Shopping all the while delivering helpful responses to customers. Refer to FAQ#10 on Quality, Engagement and Shopping Actions metrics relevant to each feature.

What type of nutrition content do we plan to provide for the proposed CXs?

We will provide content along these initial themes: (i) Functional Benefits – Foods to boost metabolism, immunity, healthy aging, glowing skin etc (ii) Macros and Micros – Foods with high protein, low carb, high/low fats, vitamins and minerals (iii) Specific Diets – Foods recommendations for Keto, Paleo, WholeFoods, vegan and more (iv) Restricted ingredients/Substitutions – Recommend alternatives for allergens like gluten free, nut free, diary free, meat free etc (v) Seasonal Food Trends – Foods in season based on locale and trending foods (fall veggies in season) (vi)Wholesome Recommendations – Tips to add more veggies into the diet, increase fiber content in the diet, whole-grain options, kid-friendly tips and healthy tips while eating out etc. We don’t intend to provide any tips on medical conditions and will add a legal disclaimer for the tips.

How is Alexa coming up with content for these features?

To enable “Health Benefits” snippets on all produce for F3 and ASL and Habit forming Nutrition Tips, we need support from Knowledge Graph to curate content from credible sources like <XX> and <XX>. We will need new contracts to curate VUI friendly content for the inventory of produce items.

For Nutrition Info on ASL, we will leverage existing licensed content from Knowledge Graph.

Alexa should seek ways to learn about customers on their health and dietary preferences in every single step and adapt experiences to their needs.

Alexa should provide information from credible sources and let customers know where the information is coming from. Learn their behavior and adjust the frequency of experiences accordingly and they should be able to get out of the experiences if they don’t like.

Seek Expert Opinions for Recommendations 

– For product recommendations, Alexa should start with expert opinions and narrow down to specific Amazon choices based on customers’ interest.

What are some ideas to make Nutrition Tips habit forming?

Our simplest effort to make Nutrition Tips is to reduce the cognitive overload for customers to ask for Nutrition Tip every time which gets lost among the myriad of utterances that Alexa attempts to teach the users every day. We launched Nutrition Tips in June’20XX and launched proactive campaigns to follow-up after answers to users’ queries to WhatDayIntent, WhatTimeIntent, WeatherIntent and QAIntent. At the peak of dial-ups, we had ~XX MAU with an average of XX turns per interaction. Although the initial numbers showed a promising engagement, only XX% customers returned back to the experience in the next 30 days. This is because the CX is reactive and not proactive i.e, customers have to explicitly ask Alexa for a Nutrition Tip to get the CX which is cognitive heavy for customers with a myriad of golden utterances from Alexa.

We explored two ways of making the tips proactive and habitual - (1) Create a features Alexa Routine – When a customer opts-in to receive nutrition tips regularly without them explicitly asking for it, we will send a featured routine to their Alexa App where they can configure a set cadence and opt-out later. Alexa Routines has an onboarding process through which we can onboard Nutrition Tips to send the featured routine to customers’ Alexa App. (2) Adaptive Notifications to EFDs – Using the Proactive Notifications framework (that we use for rating notifications), we can create a high-value cohort (customers who listened to 2+ tips) and send Nutrition Tips on a frequency adapted to customers’ interest. We are still exploring ways to reduce customer friction by subscribing for tips at a set cadence entirely through voice but one of these two options is a promising initial step to gauge customers’ interest.

Appendix A – Discover foods based on Nutrition on F3 Storefront

Appendix B – F3 Detail Page - Nutrition, Recipe recommendations and “Customers also ask Alexa”

Appendix C – Product Advisor on Alexa Shopping Lists

Nutrition Assistant PRFAQ at Amazon Alexa

Alexa as your Personal Nutrition Assistant

Context

North Star Vision

Sign up to see more