Senior User Researcher, Digital Public Works

Overview

The User Researcher is responsible for ensuring Digital Public Works’ (DPW) products are meaningful and impactful to all members of the public, especially persons above 50 years old and users with disabilities, and this impact can be communicated to government staff qualitatively and quantitatively.

DPW is building an income verification product that is integrated into state benefit systems. The product has four core external stakeholders: 

• Benefits Applicants should overwhelmingly prefer using our tool than manually verifying their income, will only have to provide information once to states with minimal friction or administrative burden, and will benefit from a human-centered and automated workflow as much as possible.This position is specifically focused on ensuring that persons above 50 years old and users with disabilities can easily use DiCIT to verify their income.   

• Caseworkers should confidently rely on the information our tool provides, receive complete data sets from DiCIT, love using our tool, and should spend minimal time requesting documentation from clients.
• States should see noticeable reduction in caseworker burden, a decrease in error rates, a decrease in verifications costs over time, and faster application processing times.
• Funders should receive qualitative and quantitative data demonstrating that our product increases benefit accessibility, delivery, and timeliness, to vulnerable populations.

Role and Responsibilities

This role exists to ensure DPW’s products are meaningful and impactful to all members of the public, especially persons above 50 years old and users with disabilities, and this impact can be communicated to and government staff qualitatively and quantitatively. The candidate selected for this role will join a small team of nine people at DPW. This role will require a balance of foundational, in-depth research, usability testing of an existing product, and potentially prototype development and testing. You will be expected to self-direct, while contributing to foundational user research models for DPW and producing synthesis & sharing recommendations with the development team. The primary focus of this position will be to support a 12-month grant from the AARP Foundation Grant.

Two essential frames for this role and research in the social safety net are:

• Trauma-informed. Trauma-informed design and research is an approach to conducting research on sensitive topics. Participants must feel physically and psychologically secure when participating in user research with DPW.
• Harm mitigation. Identifying and reducing the likelihood of harmful experiences and outcomes through specific interventions and strategies. The potential for harmful outcomes within our product and in the ways our product is used must be mitigated.

Outcomes to Be Achieved

• DPW’s income verification platform is accessible and intuitive, making income verification more efficient for persons above 50 years old and users with disabilities. Specifically: 
  • Increased number of individuals 50+ submit Income Reports through DiCIT.
  • User testing and feedback shows that DiCIT is easier than current income verification methods.
  • User testing and feedback shows that DiCIT provides a more dignified and compassionate experience than current income verification methods.
  • Research with individuals who are 50+, working (and living with a disability) has clearly documented insights about how DiCIT and other digital income verification tools could ease the burden of income verification.
• Planning and implementing research that translates into clear, concrete insights, frameworks and recommendations that enable the platform team to make platform improvements.  Research will widen and deepen the organization’s knowledge about income situations, increasing the product’s ability to support the diversity of users who need to verify their income.
• Research methods and cycles are appropriate to the scope of work and potential risks are clearly communicated in advance so the team can take proper mitigation steps. 
• DPW’s product experiences result in timely and effective actions by applicants and caseworkers,  while reducing harmful outcomes.
• DPW has compelling narratives to share with a variety of audiences through visual and verbal materials that effectively communicate user needs, design direction, and broader strategies.  
• Establish and track baseline accessibility metrics that demonstrate improvement over the grant period.
• Produce publishable research findings in partnership with the DPW-AARP team on income verification accessibility for older adults and people with disabilities.

Competencies Needed to Achieve Outcomes

• User Research: Applying qualitative and quantitative research methods to gather insights from interacting with and observing users, with the purpose of informing the strategy and design of a product or service. Making sure research is conducted ethically and with care, respecting participant privacy, and in staying in compliance with relevant regulations and guidelines. 
• Research & Design Operations: Identifies opportunities for feedback loops across the project / work by establishing tools, systems, templates, and workflows for the team to use. 
• Systems Thinking: Systems are the connections between people, processes, and organizations. Systems thinking means both understanding and communicating the following about the system(s): the parts and whole, structures and processes, objects and relationships, hierarchies and networks, and linear and non-linear paths.
• Research Process: Demonstrates awareness of different design methods and how to apply them based on situational needs. A researcher’s ability to identify the right process for each project is integral to their success — process can make or break whether we are solving the right problems, getting stakeholder buy-in, centering on users, and improving the overall user experience.
• Teamwork: Has the ability to work with others toward a shared goal, participating actively, sharing responsibility and rewards, and contributing to the capability of the team through user research.

Additional Notes

This position is fully remote with occasional in-person meetings as needed to fulfill the responsibilities of the position.

Portfolio

You must submit a portfolio to be considered for this role. Please provide a website, slide deck, or PDF presentation that showcases at least 3 projects from the last 5 years of your work. At least one of these selections should be from work done in the last 12 months. Each of these projects should define:

• Who was on the team
• The role you played
• Approaches/methods
• Outcomes

Be sure to provide any passwords to protected websites or files. Any submissions that do not include a portfolio and credentials will not be considered.

Technical Skills

• Required
  • Visual artifacts, maps, and models: customer journey maps, service maps, experience principles, frameworks, and other documentation that communicate research findings.
  • Remote and in-person facilitation: workshops and cross-discipline working sessions to align and prioritize projects, findings, opportunities, and initiatives using industry-standard user testing tools.
  • Figma for managing prototypes and design work sessions.
  • Mural for facilitating stakeholder work sessions.
  • Survey design and quantitative analysis to complement qualitative research methods
  • Baseline metrics establishment and tracking to demonstrate accessibility improvements over time
• Requested
  • Spanish-speaking a PLUS
  • Accessibility
  • Scaling research operation
  • Experience working in social safety net benefits
  • Accessibility expertise
  • Baseline metrics establishment and tracking.
  • Quantitative analysis.

Organizational Background

Digital Public Works (DPW) is working towards a world where all Americans can access the public benefits to which they are entitled with minimal transaction costs, and financial nor technological barriers prevent states from delivering benefits to eligible Americans. DPW’s first step in realizing this vision is to develop and deploy a consent-based income verification platform that will ease the friction associated with verifying income and thus help applicants enroll, and stay enrolled, in means-tested public benefits programs. DPW is a fiscally sponsored project of Digital Harbor Foundation.

Digital Harbor Foundation is dedicated to fostering learning, creativity, productivity, and community through education with a vision of digital equity for everyone. Driven by our sincere belief that access to opportunity is a basic right, we take bold yet practical actions to support making a better future now. Through a portfolio of projects focused on developing leadership within communities, we support those closest to challenges to take deliberate actions based in design thinking approach, backed by data analysis, grounded in a practice of collective impact, and driven by a commitment to racial equity.

Other Duties

Please note that this job description is not designed to cover or contain a comprehensive listing of activities, duties or responsibilities that are required of the employee for this job. Duties, responsibilities and activities may change at any time with or without notice.

Compensation

Compensation for this full-time position is $120,000 - $150,000 annually, commensurate with experience. 

Digital Harbor and DPW provide a best-in-class comprehensive set of benefits to support the team. All regular, full-time employees are eligible to receive:

Health Benefits & Insurance

• Carefirst Blue Cross Blue Shield - Health, Dental, and Vision Insurance (100% of the premium paid for employees and 85% of dependents)
• Pre-Tax Health Savings Account (HSA) (with $365 monthly employer contributions)
• Pre-Tax Flexible Savings Account (FSA)
• Paid Accidental Death & Dismemberment (AD&D) Insurance
• Paid Short-Term & Long-Term Disability Insurance
• Paid Basic Life Insurance
• Supplemental Voluntary Life Insurance (Employee, Spouse & Dependent Children)
• Total Pet Plan and Supplemental Wishbone Pet Insurance
• Employee Opportunity Program (EAP) - Health and Wellness
• Wellness Reimbursement Program 

Retirement

• 401k Retirement Plan (with 6% matching)

Paid Time Off

• 15 Days Paid Time Off Per Year
• 20 Days Paid Time Off Per Year (after 3rd Anniversary)
• 25 Days Paid Time Off Per Year (after 6th Anniversary)
• 16 Paid Holidays (14 common plus 2 flexible holidays, including Dec 25 - Jan 1)
• Paid Bereavement Leave
• Paid Parental Leave for Moms and Dads (two weeks after first year)

If our mission and vision align with your personal values, please apply!

A cover letter outlining your qualifications for the position along with your resume is required. Interviews will be conducted virtually.

Digital Harbor and Digital Public Works are equal opportunity employers.