User Experience Winternship: December ‘18 - January ‘19
Overview
CONTEXT
During this past winter break, I had a chance to intern at Afrijob in Nairobi, Kenya. My main task for the winternship was to conduct research on the behaviors, motivations and needs of the users through observation, task analysis and other types of user feedback.
SUMMARY
Afrijob is a company that matches skilled students to internship opportunities in Africa. They were looking to have a better user experience in both their website as well as the whole matching process for both the students and the startups that they partner with.
THE SOLUTION
After carrying out user research, I came up with informed recommendations on how to improve their website as well as application process in order to provide a high quality user experience for both the students and the startups.
TIMELINE
3 weeks
MY ROLE
Product thinking, Interaction Design and Visual Design
Process
Since the internship only lasted for a few weeks, I had to be strategic about what I wanted to achieve for the three weeks I was there. I spent the first two days learning more about Afrijob and understanding their overall goals and objectives. I was tasked with understanding the user needs and behaviors. I will now go in depth into the root problem, the user needs, the target audience, the market research and lastly the recommendations to improve the overall user experience.
UNDERSTANDING THE PROBLEM SPACE
Many students and professionals are passionate about career opportunities in Africa but end up not pursuing this passion due to various barriers.
Many African corporations and companies are also looking for top notch skills and specialized skills but don’t get access to these skills due to various barriers as well.
USER RESEARCH
The main goal of this user research was to understand barriers that users had when pursuing career opportunities in Africa as well as to understand how to better the users’ application and matching process through Afrijob. I carried out in person interviews as well as phone interviews to gain a better understanding of the problem space. I interviewed Afrijob applicants, fellows and the founders.
RESEARCH INSIGHTS
Why is it hard for students and professionals to access career opportunities in Africa?
There are no programs that provide access to these opportunities.
Africa is often portrayed as a vacation place and not a career exploration continent.
Stereotypical views such as high crime rates deter applicants from applying to the continent.
Most of the local talent ends up working for international corporations after studying abroad.
Why is it hard for African corporations and startups to access top notch skill set and specialized skills?
There are no programs that provide access to this talent.
Most of the local talented students that go abroad to study end up working abroad.
Most of the local talented students that go to study abroad don’t have access to opportunities in Africa that promise to utilize and enhance their skill sets as well as careers.
Most of the specialized skills that the African companies need are not readily available in the specific countries where the corporations are located.
PEOPLE PROBLEM
Afrijob is a platform that matches top global talent with local African corporations and companies.
OVERALL USER NEEDS
Lack of international internship programs that provide opportunities in Africa
Need to provide students and professionals who are passionate about working for African corporations and startups an opportunity to do so
Need to provide specialized skills in African countries that might not have the particular skill sets in their own countries
Need to bring local talent back to local companies
Need to provide career exploration experiences to local talent who are trying to decide between working abroad and in Africa
TARGET AUDIENCE
This section identifies the main target audience that Afrijob strives to provide services to.
Talented global students who are passionate about working in the African continent
African students who studied abroad who are trying to decide whether to work abroad or come back to the continent
Professionals who are looking to transition in their career
African companies and startups looking for particular and specialized talent that is scarce in the continent or particular continent
African companies and startups in need of highly skilled and motivated individual
MARKET RESEARCH
Some of the main differentiating factors and competitive advantage that Afrijob promises to provide include:
Portfolio offering
Many programs offer internship opportunities abroad to South America and Asia and other regions but don’t offer opportunities to African countries.
Diversity in interests
Cater to a variety of interests that students and professionals can apply to such as Tech, Finance, Medicine, Marketing, Strategy
Affordability
Don’t work on a pay to place basis but instead offer affordable matching prices for the companies and strive to have companies provide living stipend and accommodation to the fellows.
Name recognition and top notch talent and skills
Offer highly talented students from the best universities around the world.
Country and linguistic diversity
Strive to offer diversity in the countries within the African continent that students and professionals can apply to. Also strive to offer linguistic diversity to students and professionals who want to go to countries that speak a certain language
Personal goal of changing the African narrative
Pride in offering students and professionals with a glimpse of the numerous career and personal opportunities and experiences available in the continent such as the booming startup scene in Nairobi.
Reccomendation
Based on Afrijob’s goals and the user and market research, I came up with a couple of recommendations to improve the application process and the website. Some of these recommendations included a clear explanation of how the matching process worked, clear description of the various programs offered and brief overview of the program cities.
I then came up with recommendations to revamp the website
Website Revamp
Conclusion
OUTCOMES
Came up with recommendations to improve the overall application and matching process as well as suggestions on how to improve their website.
KEY TAKEAWAYS AND REFLECTION
Although I only got to work on this project for such a short period of time, I really enjoyed this project and got a lot out of it. My biggest takeaway and lesson was the importance of balancing all the different user needs from different kinds of users. Although Afrijob actively works with students and companies, after user interviews I realized that the students are the ones who mostly interacted with the website.
If I had more time I would have wished to have interviewed more users, especially more startups. All in all, I really enjoyed working at Afrijob and being in Nairobi.
Feel free to reach out to discuss this project in depth and to talk about more of the recommendations that I came up with.