Facilitating improvement of results of human performance of tasks

• US 8,121,888 B1
• Filed: 12/14/2007
• Issued: 02/21/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 12/14/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: Cohen, Peter D., Nichols, Isaac E., Cameros, Brian L.
• Primary Examiner(s): Jeanty, Romain
• Assistant Examiner(s): FLEISCHER, MARK A
• Application Number:
  US11/957,060
• Time in Patent Office: 1,530 Days
• Field of Search: 705/7.38, 705/7.41, 705/7.42
• US Class Current: 705/7.38
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/00 Administration; Management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0639 Performance analysis of employees; Performance analysis of enterprise or organisation operations
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06395 Quality analysis or management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06398 Performance of employee with respect to a job function

Abstract

Techniques are described for facilitating interactions between task requesters who have tasks available to be performed and task performer users who are available to perform tasks, such as interactions that enable improvement of unsatisfactory task performance results from human task performer users. In some situations, after a task performer user has generated initial results from performance of a task supplied by a task requester, the task requester indicates that the initial results are only partially satisfactory (e.g., only partially satisfy one or more criteria for the task performance results), and may result in only a partial payment rather than a full payment amount associated with fully satisfactory performance of the task. The task requester may also supply information to provide one or more opportunities to the task performer user to supply additional improved supplemental results (e.g., so as to receive the full payment amount).

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for automatically facilitating improvement of results of task performance, the method comprising:

receiving, by a computer, a first of a plurality of tasks having an associated first payment amount for successful performance of the first task in accordance with one or more associated first criteria for results of the performance;

receiving, by the computer, a second of the plurality of tasks that is distinct from the first task, the second task having an associated second payment amount for successful performance of the second task in accordance with one or more associated second criteria that include one or more validation tests for results of the performance of the second task;

providing to a task requester, by the computer, first performance results for the first task that are generated by a task performer;

receiving from the task requester, by the computer, information indicating;

a partial payment amount for the first performance results based at least in part on the first performance results partially satisfying the first criteria associated with the first task, the partial payment amount being less than the first payment amount for the first task, and

one or more results improvement options for improving the first performance results that each have an indicated supplemental payment amount for improving the first performance results in accordance with that option;

providing, by the computer, the received information to the task performer;

in response to receiving supplemental results for the first task that are generated by the task performer in accordance with one of the results improvement options, initiating, by the computer, supplying of the supplemental payment amount associated with the one results improvement option to the task performer; and

in response to receiving, by the computer, second performance results for the second task that are generated by one or more task performers,

determining that the second performance results satisfy the second criteria by applying at least one of the validation tests to the second performance results; and

supplying the second payment amount to the one or more task performers.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the initiating of the supplying of the supplemental payment amount is performed after receiving an indication that the supplemental results are approved by the task requester.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the initiating of the supplying of the supplemental payment amount is performed after automated validation of the supplemental results.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the received information from the task requester further indicates that the first performance results have been determined by the task requester to partially satisfy the first criteria associated with the first task.

5. The method of claim 1 further comprising validating, by the computer, the first performance results so as to determine that the first performance results partially satisfy the first criteria associated with the first task.

6. The method of claim 4 wherein the first criteria associated with the first task indicate one or more validation tests, and wherein the validating of the first performance results includes applying at least one of the indicated validation tests to the first performance results.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the one or more results improvement options each include instructions from the task requester regarding a manner of improving the first performance results.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein the supplemental payment amounts for the results improvement options are indicated by the task requester in the received information from the task requester.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein the indicated results improvement options are each determined so as to address at least one of the first criteria associated with the first task that are not satisfied by the first performance results, and wherein the supplemental payment amount for each of the results improvement options is based at least in part on a relative portion of the first payment amount for the first task that corresponds to the at least one criteria addressed by the results improvement option.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein the first associated criteria for results of the performance of the first task and the first payment amount are specified by the task requester.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein at least one of the first associated criteria and of the first payment amount are determined by a task exchange server provided at least in part by the computer.

12. The method of claim 1 further comprising replacing at least a portion of the first performance results with the received supplemental results, and providing the received supplemental results to the task requester.

13. The method of claim 1 wherein the computer is part of a task exchange server that acts as an intermediary to facilitate performance by multiple human task performer users of tasks supplied by multiple unaffiliated task requesters.

14. A non-transitory computer-readable medium whose contents configure a computing system to facilitate improvement of results of task performance by task performers, by performing a method comprising:

receiving information from a task requester about a supplied task that is available for performance, the task having an indicated payment amount for results that satisfy one or more indicated criteria;

receiving results from performance of the task by a task performer, and providing the results to the task requester;

determining that the received results do not satisfy the one or more indicated criteria based on an indication from the task requester that the received results partially satisfy the one or more indicated criteria and an indication of a partial payment amount for the received results that is less than the indicated payment amount for the task;

providing information to the task performer that indicates the partial payment amount and one or more options for improving the received results to satisfy the one or more indicated criteria, each option having an associated supplemental payment amount;

receiving and providing to the task requester additional task performance results by the task performer that satisfy the one or more indicated criteria; and

facilitating supplying of the indicated payment amount to the task performer, and

wherein the configured computing system is part of a group of one or more computing systems that provide a task exchange server to facilitate performance by task performers of multiple tasks supplied by multiple task requesters.

15. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 14 wherein the one or more criteria are validation criteria associated with the task, and wherein the determining that the received results do not satisfy the one or more indicated criteria is performed automatically by applying the validation criteria to the received results.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 14 wherein the computer-readable medium is a memory of the configured computing system, and wherein the contents are instructions that when executed cause the computing system to perform the method.

17. A computing system configured to automatically facilitate improvement of results of task performance by task performers, comprising:

a processor; and

one or more memories having instructions stored thereon that, when executed on the processor, cause the processor to;

in response to receiving initial results of performance of a task by a task performer, provide the received initial results to a task requester that supplied the task;

receive information from the task requester indicating that the received initial results partially satisfy one or more criteria associated with the task and indicating a first payment amount for the received initial results that is less than a full payment amount for successful performance of the task;

provide information to one or more task performers related to improving the received initial results including one or more results improvement options that each has an associated second payment amount for the task, wherein the provided information indicates the first payment amount for the received initial results; and

in response to receiving additional results of performance of the task by one of the task performers that are improved according to at least one of the results improvement options, facilitate supplying to the task performer the second payment amount associated with the at least one option.

18. The computing system of claim 17 wherein the one task performer user from whom the additional results of performance of the task are received is distinct from the task performer user from whom the initial results of performance are received.