Fight Extreme Poverty: Freelance Sr. Behavioral Research - Montreal, Canada - Appleseedimpact

Description

This position may be based anywhere in the world (not necessarily Canada or the US).

Are you a marketer or designer with a heart for social impact?
Are you passionate about using qualitative research and behavioral science to design impactful strategies?

UPDATE: Thank you for your interest We have now staffed our Bangladesh project, and are currently looking for consultants for our projects in Madagascar and Rwanda.

Appleseed is seeking seasoned and well-rounded freelance behavioral practitioners (service design / experience design / marketing / ethnographic researcher & strategist) to serve in Deputy roles on 2 upcoming projects serving clients in Madagascar and Rwanda. These collaborators would be client-facing consultants, ready to join the team to conduct research & strategy, working both remotely and in the field. They must also share our core values and have the experience and disposition needed to thrive on a globally-distributed small team. Ideally (but not required), we are hoping to find individuals interested in joining the Appleseed core team in the future, should the initial collaboration go well (more detail below).

• Type of Role: Project-specific Independent Contractors; please see project briefings below
• Exploration of Fit: now until mid-June
• Start Date: mid-May or mid-June 2024, depending on project
• Project Location / Estimated Duration: 4 months total
• 6 weeks remote part-time hours/week)
• 2-3 weeks in-person full-time in the field
• 6 weeks remote part-time hours/week)
• Fee range: USD $10,000 to $18,000 (negotiable; excludes reimbursable project-related expenses)

Please feel free to apply even if you are unavailable or uninterested in these particular projects, but are interested in exploring a fit. We'd be happy to do that now, so when the right project opportunity comes up, we can team up with no delay

Company Overview

Appleseed is a behavioral agency for global development. We are obsessed with one big problem across the sector: important solutions failing to stick.

Our clients are fighting to end poverty or protect the planet. When they struggle to engage people or drive uptake of a service, product, or idea, they and/or their funders will put us on the case. Appleseed consultants dive deep—taking an ethnographic approach to investigate the challenge and uncover human insights. Then we help our clients design accordingly and bring about changes required for impact.

We envision a day when all impact organizations design purely based on people's needs and realities. We partner only with nonprofits and funders who seek to preserve human dignity as they go about fostering change within communities. See how we have enabled:

• smallholder farmers in Senegal to space crops for higher yields
• schoolchildren in Kenya to stop drinking contaminated water , or
• farmers in Guatemala to plant a new kind of maize, fortified to combat malnutrition

Working with Appleseed, collaborators may expect:

• Flexible and fun organizational culture
• Interesting and meaningful challenges and travel experience
• Exposure to a network of top social impact leaders (doers and funders)
• Small team of candid, curious, fun, and motivated colleagues

To learn more, visit

Project Briefings

For all projects, the collaboration would start with part-time remote preparation: internal onboarding of new team members to Appleseed culture and methodology, data / literature review, stakeholder interviews, project kick-off with the Client, and research planning. Then, we will travel to conduct a 2-3 week in-country stint for field research. This 2-3 week in-country stint would be full-time and all-consuming. This research stint will be followed by part-time remote work to complete the Research Phase and Strategy Phase: research reporting, facilitating acceptance of research insights, and co-designing a strategic playbook with the Client. The Client will then be responsible for experimentation / implementation, based on the behavioral strategy we delivered.

A member of Appleseed's core team will lead this project as the client manager, lead researcher and strategist. If you were to join the project, you'd serve in the role as Deputy Behavioral Researcher & Strategist. This 2-person team would be supported by another Appleseed team member helping remotely as a thought-partner throughout the project. During the in-country research stint, two client-side team members would join our research team to conduct mixed-method qualitative research. Fixers and interpreters will be provided by the client or hired as needed.

Bangladesh Project - STAFFED
The client on this engagement is a social impact organization based in Bangladesh. The target audience will be low-income adults over the age of 40 y.o. in Bangladesh who are screened at a vision camp and confirmed to have presbyopia, and the behavioral challenge is for them to purchase a pair of reading glasses at vision camps after being screened and diagnosed with presbyopia (baseline adoption: approximately 1 in 3).

• 12 weeks remote part-time, 2-3 weeks in-person full-time (international travel required)
• Collaborating with the Client and team members in different time zones
• Target start date: April 15th, 2024
• Estimated end date: end of August 2024

Madagascar Project: *French Speakers Only* The client on this engagement is a social impact organization based in Madagascar, working to strengthen the public health system. The target audience will be parents of children under 5, and the behavioral challenge is to travel to bring children to the nearest community health worker in case of cough, fever, or diarrhea.

• 12 weeks remote part-time, 2-3 weeks in-person full-time (international travel required; August or September)
• Collaborating with the Client and team members in different time zones
• Target start date: June 1st, 2024
• Estimated end date: Fall 2024

Rwanda Project:
The client on this engagement is a social impact organization based in Rwanda, providing affordable and sustainable earthen flooring in low-income communities. The target audience will be women within the customer households, and the behavioral challenge is daily floor maintenance.

• 12 weeks remote part-time, 2-3 weeks in-person full-time (international travel required; likely in August)
• Collaborating with the Client and team members in different time zones
• Target start date: July 1st, 2024
• Estimated end date: Fall 2024

The Role

As a Senior Behavioral / UX Consultant, you would deliver world-class service to our clients around the world -- on the client project described above, and/or others in the future. To do this, you would serve in a Deputy role, helping the team leader to carry out client engagements from end-to-end. This would entail preparing for and conducting investigative research in the field, analyzing data and reporting insights, producing strategic recommendations, and always upholding Appleseed's brand promise to clients.

As part of Appleseed's inner circle of collaborators, you'd have ongoing chances to work on diverse issues, from agriculture, financial inclusion, WASH, infectious diseases, vision, and more, all while getting a privileged behind-the-scenes look at the operations of various impact organizations. You would also have the chance to learn from and contribute to our model, org culture, aspects of service delivery, and the various techniques we use to uncover and communicate behavioral insights.

If you find all of this exciting, we now invite you to consider our requirements and expectations for this role.

Qualifications

1. The Craft and Expertise of Changing Behavior: pursuing mastery in the art and skill of fostering positive and sustainable behavior change. Significant practical experience and theoretical knowledge in a related field, such as marketing or design. This requirement is non-negotiable, and candidates will be tested.
2. B2B Consulting Ability: ideally demonstrated with years of proven track record, great client relationships, and experience showing the diverse skill set required to run the full project lifecycle. By "consultant" we mean you were hired by a client (typically another organization) to deliver services and solve problems on their behalf, and NOT as part of an academic endeavor.
3. Field-Readiness: ideally this would be demonstrated by having led field investigations researching people in places analogous to where we work (e.g. rural villages, informal settlements, etc. of Africa, Asia, and Latin America). Researchers must be ready to live for several days with and among those living in extreme poverty (possibly in places with no running water, electricity, or toilets, sleeping on concrete floors, while dealing with mosquitoes and the risk of stomach bugs, etc.)
4. Remote Teamwork Ability: being self-starting, communicative, accountable, and able to foster trust and belonging within a small remote team.
5. Strong Writing Skills: clear, concise writing both in interpersonal communication and in research reporting.

Responsibilities

1. Client Success: delivering impact and client satisfaction, by supporting the Project Lead and executing engagements from start to finish, via the following tasks:
1. Unbiased, mostly qualitative, ethnographic research (field and remote)
2. Development of strategic recommendations
3. Leading clients to internalize findings and accept recommendations
4. Guidance on lean experimentation (if scoped)
5. Client management
6. Note: our engagements focus much more on research & strategy, vs. design/build & implementation
2. Team and Project Management: maintaining a healthy culture and staying true to Appleseed's core values; managing and training yourself, junior team members, and possibly other freelancers—to achieve objectives on-method, on-time, on-budget.

We trust you to self-filter based on the requirements above and the statements below, so that we may either explore a fit or avoid wasting each other's time Culture fit is paramount to us, and we have a good sense of what will / won't work out. If any of these criteria take you out of the running, but you would still like to get in touch, please write us: . If these criteria encourage you to apply, we look forward to hearing from you

Please Do NOT Apply If...

• Your familiarity with the work of changing behavior (however you call it) is more theoretical than practical. I.e. it comes more from books, school, academia, or the experiences of others, instead of your own past efforts
• You're looking for an entry-level or mid-level position (in the future, we'll be adding and training less experienced Behavioral Consultants that fit a similar profile as described here. If this interests you, please use this form instead: ).
• You cannot name several different teams that you'd be happy for us to call and ask about how you've collaborated and added value
• Adventure isn't in your DNA
• It would be very jarring for you to spend time on a research trip (and possibly spend the night) in a village or urban slum without running water, electricity, or a toilet, while dealing with mosquitoes and the risk of stomach bugs
• You take significant pride in being a perfectionist or workaholic
• You consider yourself to be very wise
• You feel uncomfortable giving/receiving candid feedback and being vulnerable with team members
• This "please do not apply if" section rubs you the wrong way

Please DO Apply If...

• Practical behavior change (however you call it) is your craft, and it has been for many years, approaching or exceeding a decade or more. You enjoy and practice all aspects (research, strategy, design), and you always start with the audience
• If you've worked as a consultant, you've built authentic and lasting relationships with your clients
• You'd like to join a small remote team doing hard things, and to participate in its growth
• You thrive in small tight-knit groups, and would help tighten the knitting
• You're a generalist, even if you're very good at certain things
• There is no work you consider beneath you
• You're always seeking wisdom
• You consider feedback a gift, even when it is hard to give or receive
• You're an avid reader and would be excited to join Appleseed's Book Club

Compensation

• Project fee in the range of USD $10,000 to $18,000 (negotiable), which includes all applicable taxes. This fee is exclusive of travel and other project-related expenses to be reimbursed by Appleseed

Hiring Process

The team expects to evaluate shortlisted candidates in March, before coming to terms with the best-fitting candidate by April. Our process will be a two-way conversation to set up a win-win scenario. Applicants are free to suggest other steps, and we always welcome feedback on the candidate experience.

• STAGE If you believe there's a great fit worth exploring, please answer a questionnaire by clicking "Apply for this job" below. You can expect to hear back promptly. Select candidates will be asked to have a quick exploratory chat (20 min). If we both agree to continue, we'll ask you to share a few work samples and references.
• STAGE Qualified candidates will be given a fictional scenario and asked to set up, conduct, and record an interview with a volunteer + write up any insights or recommendations.
• STAGE Candidates who reach this stage will be given a second challenge, a fictional scenario to prep for a client call and give clients feedback.

We know this process will require time and energy investment from both sides, but we think it behooves us to do so to seriously explore a fit. Appleseed is building an inner circle of trusted collaborators, who will be needed on every project we do. If successful, you may expect this one-time exploration of fit to translate into years of fruitful collaboration

If you have any questions or comments, please email us at We respect and thank you in advance for the time and energy you spend going through the application process

Interested in Joining Appleseed's Core Team?

Founded in 2015 in California, Appleseed has now served clients and communities in Africa, Latin America, and Asia, on a range of issues, such as child malnutrition, WASH, financial inclusion, sustainable agriculture, and more. With a proven methodology, strong reputation, and earned-revenue model that is sustaining, we are successfully bringing behavioral expertise to a challenging new market.

Now out of the startup phase, we believe the next piece of the puzzle is "team replication"—so we wish to add a couple more top-notch Senior Consultants (full-time employees) to the Core Team who can deliver on our brand promise, lead projects, and help run the business Ideally, this would be someone who has demonstrated success by working with us on at least one project as a freelancer.

Differences from the Freelance Deputy Role

As a Core Team Member, you would be a full-time (4 days per week) employee, helping to shape various facets of the organization to bring about our envisioned future: every impact organization designing for their audiences to make critical solutions stick.

Compared to the JD for the freelance deputy position above, Core Team Members must meet the same qualifications, and would take on these additional responsibilities: Leading Client Engagements, Training, and Building the Business.

Compensation: Paid annual salary range starting at USD $80,000, with growth plan in place to reach and exceed USD $100,000, unlimited leave for vacation/sick/holiday, annual stipends for workspace upgrades, professional development, and healthcare if needed.

If you're interested, please apply for the project above or let us know you'd like to be considered for future opportunities