The airline is the latest to offer status matching following Delta's changes to its loyalty program. Courtesy of American Airlines American Airlines has released a new status match program, targeting the most “elite of the elite” flyers from its two ...

American Airlines Eyes Delta and United Customers With New Status Match Offer

From KLM in the Netherlands to Delta in the United States, here are 10 airlines that have stood the test of time in a volatile industry.

10 oldest airlines in the world

American Airlines is planning for a winter filled with international travelers looking to head out of Dallas-Fort Worth. This winter, the Fort Worth-based airline will offer 56 international destinations out of DFW International Airport,

American Airlines readies for 56 international destinations this winter out of DFW Airport

An in-depth review of American Family car insurance, including coverage options, pricing, customer satisfaction and how AmFam compares to other insurance companies.

American Family car insurance review 2023

The U.S. crackdown on airline consolidation faces a new test this week with the trial of a government lawsuit claiming the $3.8 billion takeover of Spirit Airlines Inc. by JetBlue Airways Corp. would reduce competition and boost fares for passengers.

JetBlue-Spirit merger trial tests U.S. airline deal crackdown

"It is, however, a calculated attempt to try to silence and intimidate any U.S. company or American ... the airline industry group wrote in a recent report. "The economic harm of this misguided policy will have a much larger impact than just travel and ...

Banking group says Durbin is trying to 'silence and intimidate' critics

The case in federal court in Boston is part of a broad effort by President Joe Biden's administration to preserve competition among the lowest cost airlines, ensuring air travel remains affordable ... with Frontier Group Holdings (ULCC.O), saying he ...

US seeks to block JetBlue's Spirit Airlines deal at trial

A top Spirit Airlines executive said the company initially viewed a $3.8 billion takeover offer from JetBlue Airways as a bid to eliminate a low-cost rival.

Biden administration and JetBlue square off in court over Spirit deal

Two U.S. senators are looking into "unfair and deceptive practices in airlines' frequent flyer and loyalty programs," per a joint press release.

2 US senators are targeting airlines' frequent flyer and loyalty programs

Get the most recent info and news about American Airlines Group on HackerNoon, where 10k+ technologists publish stories for 4M+ monthly readers.

American Airlines Group Inc., through its subsidiaries, operates as a network air carrier. It provides scheduled air transportation services for passengers and cargo. As of December 31, 2019, the company operated a mainline fleet of 942 aircraft. It serves 365 destinations in approximately 61 countries, principally from its hubs and gateways in Charlotte, Chicago, Dallas/Fort Worth, London Heathrow, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Philadelphia, Phoenix, and Washington, D.C. American Airlines Group Inc. has strategic partnership with JetBlue Airways Corp. The company was formerly known as AMR Corporation and changed its name to American Airlines Group Inc. in December 2013. American Airlines Group Inc. was founded in 1930 and is headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas.

American Airlines Group

Loyalty programs have a long history, dating back to the 18th century. Curiously, the essence of loyalty programs has not changed much over two centuries: it has always been a tool to encourage customers to come back and buy more. By making a purchase, the buyer received units of something that could be collected and exchanged for values. In contrast, the way it is implemented has constantly evolved to be more effective, following the advancement of technology. Only web3 was able to change not only the mechanics of loyalty, but gave rise to a rethinking of what would even improve the loyalty of today's spoiled consumers. Evolution of technology Let's start with a brief overview of the evolution of the technologies on which loyalty programmes have been built, which I took from . this terrific study 🪙 Copper, 1790s. The first modern loyalty program, according to a New York Times article, commenced in 1793, when a merchant from New Hampshire began rewarding customers with . The idea was quickly replicated by other retailers. Unfortunately, the Coinage Act of 1864 made the minting and usage of non-government issued coins illegal, ending this era. ‘ copper tokens’ 🏷 Paper, 1850s. To boost repeat sales, in the 1850s, soap seller from New York invited customers to cut-out and collect the from product packaging. Another example of that period is The United Cigars Store Co. which pioneered a coalition of partners by striking deals with several companies, all of which placed United coupons in their product packaging. ‘ ’ trade marks In the 1890s, the most popular mechanics of the period emerged. Companies started using physical , which customers stick into collecting books. These books could then be exchanged for a wide range of rewards. By 1914 around 7% of retail trade involved the awarding of stamps. 'stamps' 💳 Plastic, 1980s. In 1981, American Airlines launched the world's first frequent flyer program, using a new currency ( ) that matched the number of miles flown by the member. 'miles’ With the rapid expansion of the frequent flyer and hotel plastic , banks and retailers soon replicated their approach. Points and miles loyalty programs quickly became the dominant loyalty program currency globally, ending the ninety-year reign of stamps. ' membership cards’ 🌐 Web, 1990s. Increasing competition, combined with the birth of the digital age, led to a loyalty program innovation boom from the 1990s onwards. The user of the program simply had to know their ‘digital id’. This allowed businesses to offer more sophisticated loyalty programs that provided customers with more convenient ways to track and redeem rewards. 👾 Non-Fungible Token (NFT), 2010s. The emergence of a that cannot be copied, replaced, stoled or split has changed the approach to building customer loyalty through rewards. This technology makes it possible to create unique and personalised high value trophies, as well as changing the rules of the game. ‘unique numerical identifier’ What makes NFT a game changer? Using NFTs in loyalty programs can offer various advantages. One such benefit is their ability to . This becomes especially valuable in loyalty programs where rewards consist of exclusive content or digital collectibles. authenticate digital assets and confirm their origin NFTs also represent , which can be extremely important in loyalty programs that feature rare or limited availability rewards. ownership of digital assets In addition, NFTs ensuring a and immutable record of their transfer. This allows customers to track how their rewards were earned and redeemed. transparent Finally, NFTs are highly and can be tailored to meet the specific needs of a loyalty program. Businesses can create unique and valuable rewards that cater to their customers' preferences. flexible Examples to inspire you Below are some instances of NFT loyalty programs that employ inventive and imaginative strategies to incentivise and retain their clientele. introduced a program that allows users to become proud owners of exclusive NFT-based avatar built on the Ethereum blockchain. You can sell or trade your Reddit NFTs with other collectors. Reddit’s avatars are also used as profile pictures, giving the images a glow-like effect when they comment in forums. Reddit enables fans to collect and trade digital collectibles featuring NBA players and moments. The program is built on the Flow blockchain and uses NFTs to represent ownership of the collectibles. Fans can earn NFTs by participating in the program, and can use them to access exclusive content and experiences. NBA Top Shot . The popular coffee chain launched the beta version of the web3 reward program to a small group of waitlist members, allowing them to engage in interactive "Journeys" that earn "Journey Stamps" in the form of Polygon-based NFTs. In addition, users also get "Odyssey Points" that will open access to new benefits and experiences in the future, including virtual espresso martini-making classes, exclusive events and trips to Starbucks coffee farms. Starbucks Odyssey program holds a competition for members of the Smart Rewards program. Three winners are awarded three unique pieces of the brand’s story, in an NFT that captures the spirit of their most iconic products. Clinique Maintaining customer loyalty in a digital world is becoming increasingly difficult. By using NFTs as rewards, businesses can create unique and valuable experiences for their customers. The robustness of NFT technology makes it possible not only to increase the value of rewards for loyal users, but also to possibly make them 'shareholders' of the business. What could make them more loyal and engaged than this? All you have to do is link the value of the rewards to the company's value on the stock exchange - and voila! What do you think of such an idea? Feel free to comment with your thoughts on the subject

Loyalty Programs Are Seeing a Resurgence Thanks to Web3

Technically, yes, but it is not always easy At airports around the world, there has been significant growth in the use of biometric facial scans to verify travelers’ identities. In the United States, the technology is employed both by officials at Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to identify people entering and leaving the country and by a handful of airlines in lieu of boarding passes on international flights. Airlines say passengers’ swapping faces for tickets speeds up the boarding process. The federal government biometrics can reduce wait times and missed flights as the number of travelers moving through space-constrained airports swells. asserts If the idea of the government, or an airline, identifying you with facial recognition makes you queasy, you should know that the process isn’t always mandatory. All of the airlines using facial biometrics in the U.S. — , , , , and — say they allow passengers to voluntarily opt out. When scans are conducted by CBP officials, things get a little more complicated. JetBlue Delta American Airlines British Airways Lufthansa Entering the country, U.S. and Canadian citizens — along with travelers under the age of 14 or over the age of 79, and holders of a smattering of — can go to an Automated Passport Control kiosk, which takes a travelers’ picture but doesn’t make use of facial biometrics, according to a CBP spokesperson. Everyone else has to go through the standard customs process, which includes a facial biometric scan, at least at the 14 domestic airports and four airports in other countries where the technology has been deployed. specific visas What Airports Are Using This Technology? Here’s a list: “More than 42 million travelers have been processed using facial comparison technology,” a CBP spokesperson told The Markup, noting that all passengers leaving the country are able opt out of biometric scanning at their boarding gates. “Travelers who wish to opt out of the new biometric process may notify a gate agent or CBP officer during the boarding process and request the manual document check that is required for international air travel.” Yet, refusing a facial scan, anywhere in an airport, isn’t always straightforward. Some travelers who have elected to do so report delays and confusion from airport staff, making each decision to opt out a bit of a gamble when you’re racing to catch a flight. What Exactly Is a Biometric Facial Scan? Biometric facial recognition by taking a photo of someone’s face and then using an algorithm to measure dozens of distinct features, like the distance between the eyes. These identifiers are stored in a database. When someone undergoes a biometric facial scan, the algorithm logs that same set of identifiers and compares it with the database to determine if there’s a match. works The government began using facial biometric scans as part of post-9/11 terrorist prevention measures. Airlines send CBP a list of all the passengers on departing international flights. CBP then pulls the passport photos, or images from other travel documents, of those travelers into a database that compares them with the in-person facial scans conducted at the airport. Source: Privacy Impact Assessment for the Traveler Verification Service, Department of Homeland Security, 2018 The CBP says it deletes the facial recognition photos taken of  U.S. citizens within 12 hours of a successful match, but records of when U.S. citizens (or lawful permanent residents) entered or left the country are stored for 15 years. The information of non-immigrant aliens is retained for 75 years. The airlines that employ facial recognition for boarding are using the same CBP database to match their passengers’ photos with the gallery of passport photos. In an email to The Markup, JetBlue representative Julianna Bryan said the airline’s system doesn’t show them images from the CBP database. The airline only receives a notice from CBP saying whether the match was positive or negative. “If no match is found, an error message will be shown, and the customer will be directed to visit the podium to have their passport manually inspected and boarding pass scanned,” Bryan said. A CBP spokesperson told The Markup that a challenge to implementing a nationwide system is that many U.S. airports are designed with terminals that commingle domestic and international flight gates. “To overcome these challenges, CBP is partnering with airlines and airports to incorporate biometric facial comparison technology seamlessly into their boarding processes,” he said. But privacy advocates say that the technology isn’t ready for widespread usage, particularly given that it often does not work well with the faces of people of color. A 2019 by the  National Institute of Standards and Technology evaluated 189 facial recognition algorithms and found higher rates of false positives for Asians and African Americans than for Caucasians, with a differential of 10 to 100, depending on the algorithm. study “[People of color] are going to bear the brunt of the inaccuracy of the facial recognition algorithm,” said Jeramie Scott, director of the Domestic Surveillance Project at the Electronic Privacy Information Center. “Facial recognition technology is not ready to be implemented where it is making a decision whether someone can get on a plane.” What Is Supposed to Happen When I Opt Out? Passengers can say that they do not want to be scanned. Both with CBP and at the flight gate, officials are then supposed to look at the passenger’s passport with their eyes, compare it with the face of the person in front of them, scan the document to make sure it is legitimate, and then send the passenger on his or her way. What Actually Happens When I Opt Out? The Markup spoke with several people who have opted out of facial biometrics at airports, and the results vary. In January, was taking a Delta flight from New York’s JFK Airport to Paris. Waiting in line to board, he noticed a sign about the facial scans and his ability to opt out. A researcher studying the social implications of machine learning at the AI Now Institute, Mathur understands “how pernicious and powerful these tools can be, and so being in a database is not really in my best interest,” he said. Varoon Mathur When Mathur told the airline’s employees at the gate that he didn’t want to be scanned, he was informed that he would be unable to board the plane. He was told to wait while the crew figured it out and the rest of the passengers boarded. Mathur said he waited for about 15 minutes, going back and forth with Delta personnel, who were insistent about his not being able to board without the scan, before he relented and turned to face the camera. “It was clear that proper instructions or a clear understanding of what agency a passenger had at that moment was not communicated to them at all,” Mathur said. Delta declined to comment on Mathur’s experience, but what happened to him is not universal, even on Delta. Allie Funk, a research analyst at the human rights nonprofit Freedom House, elected to opt out on a recent Delta flight to Tokyo because, she told The Markup, she feels a moral obligation to push back against technical systems of surveillance, even in small ways. , and her story went viral. Funk tweeted about opting out Funk said airline staff told passengers to put their passports away because they were doing facial scans, but she doesn’t recall hearing anyone say anything about travelers’ ability to opt out. Funk that in order for her to figure out how to decline the facial scan, “I had to leave the boarding line, speak with a Delta representative at their information desk, get back in line, then request a passport scan when it was my turn to board.” wrote in Wired She informed employees at the gate that she was going to opt out, and they just scanned her passport without any further delay. “It only took maybe another couple seconds compared to everyone else who was getting on the flight,” she told The Markup. What Can I Do if I’m Denied an Opt-out Zahra Billoo, an attorney with the civil rights group the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said travelers should “insist” on speaking with a supervisor if they are denied their request to opt out. “In our experience,” Billoo said, “the supervisors will respect the assertion. It can take longer.” Billoo often counsels people who experience issues getting through airport security. At airports she regularly opts out of certain screening procedures or refuses to answer questions that aren’t legally required. It’s a way for her to stress-test the system to see where it might be failing her clients, she said. Last November, while traveling back from vacation in Mexico, Billoo decided to conduct one of her stress tests at San Diego International Airport. She told the CBP official at the counter that she wanted to opt out of the facial scan. “It turns out I was his first opt out,” Billoo said. “He didn’t know what to do, and he called over a supervisor.” She ended up going through a secondary verification process that involved some questioning, a bunch more confusion from CBP officials, and having to produce two forms of ID verifying her identity before she was allowed through to catch her flight. The whole process took about an extra five to 10 minutes, but she said she could see how the experience could be intimidating for someone or drag on for far longer than what she experienced. The airport can be a stressful place; travelers are often in a time crunch. It forces them into a difficult position: assert their right to opt out, but risk a delayed check-in process. Even so, Billoo urges anyone with the ability to opt out to do so. “If we don’t, it’s a lot harder for the person who literally can’t because they’re not a U.S. citizen. What good is our privilege if we’re not willing to put it to risk?” Credits Originally published as " Can I Opt Out of Facial Scans at the Airport? " with the Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) license.

Can I Avoid Facial Recognition At The Airport?

I founded to help every developer advance their career. Raise.dev It started with a pilot that kicked off last year. The goal was to help early-career developers overcome the experience gap and get their first jobs in industry. I'm proud to report that the results have been outstanding: 100% job offer rate (highlights: DigitalOcean, thoughtbot, American Airlines, theSkimm) $53k/year average increase to base salary (equity, health insurance, perks excluded) Six months average time to job offer (from three to ten months) The developers came from a wide range of backgrounds: 100% from underrepresented groups in technology Education: From no college to masters degree Gender: Majority identify as women Age: 20s to 40s Parents Transitioning from established careers Today, we're opening our doors for early-access and inviting you to to advance your developer career. join the network The Experience Gap Breaking into a career as a software developer is a classic chicken-and-egg problem: it's next to impossible to get a job without relevant work experience and it's equally, if not more difficult, to get the necessary experience without a job. There's no doubt that the barrier to entry for programming has drastically reduced in the last decade. Software development is more accessible as a career in large part thanks to the deluge of free and inexpensive online resources and the rise in popularity of trade school style coding bootcamps. Even so, early-career developers still face the paradoxical "experience gap" when applying for their first jobs. Studying Didn't Help I've heard repeatedly from developers struggling to get their first job due to a lack of experience and I personally experienced the same challenge in my career. When I was starting out, I applied to close to 30 software developer roles and I was consistently turned away due to a lack of experience. So, the question is, I've spent many years trying to answer this question in service of my own career. "how do I get the skills I need to advance my career as a developer?" My first crack at it was to go the academic route. I racked up a mountain of debt studying computer science at a private university. The experience was somewhat valuable, but school didn't prepare me for a job in the industry. I also tried to teach myself. I read books and tutorials. I worked on side projects. Progress was unbearably slow. I'd spend hours and sometimes days or weeks at an impasse because I lacked some fundamental understanding that was necessary to solve my problem. Solving Real Problems with People My biggest leaps forward as a developer always came from working with people to solve real problems. A few years before I got into the industry I was lucky enough to make friends who were more experienced developers. They helped me get into Linux and build some small web applications with PHP. Most people aren't so lucky to have ready access to experienced people who are willing to help. The biggest step change in my ability as a developer came from an experience with a coworker. I needed to upgrade an open source web framework on a widely-used production application. It was uncharted territory for me and incredibly daunting. Any misstep could cause a major outage. Someone that I looked up to volunteered to pair program with me on the project. It was the first time I had ever pair programmed. They helped me write automated tests and make the necessary changes one by one, each time fully verifying that there were no adverse side effects. We managed to complete the upgrade, but what stuck with me were these new techniques that completely changed how I program. They're commonplace to experienced developers. While you can learn about pair programming and testing in school, the techniques don't really sink in and become useful until you've been able to apply them in the real world. That pairing session was the most impactful learning experience of my developer career. It gives me confidence that the best way to learn is by doing the work with guidance from an experienced collaborator. The Obvious Solution: Give People Jobs I've spent my career at the intersection of software development and education. I've worked in ed-tech, helped start an ,  marketed , and given millions of students . online university APIs by teaching free access to real-world developer tools The problem of the experience gap had been troubling me for some time. I put care and thought into how to help early-career developers overcome the seemingly insurmountable hurdle. I came to a simple, albeit impractical, conclusion: just give people jobs. If they have a job they will get experience and, in turn, will become more hireable. Last year, I decided to see what would happen if I did just that. I announced that I was hiring for a Software Developer Apprentice and within a week I had more than 500 qualified candidates. on Twitter To be qualified didn't require experience, but it did require knowing how to code, being highly motivated, and having a demonstrated need for the opportunity. At first I was surprised, but it seems obvious now that there would be essentially infinite demand for such an opportunity. I originally intended to work with one person, but there were so many deserving candidates that I ended up selecting a small group. I found that the time I spent with the apprentices was both rewarding and impactful. Giving early-career developers real projects and providing hands-on support gave them the experience they needed to get hired by some great companies. All of the apprentices who participated in the pilot received job offers for full-time developer roles from great companies including DigitalOcean, thoughtbot, American Airlines, and theSkimm. Connecting Candidates, Coaches, and Project It's not practical for us to hire every developer candidate – that would never scale. Instead, we been hard at work building a platform to connect developer Candidates with expert Coaches to work on real-world Projects. The platform involves three major components. Candidates, Coaches, and Projects: Candidates get exposure to the tools and techniques that are essential for a career in industry. Coaches give back, learn valuable leadership skills, and also solidify their skills through pair programming, code review, teaching, and mentoring. Projects involve helping non-profits, contributing to open source, and doing real work with engineering teams from our hiring partners. Early-access for Candidates Begins Today Following on from the success from the pilot, we're opening the doors to the platform to developer Candidates for early-access. Starting today, you can to be matched with a Coach who will help you create and execute a personal project-based learning plan. Raise.dev is free during early-access. sign up We're excited to help you advance your careeer. . Meet your Coach Also published on: https://raise.dev/blog/bridging-the-developer-experience-gap

How to Bridge the Developer Experience Gap with raise.dev

In the past 20 years, we’ve seen a surge in the adoption of agile methodologies. A showed that over 60% of large companies adopted agile software development practices and over 80% planned to in 2019. 2018 Forrester study However, despite agile’s promise of faster software delivery, the same study showed that the release frequency at these companies has remained flat since 2014. Over half of the companies released software less than one time per quarter and 12% of enterprise employers release software less than once per year. These release cycles fall far short of agile’s promise that teams will . So what’s happening here? Why can’t we get software in customers’ hands faster? release at the end of every sprint Identifying the Clogs in Your Delivery Pipeline Jeffrey Hammond, VP & Principal Analyst at Forrester, compares the problem to a clogged kitchen sink: “No matter how much water you pour into that sink - no matter how much you increase the velocity of what you’re doing upstream - if there’s a clog, it’s not going to matter. No water’s going to get through the sink.” - Jeffrey Hammond These clogs that stop a team from delivering come in many forms. Let’s take a look at five of the most common reasons agile release cycles aren’t faster in enterprise software teams. 1. Manual Approvals and Handoffs , an agile consultant who’s worked for enterprise clients like Thomson Reuters and American Airlines says that one of the biggest challenges her clients face when trying to speed up their delivery cycles is the build-up of manual approvals over time. Allison Pollard “There are often ten or more different approvals trying to mitigate different risks,” Pollard claims. “Trying to untangle that is rather difficult and feels risky.” While development teams can’t ignore security and quality checks, they have to find a way to speed up and automate some of these processes if they want faster delivery. And, even when practices such as CI/CD are implemented, teams still often require manual walkthroughs for deployment approval. As Hammond points out, “The number one problem we see when trying to become more agile is that many organizations are still using manual practice… Automating these release activities is very much still a work in progress.” Forrester Business Technographics Developer Survey - 2014-2018 2. Monolithic, Legacy Codebases Old codebases are the second common reason for slow release cycles. While modern architectures built with , , or support continuous integration (CI) and continuous delivery (CD), which can speed up release cycles, many enterprises still work with codebases that can be decades old. It’s difficult to automate deployments with CI/CD when working with a complex legacy codebase that was designed to be released as a single unit. microservices serverless computing Docker containers Even with some automation in place, the team members assigned to work on the older code may not be those who originally built it. If technical debt hasn’t been addressed, there will be parts of the codebase that are not well-documented or understood, slowing down fixes and releases. Add in slow or missing tests and the problem is compounded. 3. Long Development Cycles Long development cycles are another common cause of infrequent releases. While agile is now the methodology of choice, it’s often difficult for organizations to fully understand and adopt agile delivery practices. Therefore, some organizations adopt what Hammond calls the “ ” method, or scrunching a Scrum methodology between an up-front design phase and a manual deployment phase. Similar to the effects one sees with the strategy, companies that insist on working in long development cycles will always struggle with deployment frequency. Water-Scrum-Fall Big Bang Getting software into the wild faster is one of the core benefits of agile. “There’s a difference between walking [customers] through mockups and asking ‘What do you think?’ and putting them in their hands and watching them actually use it,” says Pollard. Unfortunately, she sees many organizations putting a strong emphasis on “complete feature delivery,” rather than taking an . MVP approach 4. Fear of Defects Another reason software delivery speeds have remained stagnant in many organizations is a fear of defects. Organizations may lack confidence in their releases, preventing them from releasing during peak hours or causing them to rely on lengthy, manual testing cycles. Modern cloud-native technologies and increasingly complex production environments only add to the drop in confidence. It’s hard to write end-to-end tests for serverless microservices that can’t easily be run locally, so developers become cautious. Unless companies utilize tools to monitor their development and staging environments, defects can easily slip through, confidence will drop, and release frequency will fall. 5. Hotfixes Finally, Hammond points out that there is a “Lack of focus on the upstream pipeline from production back into development.” In other words, most organizations perseverate on how quickly they can release new features but fail to focus on their speed to identify and address issues when they arise. “All of these organizations focus on delivering into production, but that’s only half of the problem,” says Hammond. “From the point in time that you ship version one, you’re going to be dealing with incidents.” quickly requires a comprehensive monitoring solution and a robust incident management process. “Only a third of organizations have any sort of process to deal with incident management,” Hammond continues. Finding and fixing errors Without the ability to understand and fix production defects quickly, subsequent releases will be delayed, slowing the delivery process even more. How Can We Speed Up Releases? Achieving more frequent releases requires a change in culture, and it can be scary. “When you go to that release management group and try to change things, a number of them might be scared,” says Pollard. However, our job as leaders is to face this challenge. Here are three ways we can work to speed up releases: Lean Startup - First, adopt the “ ” mentality. Try to think of each release as a part of the build-measure-learn cycle and build a culture that embraces iterations. Abandon the water-scrum-fall methodology and the “Big Bang” release strategy. The ultimate goal should be to get major features in users’ hands as quickly as possible. lean startup Culture of Quality - Second, build a culture of quality. Celebrate teams that address technical debt, automate manual processes, implement better testing practices, and reduce defects. Make uptime and automated test coverage a priority and tell the whole company about your new efforts. Error Monitoring - Finally, implement to catch errors long before they reach production, and help your teams define goals around automated test coverage. Error monitoring tools ( , for example) not only provide immediate notification of your errors across all environments, but also include contextual information about those errors, such as stack traces, code versions, user details, and more. This can help you to quickly diagnose and triage defects, allowing you to find and fix defects faster, increase team confidence, and release more frequently. comprehensive monitoring across all your environments Rollbar Conclusion Adopting a few agile best practices alone isn’t going to magically speed up delivery forever. As we’ve seen, many organizations that “go agile” are still unable to push updates live more than once per quarter. However, by identifying bottlenecks, working to change your company’s culture, and implementing the right tools, leaders can achieve faster release cycles and get their software into customers’ hands, faster.

Why Your Software Isn’t Getting to Market Fast Enough

Much has been said about the effectiveness of VR vs. traditional training. VR is cost effective due to scalability, inexpensive equipment to simulate location, objects and even trainers. It’s simply more effective due to its interactivity and complete immersion. According to STRIVR, enterprise students who use VR remember 75% of what they are taught while traditional methods assist with retaining just 10% of information. Still there are lots of ways to screw up your fancy innovative VR training. Luckily, there are lessons that we have learnt over the years from traditional education that can be applied in VR. VR is a new media, which can be used to its full potential if its developed with consideration of these 3 time-tested methods. 1. Conducting Training Need Analysis (TNA) Whether its VR or not, identifying the gap between employee training and needs of training is the first and the most crucial step before launching any educational activity. TNA analysis helps to avoid solutions that will fall between the cracks and reveals whether training will help to solve an existing problem. The most commonly used approach to identify the training needs in an organization are McGhee and Thayer's Three-Level Analysis. This model provides a systematic means of conducting a TNA at three levels: organisational, operational and individual. Speaking about traditions and heritage: Seneca the Younger once said , that  “If a man knows not to which port he sails, no wind is favorable.”The same is true for company goals for developing VR. Make sure the goal of the training is aligned with organisational goals. This will prevent VR curriculums from getting lost in the sea or get damaged by unexpected storms. Asking questions like where is training most needed and why is the training program recommended as a solution to an existing problem would also help to catch the right wind. At the operational level you need to determine what kind of needs to be given to employees and what skills are required from them. Ask yourself how is a job performed at the moment and what’s the expected performance. training Then you dive deeper into the individual level, where you identify the knowledge, skills, and abilities that each employee is required to focus on. TNA is highly recommended not only because it provides clear direction for identifying training needs, but also helps to evaluate the effectiveness of the training, which will talk about soon. 2. Combining Best Proven Methods In Your VR Training Demonstrations, tests, recitation, quizzes, role- playing, participation control, simulation - having so many traditional techniques and methods may sound impressive unless you are a person responsible for bringing them to life. While for employees traditional training approaches may seem dull and tedious, the people that have to realise them are far from being bored. Nevertheless, some companies learned how to take the most out of these methods and make them part of VR training scenario. Demonstration and simulation are the ones always used by default, as these are the clearest and most obvious applications of VR. American Airlines combined the simulation method along with tests, practice and participation control: new employees could explore the aircraft, open and close the cabin door, while being monitored by their inspectors from the control centre and given real time feedback. United Rentals also didn’t limit VR opportunities just with the practice sessions (which is still of course more than effective). They used VR as a way to enhance their general classroom sales training and keep real life discussion group method. While one of the employees explores the job site in a headset, others can observe what this person is seeing on a screen.  The trainer moderates the session, challenging employees to look for answers on the screen, find the ways to solve issues and reason their suggestions. If you have heard about the Retention on the Learning Pyramid, you are familiar with the average retention rates for different methods: from lectures to teaching others. While, some methods are more effective than others, their combination will increase your chances to achieve your goal. Before settling with  specific training techniques, it’s crucial to get answers to these three questions: What are your training goals for this session? Is it new skills or improving existing skills? Who are you going to train? Will the training be presented to new employees or may be top management? What is your training budget and schedule? For example a discussion group combined with VR training, like in the case of United Rentals may be a good solution if you are limited with time/budget and have a goal to keep real life conversation and brainstorm. 3. Using SMART Measuring Techniques And Scaling Once you determined the need for VR training and the methods to use, it’s time to get to desert: measuring and scaling justifies all the previous work and leaves you with pleasant aftertaste. Traditionally Kirkpatrick’s Four-level Training Evaluation Model suggests 4 levels of evaluation: from learners reaction to business results. Good example of measuring reactions is a VR training performed by Lowe’s, the home improvement retailer. Employees  reported 24% higher satisfaction, 127% increase in confidence and 76% lower level of hesitation versus traditional employee training methods used within Lowe’s”. Intel was also one of the companies who approached VR with SMART measuring techniques and evaluated not only the employee reaction, but also the ROI. They stated that 94% of trainees who went through this training requested more VR courses”. As for ROI, they estimate a 300% Return On Investment potential on their Virtual Reality course”. Add the time estimation into these examples and you’ll get a perfect SMART goal. One of the advantages of VR is that it’s not meant for one-time training solutions. Though sometimes it ends up this way due to the complexity of technology and the lack of resources. Luckily, we already have tools to help manage and edit VR without coding skills, not having to open purse again. Depending on the need, there are lots of choices to scale your VR: from CMS systems to scalable custom solutions. Thus, global energy company Gazprom had their training created with the opportunity to edit and augment it without coding skills. In the basic version trainees have to replace a valve at ESP unit while following standard operating  procedures. As the company has over 67 000 employees and things change quickly, it was important to be able to adjust training scenarios without coding skills. Immersive technologies have already raised the bar of the employee training to a new level, having proved that everything is possible. Today most VR training projects take the form of simulation, and though it’s one of the best training techniques, sometimes this approach limits other abilities of VR and drives out most of time- proven techniques, which could complement this fantastic media. And like any modern media, VR does not rescind the lessons and discoveries of the past, but provides an enhanced way to apply them.

Three Ways Virtual Reality Can Invigorate Boring Training Programs

On May 1, 1981, American Airlines launched its frequent flyer program AAdvantage. Since then, a flood of loyalty programs have attempted to bring customers back through rewards. Today, you can become a card-carrying member of just about anything: hotels, supermarkets, drugstores and pizza chains. If you’re in a store, chances are someone will ask, “Would you like to join our rewards program?” Marketing professors, store managers and executives are still not sure how effective these initiatives are. One puzzle is the link between participation and loyalty. It’s not that strong. Millions of Americans are enrolled in at least one loyalty program, but just a fraction of them are dedicated customers. Typically, loyalty programs work only to the extent that they reward customers . who are already loyal Another part of the mystery is the reward itself. Most loyalty programs offer additional perks to create a positive feedback loop — the more we shop in one store, the more we get in return, the less we’ll shop in another store. But in a world saturated with offers, it’s difficult to turn a reward into a habit. Here’s one idea. Instead of asking, “What rewards should we give away?” ask “ should we give away a reward?” It might not be the reward , but how the reward is framed, and the steps customers must take to obtain the reward, that matters. How per se How to Frame a Reward In 2004, marketing researchers teamed with a local car wash in a busy metropolitan area. For one month, the researchers handed out loyalty stamp cards every Saturday. They used two different cards depending on the week. Customers on the first and fourth week received a card with an offer to “buy eight car washes and get the ninth one free.” The second group of customers received a card with a slightly different offer. They were awarded one free wash for every ten purchases, but they were also gifted two free credits. Joseph Nunes and Xavier Dreze In absolute terms, each deal was the same. Eight trips to the car wash earned one free wash. Yet twice as many people in the second condition completed the stamp card; having earned two credits, the feeling of progress nudged them to return. Nunes and Dreze term this tendency the : We’re more committed to completing a goal when we have made some progress. endowed progress effect How to Frame Progress PayPal illustrates how complete my profile is with an easy-to-digest visual. By highlighting the progress I’ve already made — even though the “progress” is the mere act of signing up — I’m motivated to give them my phone number. No turning back now; I’m already 80 percent of the way there. LinkedIn, where I can gauge my “profile strength,” is similar. My profile is nearly finished — but not quite — a compelling reason to “strengthen it.” Yet LinkedIn is more sophisticated than PayPal. It informs me that six people have viewed my profile in the past 15 days adding an element of social pressure. Notice the copy underneath this notification: “Your rank for profile views improved by 11 percent in the past 15 days.” With the feeling of progress, I’m more likely to click on the aptly placed “LinkedIn Premium” offer. Candy Crush Saga, an addictive puzzle app, is different from PayPal and LinkedIn but employs a similar tactic to keep users engaged. If a user does not complete a level in the given number of turns, the game offers bonus items like “lollipop hammers,” “disco balls,” and more turns. However, there’s a price for the virtual goodies. Users must pay real money for a better shot at finishing the level. It’s unlikely players would agree to pay at the beginning of a level. However, after spending time and energy, it’s a different story. Given the chance to beat that level you’ve been stuck on, these offers are much more appealing. What’s true of Candy Crush Saga is true of other popular games and platforms — they convert the users’ investment of time into money. Framing as a Tool to Create Habits An important step in creating routines is the gap between variable reward and investment. Variable rewards (new tweets, specials at the restaurant, deals at a retail outlet) keep us coming back for more, but they don’t necessarily lead to investment unless the product is designed to get the user to, “put something of value into the service.” The variable reward on LinkedIn, for example, is the newsfeed and the notifications. Investment occurs when the user updates his profile, makes connections, and purchases LinkedIn Premium. Smart framing can convince users to invest further in the experience, making it more likely they will return. It’s a subtle but psychologically powerful maneuver. Instead of trying to persuade customers to invest in a product or service, why not show them they’ve already invested? Loyalty programs, in contrast, typically attract customers by offering better prices or superior products: ”Spend $100 and get $10 off!” or “Become a Platinum Elite member and get free upgrades!” are two familiar examples. Yet focusing on what a customer can acquire, instead of the time and money they’ve already spent, could be one reason these programs are ineffective. The trick is not strengthening the link between use and loyalty with better deals. It’s reinforcing the relationship between use and loyalty. That starts with smart framing. perceived Nir’s Note : This post was co-authored with Sam McNerney , a freelance writer who focuses on psychology and business. Photo credit: opensourceway If you found this post interesting, it would mean a lot to me if you could click on the “claps” icon below to let me know. That would really make my day — thanks! Nir Eyal is the author of Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products and blogs about the psychology of products at NirAndFar.com .For more insights on changing behavior, join his free newsletter and receive a free workbook.

Frame Rewards to Create Customer Retention

Interview with Gilad Menashe, CTO of Vanywhere I always wanted to contribute in the early stages of a startup. This is basically what ICO enables. In my past stories, I have been writing content without practical knowledge. I don’t have experience in launching an ICO, I thought of interviewing someone who has experience in building and launching an ICO. Gilad was happy to help me out. We have with us Gilad Menashe, CTO of . Vanywhere Tell us a few words about yourself? I have over 15 years of experience in internet technologies, security, mobile, SAAS, Blockchain technologies, AWS, web applications and computer vision. I am managing development groups for 14 years and was a VP of R&D for the past 9 years where I developed a product which became the company’s flagship and a key factor in turning them into a technologically superior market leader. My work has won multi-million dollar contracts with customers including NASA, Boeing, United Airlines, American Airlines, the Canadian Air Force, and Israel Defense Forces among others. I have also served in the Israeli Defense Forces Intelligence Corps (8200) as part of the development team creating (C / C++) embedded (Hardware) and desktop applications. Wow! When did you first hear about Blockchain and ICOs? Two years ago I had the chance to see how smart contract looks like and I immediately fall in love with the idea. Well, who wouldn’t? Smart Contrant is an ingenious idea. For those of you who don’t know smart contracts, Don’t worry, I can explain. Credits : xkcd A normal contract is pretty dumb, It doesn’t enforce itself. You need first pay a lawyer to make a contract. Then if a party disagree on the agreement, you are supposed to again pay the lawyer to fight for you. This come at the expense of time and money. Smart contracts are computerised contracts that enforce itself. For Eg: Mark hasn’t paid his rent for five months. When Sara questions he promise to pay later. She is helpless and is unable to afford a lawyer. Courts take eight months to almost a year to enforce action. The only option is to persuade Mark. If they made the agreement on a smart contract, the computer code will transfer money, from Mark’s account to Sara’s account on the agreed day of the month. It doesn’t require Mark’s consent the second time. This would save a lot of Sara’s money and time. She doesn’t have to hire a lawyer and wait for months or years to get Justice. Credits : xkcd Smart contracts don’t eliminate lawyers but it eliminates unnecessary lawsuits. Thus saving the money of honest people and precious time of the judiciary. This is the idea Gilad fall in love with. Tell us about Vanywhere? How does it help people? I agree with you Gilad, smart contracts are brilliant! As a user Vanywhere lets you connect live with someone. Someone who can guide you through a process, relate to you and give you his full attention and expertise. As a Skiller, Vanywhere allow you to share your skill with the world, help people, and monetise that process into cryptocurrency. Do you use smart contracts in Vanywhere? Of course, the smart contract handles both payments and the rating system. When a call is initiated, the smart contract collects payment from the user and holds it for 48 hours, at which point it is released the Skiller. The purpose of this 48 hour cooling period is to create a window for disputes to be raised and resolved, should they occur. If the user is satisfied with the service they received, the funds will automatically be released to the Skiller within 48 hours. If the user is dissatisfied, they can register a dispute which the Vanywhere team will investigate. When resolving disputes, Vanywhere will consider the records of each party, and hold the tokens until the dispute is resolved. In the event that a Skiller gets a 5 star rating from a user, the tokens will be released to them immediately, without a cooling period. Credits : xkcd Why did Vanywhere choose to launch an ICO? ICOs enables anyone living anywhere who believes in our idea to easily participate in our token sale. Smart contracts ensure our contributors are issued VANY tokens seamlessly after payment. The other reason was the payment method in our platform is based on cryptocurrency. So it was just natural to raise funds via ICO. Moreover, cryptocurrency allows you to process micro-payments, without the high fees in centralised platforms. What are the challenges you faced in launching an ICO? One of our technical challenges was how to use best all advantages and maximise the full potential of Vanywhere platform we also had to deal with a complex mechanism for handling disputes in the smart contract. QTUM QTUM seems to be promising. It is like a cross-platform blockchain for smart contracts. In the earlier days of software development, you had to code separately for Windows OS, Mac, Linux, Mobile OS etc. Later, Java came up with cross-platform support, you can code once and deploy it on multiple platforms easily. QTUM does something similar across different Blockchains like Bitcoin and Ethereum.This is technically not accurate, but I assume you get the idea. It basically supports interoperability. The benefit of using QTUM is if there is an advancement in Bitcoin or Ethereum (of course there will be). You would be able to make use of their features seamlessly. Credits : xkcd How can one benefit by contributing in your ICO? They will have the chance to be part of a growing community where they can use their tokens to buy services and even get paid in tokens for providing service. I understand, what I like about VANY tokens compared to other tokens is its frequent use case. I am presently looking for someone to teach me guitar remotely. I am sure this would apply to people from different backgrounds like art, music, programming, travel, cooking, marketing, etc What’s advice can you offer who are in the process of launching their first ICO? From the technical perspective your top priority should be security and that the ease of use, we want to give the contributors a very clear process and try to reduce to minimum the chance of making mistakes while protecting him from all the predators out there, things to consider are: Phishing sites, DDOS, secure all the company and employee community accounts. How can we get in touch with you? You are more than welcome to join visit our telegram ( ) and visit our website: https://t.me/vanywhere https://www.vanywhere.com Thank you, Gilad Menashe. 👏 , 😊. Claps Please Thank You Follow us, HackerNoon and me ( Febin John James ) for more stories. If you are a hacker, entrepreneur, programmer,… who are doing epic stuff in the field of Blockchain or Cryptocurrency. Please get in touch with me. I would love to share the insights you gained from your experience with my readers. I don’t charge you anything, it’s free, here is my LinkedIn .

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AMERICAN AIRLINES GROUP

aa.com

10K+ employees

Since 1930

COMPANY RANKING

AMERICAN AIRLINES GROUP

EVERGREEN INDEX #1647

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