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Ask HN: What is the term for faking automation by using human labor?
Like early in a startup you fake automation by really using human power. Its supposed to look automated but there is a human behind the scenes doing it. I swear there is a term for this that I can't think of. Best I can think of is meatgearing.
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- stray 11y agoWork?
- hotpockets 11y agoHa! I tried editing my text to be clearer what I'm referring to.
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- jonny_storm 11y agoMechanical Turk: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mechanical_Turk https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mechanical_Turk
- hotpockets 11y agoI mean like, you have a 3 person startup and one of you is running around doing work that your customers assume must be already automated.
- detaro 11y ago"doing thinks that don't scale"?
- unimpressive 11y agoYes, doing things that don't scale or mechanical turking. I couldn't imagine what else you mean.
- jonny_storm 11y agoLean Startup had some great stories about beating the pavement and providing services by hand. Perhaps there's some corresponding jargon to be had in there.
- boulos 11y agoIn addition to mechanical turk, there's also the phrase "Fake it till you make it" which is somewhat appropriate (the connotation is more like "pretend to be a success").
- danieltillett 11y agoUnicorn.
- brotchie 11y agoPretty sure one term for it is "concierge MVP" where you make it look like a legit automated service, but in-fact behind the scenes it's all human labour.
- kazuyan 11y agoThere are two similar but different methods. Concierge Test is used to understand the mechanics, not user demand. Wizard of Oz (aka Mechanical Turk) is used to evaluate hypotheses. The more detail in the post by Tristan Kromer below. https://grasshopperherder.com/concierge-vs-wizard-of-oz-test/ https://grasshopperherder.com/concierge-vs-wizard-of-oz-test...
- kek918 11y agoI think a lot of small companies does this in the beginning if the task is hard to implement and you have other critical tasks to finish first. I never knew it had a term, fun to know "Mechanical Turk" "Manual automation" could be another term :)
- 147 11y agoI'm very certain the phrase you're looking for is "wizard of oz". That's what Eric Ries called these types of MVPs in The Lean Startup.
- 147 11y agoHere's a link: https://www.quora.com/What-are-the-pros-and-cons-of-Wizard-of-Oz-testing https://www.quora.com/What-are-the-pros-and-cons-of-Wizard-o... 'Definition of Wizard of Oz testing in Eric Ries' book "The Lean Startup": "where customers believe they are interacting with the actual product, but behind the scenes human beings are doing the work"'
- felisml 11y agoMore generally, it's a term of art in HCI research, going back to J. F. Kelley in the early 1980s. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wizard_of_Oz_experiment https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wizard_of_Oz_experiment