Facilitating improvement of results of human performance of tasks

• US 8,386,302 B1
• Filed: 01/26/2012
• Issued: 02/26/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 12/14/2007
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• 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): Fleischer, Mark A
• Application Number:
  US13/359,256
• Time in Patent Office: 397 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 comprising:

receiving, by one or more configured computing systems of a task exchange server, initial task performance results produced by one or more task performers for an indicated task, the task having one or more associated criteria for assessing satisfactory performance of the indicated task and having an associated first payment amount for the satisfactory performance, the task having been previously supplied by a task requester to the task exchange server;

determining, by the one or more configured computing systems based at least in part on an automated assessment of the one or more associated criteria, that the initial task performance results do not fully satisfy the one or more associated criteria;

determining, by the one or more configured computing systems, one or more options for improving the initial task performance results to satisfy the one or more associated criteria, wherein one of the determined one or more options is associated with a supplemental payment amount;

providing, by the one or more configured computing systems, information to at least one of the one or more task performers that indicates the determined one or more options; and

receiving, by the one or more configured computing systems, additional task performance results produced by the at least one task performer that correspond to the one determined option associated with the supplemental payment amount and that satisfy the one or more associated criteria, wherein the one determined option is selected by the at least one task performer.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 further comprising:

before the determining that the initial task performance results do not fully satisfy the one or more associated criteria, receiving the initial task performance results from the one or more task performers, and providing the initial task performance results to the requester.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 2 further comprising, after the receiving of the additional task performance results, providing the additional task performance results to the requester.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 wherein the determining of the one or more options is further based at least in part on information received from the task requester.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 4 further comprising:

before the determining of the one or more options, providing the initial task performance results to the requester; and

receiving the information from the task requester in response to the providing of the initial task performance results, the received information including at least instructions about performance of the one determined option that is selected by the at least one task performer.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 further comprising providing to the one or more task performers a partial payment for the initial task performance results that is less than the associated first payment amount.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 6 further comprising receiving, after providing of the initial task performance results to the requester, information about an amount of the partial payment from the requester.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 further comprising providing the supplemental payment associated with the one determined option to the at least one task performer for the additional task performance results.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 8 further comprising receiving information from the requester, after providing of the initial task performance results to the requester, about an amount of the supplemental payment associated with the one determined option.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 8 wherein the one determined option further has additional associated criteria for performance of the indicated task, and wherein the providing of the supplemental payment is based at least in part on a determination that the additional task performance results satisfy the additional associated criteria.

11. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 wherein the one or more task performers that produce the initial task performance results include multiple task performers that each produce a portion of the initial task performance results, and wherein the at least one task performer is a subset of the multiple task performers that is selected based at least in part on information specific to the at least one task performer.

12. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 wherein the one or more associated criteria include multiple criteria, wherein the determined one or more options include multiple options that each corresponds to addressing at least one of the multiple criteria that is determined to not be satisfied by the initial performance results, and wherein each of the multiple options has a distinct associated supplemental payment mount.

13. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 wherein the task exchange server receives a plurality of tasks submitted by multiple task requesters for performance by multiple task performers, and wherein the indicated task is one of the plurality of tasks and is provided by the task exchange server to a subset of the multiple task performers for performance.

14. A non-transitory computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions stored thereon that, when executed on a computing system, configure the computing system to perform a method, the method comprising:

receiving, by the configured computing system, initial task performance results produced by a task performer for an indicated task;

determining, by the configured computing system, that the initial task performance results do not fully satisfy one or more criteria for performance of the indicated task;

determining, by the configured computing system, one or more options for improving the initial task performance results to satisfy the one or more criteria, the determining being based at least in part on an indication received from a task requester that supplied the indicated task for performance, wherein each of the determined one or more options is associated with a supplemental payment amount; and

providing, by the configured computing system, information to at least one of the one or more task performers that indicates the determined one or more options and the associated supplemental payment amount for each of the determined one or more options, to enable additional task performance results to be produced by the at least one task performer in accordance with the determined options.

15. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 14 wherein the method further comprises:

after receiving the initial task performance results from the one or more task performers, providing the initial task performance results to the requester;

after the providing of the information to the at least one task performer, receiving, by the configured computing system, the additional task performance results from the at least one task performer; and

providing, by the configured computing system, the additional task performance results to the requester.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 15 wherein the received additional task performance results correspond to at least one of the determined options that is selected by the at least one task performer.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 15 wherein the received additional task performance results are determined to satisfy the one or more criteria.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 14 wherein the determining that the initial task performance results do not fully satisfy the one or more criteria includes determining that the initial task performance results partially satisfy the one or more criteria.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 14 wherein the determining that the initial task performance results do not fully satisfy the one or more criteria includes determining that the initial task performance results do not satisfy any of the one or more criteria.

20. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 14 wherein the method further comprises:

before the determining of the one or more options, providing the initial task performance results to the requester; and

receiving the indication from the task requester in response to the providing of the initial task performance results, the received indication including information about at least one of the determined one or more options.

21. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 14 wherein the task further has an associated payment amount, and wherein the method further comprises:

providing the initial task performance results to the requester;

after the providing of the initial task performance results to the requester, receiving information from the requester about an amount of a partial payment that is less than the associated payment amount and that corresponds to the initial task performance results; and

providing to the one or more task performers the partial payment.

22. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 14 wherein the method further comprises:

receiving an indication that the at least one task performer has produced the additional task performance results in accordance with one of the determined one or more options; and

providing the supplemental payment associated with the one option to the at least one task performer for the additional task performance results.

23. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 22 wherein the one option further has additional associated criteria for performance of the indicated task, and wherein the providing of the supplemental payment is based at least in part on a determination that the additional task performance results satisfy the additional associated criteria.

24. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 14 wherein the configured computing system is part of a task exchange server that receives a plurality of tasks submitted by multiple task requesters for performance by multiple task performers, and wherein the indicated task is one of the plurality of tasks and is provided by the task exchange server to a subset of the multiple task performers for performance.

25. A computing system comprising:

at least one processor; and

a memory having processor-executable instructions stored thereon that, when executed on the processor, configure the at least one processor to;

receive initial task performance results produced by a task performer for an indicated task;

determine that the initial task performance results do not fully satisfy one or more criteria for performance of the indicated task;

determine one or more options for improving the initial task performance results to satisfy the one or more criteria, the determined one or more options being based at least in part on an indication received from a task requester that supplied the indicated task for performance, and wherein one of the determined one or more options is associated with at least one supplemental performance criteria distinct from the one or more criteria for performance; and

provide information to at least one of the one or more task performers that indicates at least the one determined option, to enable additional task performance results to be produced by the at least one task performer in accordance with the one determined option that satisfy the at least one supplemental performance criteria.

26. The computing system of claim 25 wherein the at least one processor is further configured to:

after receiving the initial task performance results from the one or more task performers, provide the received initial task performance results to the requester;

after the providing of the information to the at least one task performer, receive the additional task performance results from the at least one task performer, wherein the received additional task performance results correspond to at least one of the determined options that is selected by the at least one task performer and are determined to satisfy the at east one supplemental performance criteria; and

provide the additional task performance results to the requester.