Behavioral Design Consultant

Introduction
Busara Center for Behavioral Economics (Busara) welcomes submissions for Expressions of Interest to consultants who specialize in Behavioral Design and Qualitative Research at an advanced level, for purposes of pre-qualification for the provision of their consulting services.

About Busara
Busara is a leading behavioral science organization in the Global South, where we apply behavioral science to help alleviate poverty through advisory work and original academic research. Busara applies rigorous research methods and evaluation tools to enable partners to improve program design, assess existing interventions, and optimize internal processes. We work with governments, NGOs, private companies and academics to understand human behavior, and design solutions to overcome behavioral barriers to products, programs, and policies as they scale.

Busara operates from its permanent offices in Kenya, Nigeria, India, Uganda, and Tanzania, and has worked on projects with partners internationally. We have launched a new strategy to expand our work globally, signed new projects across Africa, South Asia and South America all in pursuit of our twin missions of advancing behavioral science and alleviating poverty as we strive to bridge the gap between research and application. We have worked on projects related to agriculture, financial inclusion, savings, inequality, entrepreneurship, civic engagement, and other questions central to development economics.

Objective of the Assignment
The consultant will work as part of a larger project team composed of other full-time staff and consultants, and is expected to make contributions to an ongoing product design process. This process will involve working with Busara’s internal team and its client to work down from a long list of product design ideas, to the development of a select few medium fidelity prototypes that the client can develop and roll out into the market. The designs can vary from product iterations to communication campaigns based on their relevance and priority to the client as well as the potential for impact for end users. All potential designs will need to address specific previously identified behavioral problems, as well as incorporate behavioral economics principles to further optimize them.

Specific Responsibilities

• Communicating and demonstrating the value of Design - Thinking research approaches through exceptional problem-solving skills
• Conducting training Busara staff in how to use Design Thinking principles in their work.
• Contributing to thought leadership initiatives and activities related to qualitative research and experimental design
• Keeping abreast of developments in design thinking, and promoting design thinking research capability within Busara through knowledge sharing and training activities and the development of new approaches.
• Collaborating effectively with Busara projects team members at all stages of projects; maintaining responsibility for your own time and deliverables
• Leading design engagement from a customer behavioral lens - from customer research to ideation, prototyping, and user testing: Be able to quickly identify behavioral change levers.
• Engaging in multiple large-scale research projects at a given time.
• Effectively facilitating behavioral research and design workshops and trainings
• Sharing knowledge and developing the design and innovation capabilities of the team.
• Developing user profiles, personas and task matrix, task lists, process flows, user journey maps and wireframes
• Working with analytics and data science, designing and analyze A/B tests
• Conducting UX research using the full range of UX research techniques: surveys, usability testing, text/structured data analysis, qualitative interviews and focus groups.

Requirements: Experience and skills

• A Bachelor’s degree in Experience Design, Human Centered Design (HCD), Design, Social Sciences e.g. Anthropology, Sociology, Psychology, International Development and Humanities, Economics, Public Policy, or related fields.
• Experience conducting design research within a business setting
• Experience planning and facilitating co-design workshops.
• Experience in building and testing wireframes, prototypes and mockups
• 2+ years experience in UX/ UI design or design strategy, including customer behavioral research, ideation, prototyping, and user testing
• Deep skill-set and proven track record in one or more of the following design disciplines: Product design, service design, digital design & prototyping and/or information visualization.
• Expert knowledge of HCD and Design Thinking methods and tools such as ethnographic or contextual research, concept generation, prototyping, usability study, information architecture, interaction design, etc.
• Experience working with low-income populations in emerging markets and/or experience working on the continent.
• Experience of applying behavioral or psychological constructs and theories to design approaches.
• Strong research, synthesis, ideation and visual storytelling skills. Strong ability to present information in a concise, insightful, structured and provocative manner, both in written and oral forms.
• Flexible, self-motivating, able to manage multiple tasks efficiently and a team player.
• Interest and experience working in a fast-paced working environment.
• Strong ability to communicate the power of design to stakeholders from varied backgrounds.

Consulting Details

Duties of Busara
1. The Busara team will provide overall clarification on expectations and technical support as required.
2. Busara will provide contextual information required, including already generated long list of ideas.

Duties of the Consultant
The consultant will:
1. Operate from own office other than in exceptional situations and provide own manpower, work facilities, equipment, stationery, supplies, and all operational requirements to carry out the assignment and provide the services required;
2. Deliver high-quality service within the agreed timelines.
3. Liaise with the Technical Director on a regular basis to report progress, and report any issues and/or concerns that may affect the performance of the consultancy in the course of the assignment

Terms
Consultants will be pre-qualified to provide services in the areas identified and thereafter be engaged on a need basis. Individual consultants with academic or research backgrounds are encouraged to apply. As this is a consulting position, it comes without a guarantee of full-time employment position within Busara.

Submission and Deadline
Interested consultants are invited to submit the following:
1. Detailed curriculum vitae
2. Academic and professional certificates
3. Samples or descriptions of past work done

Please submit your interest via this portal. Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis until the post is filled.