[Vacancy] UX Researcher (Gender Focus) At Viamo Nigeria

About the Company:

Viamo – Mobile technology is transforming how businesses interact with their customers. Since mobile phones are available to more than 96% of the world’s population, it is now possible to contact almost everyone on the planet. However, 3 billion individuals in emerging countries continue to lack access to timely, relevant, and interesting information in their native tongues, and their voices are still not heard. The organizations that support them are unable to contact them because to a lack of resources and technology, and many are not aware of how mobile technology might help them achieve their objectives.

Utilizing digital technology, Viamo links people and organizations to facilitate improved decision-making. With more than 11 million individuals contacted in 2019 alone, we are making great progress toward achieving our objective.

We are recruiting to fill the position below:

Job Title: UX Researcher with Gender Focus

Location: Nigeria

Job type: Full-Time

Reports to: Head of UX Research

Project Work

Viamo’s 3-year grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) falls squarely in two of the three Bodies of Work within the BMGFs Gender Equality Division’s Digital Connectivity Learning Agenda: (1) Action-oriented User Research; and (2) Gender-Intentional Tool and Platform Development.
Viamo has access to a unique and growing data set to uncover key preferences and experiences for how women and girls engage with mobile and digital to improve their health and livelihoods.
Viamo is also a powerful platform already leveraged by many international development and global health organizations and improvements on the platform will provide a unique opportunity to scale to millions of women and girls.
BMGF’s funding comes from three program strategy teams; the Gender Equality Team, Family Planning and Neglected Tropical Diseases. These teams are aiming to leverage Viamo Platform’s unique ability to reach the ‘under-connected’ or otherwise difficult to reach populations – including women and girls – through their mobile device, in their own language, and irrespective of their literacy levels.
Viamo will conduct quantitative analysis of our current users and qualitative field research of our current and potential users and to develop a strategy that identifies women’s and girls’ needs and barriers for activation and behavior change. Based on the research findings, Viamo will conduct UX experiments on the Platform in three countries: Mali, Nigeria and Uganda.

Key Responsibilities

Gender-focused responsibilities for the Gates Investment:

By analysis of the Platform and supporting qualitative field research, with a gender lens, review and study the contexts in which we are operating, the unique obstacles and barriers for women and girls to digital connectivity and suggest ways in which the Platform could better reach, serve, and engage with women and girls so that their engagements on the Platform are meaningful and could lead to real life outcomes for women and girls.
Develop a research-driven gender strategy that identifies women’s and girls’ needs and barriers for activation and behavior change, enablers to digital connectivity and participation on the Platform throughout the stages from becoming aware of the Platform to becoming an avid user
Suggest quantitative data exploration related to understanding the behavior of women and girls on the Platform and help interpret the data by applying the gender expertise
Support research partners within the project to develop indicators for measuring outcomes to women’s and girl’s lives as a result of meaningful engagement with the Platform and support this research
Propose UX and content improvements to support meaningful engagement of the Platform by women and girls.

General Responsibilities

Collaborate with UX researchers on multi-country research activities
Help design and execute research plans, and create the guides & tools necessary for the researcher activities
Independently plan and conduct qualitative mixed-methods research activities in regards to the Platform, e.g. travel to meet users, run co-design workshops, conduct user research and usability tests
Ensure all qualitative research is tagged & analyzed in Dovetail, Viamo’s Research Repository
Synthesize research findings and create high-quality, relevant, revealing, and inspiring artifacts (personas, journey maps, presentations, written reports, etc.)
Translate user insights into actions and recommendations to help shape directions of our Platform
Communicate research insights and artifacts to a diverse audience and represent the Platform user perspective based on research findings
Facilitate workshops to brainstorm ideas & design solutions based on the research findings
Train & support in-country Viamo staff that have little UX research experience to help conduct research

Requirements

Required:

At least 4+ years of experience as a UX researcher in an applied research setting applying various user experience research methods and techniques (e.g. usability studies, field research)
Relevant experience in conducting research, developing strategies demonstrating analytical ability, analyzing qualitative data and preparing sets of recommendations
Experience in qualitative and quantitative gender related research and analysis, including extensive experience in dealing with gender equality issues
Knowledge of current thinking and development in the field of gender equality, women’s empowerment and digital connectivity
Experience in UX research of a mobile IVR-based Platform
Experience in synthesizing and sharing research findings
Knowledge of effective advocacy and communication techniques for advancing gender equality (achieving buy-in and ownership)
Business fluency in English if based in Nigeria or Uganda or French if based in Mali and of at command of least one local language
Experience living and working in Africa, preferably in Nigeria, Mali and Uganda.

Desirable:

Experience with Dovetail or similar research repositories
Master’s Degree in Anthropology, Human Factors, Psychology, HCI/Computer Science, a related field, or equivalent practical experience
Experience building the capacity of others to conduct UX research
Ability to speak several local languages and French.