Freelance Product Manager, Chayn
Remote / DEADLINE: ASAP (up until 31 July 2021)
Pay: £300-350 a day depending on experience / 3 days a week
August 2021 - January 2022
Chayn is an award-winning, open-source collective that leverages technology to empower women against violence and oppression so they can live happier and healthier lives. Chayn started in 2013 to provide survivors of abuse with accurate, diverse and accessible information. Over the past 8 years, over 400,000 people have accessed our award-winning work online, generating 1.2 million page views. Our digital services, Little Window (a chatbot that helps women search for resources on Chayn sites) and Soul Medicine (a micro-course platform) are examples of our innovative approach. Up to 70% of our volunteers are survivors of abuse which means not only are our projects user-centred - they are user-led. We are experts in trauma-informed work. We are one of the few feminist technology projects tackling gender-based violence while creating and maintaining openly-licensed products and code. We’re proud to have been profiled by GitHub for this during GitHub Universe 2018 and on GitHub Sponsors.
Project focus: Remote Trauma Support Service - Bloom
Bloom is a free, web-based support service run by Chayn. Designed for anyone who has experienced or is currently experiencing domestic or sexual abuse, all courses are packed with tailored information, guidance, everyday tools, and comforting words to cope with traumatic events. Our programme involves learning, reflecting, and processing how what we’ve been through may have affected us - all in a safe and empowering space. To guarantee privacy and safety, every participant remains anonymous without missing out on a group setting. Participants work alongside other survivors with the chance to hear others’ thoughts and share their own at the end of the week. Participants can engage with additional content as much or as little as suits and can choose whether to receive course information via WhatsApp or on Telegram. Our 2021 Creating Boundaries course is complete and our Healing from Sexual Trauma course started on 7 June and will run for 7 weeks. Course bookings are live for:
Watch this video for participants which explains how Bloom works.
Objectives and deliverables
We know Bloom works, but before we can grow and market, we need to do further research on unmet needs - with a particular focus on factors that contribute to user dropout and how our service can be more impactful or tailored for each survivor. Feedback indicated this could be because of the rigid structure of our course and prompt schedule, preventing users from engaging in different ways or in their own time. Our daily prompts create mutual accountability and the support of an in-person group; however, we need to test how self-paced learning can interact with the live chat. We want to ask our users: How can we facilitate online support, build community, and give survivors the tools or flexibility to meet their trauma recovery goals?
We want to research, design, and test a platform that can meet these user needs. Our user research will focus on the following issues: how our survivor community uses mental health services, concerns and barriers for accessing digital support, and the value and challenges of participating in a remote community with strangers. We are approaching this discovery research with an open mind.
We have received funding from Comic Relief for user research and designing a digital platform. We are looking for a Product Manager with service design experience to help us do this. We want to optimise this platform to our user needs, as opposed to adapting our service to the capabilities of the third-party platforms we currently use - everything from signup and course delivery, to evaluation and impact measurement.
You will lead on the research and design of a digital platform for Bloom by:
This project will begin in August 2021 and end by the end of January 2022 with a strong possibility for extension. We expect this role to require 3 days every week for 6 months.
A budget of £300-350 a day (inclusive of VAT) is available for this work. The payment will be made monthly. To terminate the contract, both parties need to give the other 2 weeks notice.
Essential
Desirable
Process
To apply, please send the following to team@chayn.co by 31 July 2021 (midnight BST) with “Bloom Product Manager” in the subject line. Applications can be written, detailed in a video or audio format. We encourage applications from women of colour and non-binary people. We’ll be reviewing applications on an ongoing basis so may recruit before the deadline so please apply by sending us the following as soon as you can.
This role is remote. You do not need to be based in the UK but will need to work UK working hours on most days. Interviews will be held on August 9-10 2021. You will be informed of the outcome on Thursday 12th August 2021.