Throneless Tech is a technology worker-cooperative based in Washington, DC. We are a queer, values-driven worker cooperative specializing in building technology for social justice oriented community organizations, activist groups, and non-profits. We strive to build technology with, not just for, our communities. We are here for abolition and liberation, and struggle against racist, colonial, imperial, and capitalist systems in our work. We are laboring for a future where that’s true for all, so we work on projects designed with this mission in mind.
We are currently seeking a UX Community Researcher for our new project Bitpart. Bitpart is a chatbot engine that will enable easy, mass communication of news, software, organizing information, or any other kind of broadcast data via secure, proven communication on such platforms as Signal & WhatsApp.
The UX Community Researcher position will serve as the project lead of the UX research portion of the Bitpart project. This position will be designing outreach and research plans, building relationships with the organizations that they will be researching, gathering and analyzing qualitative and quantitative data discovered through a variety of methodologies, documenting the research process, and writing reports synthesizing and explaining the needs of Bitpart's new beta user community.
Major duties of the position include:
Designing the UX research strategy of Bitpart - 10%
- Creating a research strategy document, with help from the Throneless team, to include research objectives, phases/milestones of the research portion of the project and their timelines, establishing the sample size that the project needs, which research and analysis methodologies will be used and at what stage these different methodologies will be conducted
Serving as the project lead for Bitpart's UX research - 60%
- Performing initial user research with existing Throneless partners
- Developing and implementing an initial recruitment and user adoption plan
- Designing and conducting qualitative and quantitative data collection sessions, such as user interviews, surveys, usability tests, etc. as determined by the research strategy document
- Synthesizing research to make findings understandable and actionable by the development team
- Reviewing and amending community outreach and user adoption plan based on the qualitative and quantitative findings
Building relationships with new potential users, both domestically and internationally - 20%
- Communicating and scheduling with domestic and international groups in different timezones and potentially in other languages beside American English. You will have access to resources to help with any language barriers.
- Understanding and implementing digital safety measures for any people or organizations that are potentially under threat of authoritarian governments
Documenting the research process and findings for the development team and the projects shareholders- 10%
- Creating documents such as, but not limited to, the discovery research report, project research strategy, user surveys and feedback plans, community outreach and user adoption plan, assessments of feedback and adoption plans
- Writing regular research summaries, making the research findings understandable and actionable by the development team
- Writing monthly reports to present to our shareholders/grantor, explaining the research activities
About you:
- You love talking to research participants and understanding social and technical systems
- You have experience with human-centered or participatory research (specifically field research)
- You like working independently and in collaboration with a fully remote, distributed team
- You have excellent project team communication and meeting facilitation skills
- You are comfortable advocating for yourself and your work to make sure that you’re getting what you need to be successful
- You understand the nuances of writing for an international audience and how to make your words direct and accessible without simplifying your message
- You write clear, concise, and engaging research synthesis to be read by a broad non-technical audience
- Knowledgeable about one or more of the following areas: open source software, internet freedom, tech criticism and activism, human rights
- Comfortable with collaborative web-based work tools like Toggl Plan, Miro, Signal, and Google Suite
- Comfortable in cross-cultural communication, e.g. experience with international work
- Aware of best practices around informed research consent, safeguarding confidential research information, and anonymizing participant data (if this is new to you, we’re happy to help you learn!)
- You are available at least 20 hours/week with overlap during our prime work hours (9-6pm US Eastern)
Pay, Hours, Position Type, Duration of Employment Contract:
- $45/hour, paid hourly
- 10-30 per week depending on workload
- Position type: Contractor
- Duration of employment contract: through the duration of the project contract, between 1.5-2 years
Benefits
- Paid major public holidays & paid lunch
- PTO (Paid Time Off)
- Monthly healthcare stipend
Interested in applying?
Email team [at] throneless [dot] tech with the subject line UX COMMUNITY RESEARCHER with your resume/CV and a portfolio of your work.
In lieu of a cover letter, in the body of the email tell us why you want this job and why we should talk with you.
Deadline to apply is Monday September 11, 2023.
We will be interviewing candidates in September 2023 with the goal of hiring in October 2023.