Product Experiments Associate

Position Overview 

Do you have a passion for making a difference in the lives of young people? Are you excited by the power of data-driven design to improve educational products? Educate!, a fast-growing and award-winning social enterprise, is seeking a Product Experiments Associate to join our dynamic Out-of-School Youth (OoSY) team in Uganda. The OoSY Solution Line champions Educate!'s mission to create alternative education pathways for out-of-school youth, particularly young women in rural areas. We empower them with the skills and knowledge needed for quality self-employment in the informal economy. In this role, you will play a critical role in ensuring our OoSY products (Educate! Business Academy & Original SEED) are continuously improving to meet the needs of our end users. 

Are you our ideal candidate?

• You have a strong foundation in user-centered design principles and research methodologies.
• You possess excellent analytical skills and can translate data into actionable insights.
• You are a strong communicator and adept at presenting complex information to diverse audiences.
• You are a collaborative team player who can effectively manage and oversee experiment activities.
• You are passionate about youth development and social impact, and you are committed to empowering young women in rural communities.

About Educate!

Africa has the world’s youngest and fastest-growing population. By 2035, the continent is poised to contribute more people to the global workforce each year than the rest of the world combined. 

At Educate! we're obsessed with impact. We leverage iterative learning to build highly scalable youth employment solutions aimed at unlocking the potential of the world’s youngest continent. 

Educate! prepares youth in Africa learn, earn and thrive in today’s economy by: 

1) introducing an employment-focused school subject into secondary, and 

2) delivering livelihood bootcamps for out-of-school youth, with a focus on marginalized rural girls and young women.

To date, more than 250,000 youth have been meaningfully impacted across Uganda, Rwanda, and Kenya, and along the way, Educate! has become the largest youth employment and skills provider in East Africa.

Educate! is a team of over 250 largely African staff and 300 volunteer youth mentors. We prioritize building an engaging, fulfilling and growth oriented work environment. 50% of our top 30 leaders have been with us for over 5 years, 10+ alumni have started their own organizations and 6 current or former team members were Acumen Fund East Africa fellows. 

We have been backed by top foundations such as Imaginable Futures, Big Bang Philanthropy,  #startsmall, Generation Unlimited, CIFF and Echidna Giving. Educate! won a 2018 Klaus J. Jacobs Prize and a 2015 WISE Award, and has been highlighted by the World Bank’s S4YE's Impact Portfolio, an Al Jazeera documentary, BBC, The Brookings Institution as one of 14 case studies on scaling education, and the Gates Foundation as a Goalkeepers Accelerator. In 2022, we received a catalytic investment from philanthropist Mackenzie Scott to scale our systems change work.

Educate!'s long-term vision is to design solutions that measurably impact millions of youth across Africa each year. By 2025, we aim to scale our annual reach by 4x and measurably impact over 400,000 new youth. 

Performance Objectives 

• Create a strategically aligned learning agenda that drives product improvement - 15%
• Design discovery and experiments to gather actionable data - 25%
• Ensure high-quality implementation of experiments - 30%
• Provide actionable reports based on swift and solid data analysis - 30%

Create a strategically aligned learning agenda that drives product improvement - 15%

• Develop clear and concise research questions aligned with the OoSY product strategy.
• Identify and prioritize product and delivery features for discovery and experimentation based on OoSY product goals. 

• Create an experiment product backlog with tasks/user stories that align with the learning agenda and keep it updated based on the learnings.
• Propose scope and product research design for learning activities per the learning agenda. Periodically assess progress on the learning agenda.
• With the Principal Strategist (Senior Product Manager), keep the product Lean Canva, user persona, user journey, and other product artifacts updated based on insights. 

Design discovery and experiments to gather actionable data - 25%

• Design user-centered research methodologies (e.g., surveys, interviews, usability testing) that effectively address the research questions.
• Collaborate with product strategists to plan sprints to enable collaboration. 
• Design experiments and discovery activities with data and learning collection tools, clear hypotheses, success metrics, and appropriate data collection methods. 

Ensure high-quality implementation of experiments - 30%

• Create an implementation work plan in consultation with the product strategist and designers. 
• Communicate experiment implementation strategy through (sprint) retrospectives, including targets, and timelines.
• Oversee the successful execution of discovery and experiments, ensuring adherence to research protocols and ethical guidelines.
• Implement robust data collection procedures to ensure data quality and integrity. 
• Ensure compliance with ethical standards and participant protection. 
• Document the experiment's implementation journey, meeting notes, decisions, and iterations to support future reference.
• Provide updates to the product strategist, designers, and the director of program implementation on the experiment's implementation progress, including obstacles and proposed solutions to overcome them. 
• Coordinate the implementation of user-panels or other user feedback platforms. 

Provide actionable reports based on swift and solid data analysis - 30%

• Clean, organize, and analyze quantitative and qualitative data from experiments using appropriate tools and techniques. 
• If data analysis support or reporting is needed, consult with performance metrics and evaluation teams. 
• Execute qualitative and quantitative analysis. 
• Identify key trends and patterns in the data and translate them into actionable insights for product improvement. 
• Develop succinct and actionable reports based on the data gathered.
• Ensure well-organized storage of data and reports. 

Qualifications 

• Bachelor’s degree in Economics, social science, entrepreneurship or a related field.
• At least 2 years of professional experience, with a background in product (user-)research, research, innovation, or product management.
• Experience designing and conducting experiments or user research (UX) studies.
• Experience working in a product-centric organization, social enterprise/start-up preferred. 
• Experience working with diverse stakeholders and managing many priorities.
• Proficiency in data analysis tools (e.g., Excel, SPSS).
• High level of computer literacy: Google documents, spreadsheets, etc. 
• Fits our Five Cultural Tenets (see What is Educate! About? below); Learn more by looking at Educate!’s culture deck here

Terms 

• Salary is competitive and commensurate with experience
• Attractive Benefits & Perks including Medical Insurance.
• Location is Kampala, Uganda with frequent travel to the field. We currently work in a hybrid mode with the possibility of working from home three days a week.
• The Product Experiments Associate reports to the Principal Product Strategist, OoSY. 
• This position currently has no direct reports but could have one in future. 

What Is Educate! About? 

We’re ambitious. Are you? Educate! is growing fast, so new opportunities are opening up and expanding all the time. We’re inspired by people with drive, and we love to help them reach their full potential. We expect everyone at Educate! to contribute above and beyond their job description, grow their skills, and advance their careers, and we are committed to supporting our staff members on that journey.

1. We put Youth First, Impact-Obsessed - We never forget that Educate! exists to impact youth. We are purpose-driven. We obsess over impact daily and if it doesn’t lead to impact, we want nothing to do with it. We prioritize interacting with and listening to youth. We design and manage the organization to ensure every dollar creates transformative experiences that youth value. 
2. We Exceed Expectations - We take pride in going above and beyond to achieve the best results. When we know what needs to be done, we do it. We don’t wait to be asked and we don’t stop at what is asked of us. We look for solutions as much as we identify problems.
3. We Are Always Learning - We are committed to seeking and applying new knowledge and ideas. We stay open-minded. We know there is always another way and we are excited to learn about it. We continuously look for resources of all kinds from multiple disciplines. We try new things, experiment, grow, and improve. We invest in learning for ourselves and our teams.
4. We are One Team, Many Views - We say what we think while treating each other well. We believe that all people have the same inherent value and that diverse ideas and open dialogue fuel excellence. We constantly strive to create an environment where everyone can and does express themselves freely. We support and respect each other as people and colleagues. We act as one team: We prioritize the organization's mission and goals over team or individual goals.
5. We have the Startup Mindset - We will always keep innovating to grow our impact. We aspire to be game-changing. We never think “we have arrived” or “we’re done.” We question the status quo in our industry. We move fast and embrace change to move towards our long-term vision. We’re not afraid of failure. We interrogate anything that slows us down. 

Every person at Educate! — from interns to the executive director — is evaluated by how they live up to these five cultural tenets. They are at the core of how we achieve our mission and why we work as well as we do.

Educate is committed to providing an inclusive and welcoming environment for all who interact in our community.  In creating this environment, we encourage people from a variety of cultures, backgrounds and life experiences to join our diverse team.

Child Safeguarding: Educate! is committed to child-safe/youth-safe recruitment, selection and screening. Our recruitment and selection procedures reflect our commitment to the safety and protection of children in our programs. The successful candidate will be required to provide a satisfactory Certificate of Good Conduct as a condition of employment. We reserve the right to decline to offer employment to an individual or terminate an employment contract with an employee that may pose a risk to children and youth.