Social Venture Customer Development Internship at Mercy Corps Kenya
Program / Department Summary: Mercy Corps has been operational in Kenya since 2007 and currently implements programs in Rift Valley, Central and Wajir districts with funding from USAID, Gates Foundation, ICDF and private Horn of Africa drought response funds.
Mercy Corps Kenya has experienced significant growth in the past year and a half after securing several high profile awards from USAID.
Mercy Corps’ efforts are focused on supporting youth so they have a voice and opportunities for growth. We are also helping drought affected communities recover and be more resilient.
Social Venture Customer Development Internship – Nairobi
Program / Department Summary: The Social Venture Team has three phases (assess, prove and scale) for ideas that receive grant funding from the Social Venture Fund and can become a sustainable social business.
Each phase must meet certain criteria to be eligible for the next phase with the ultimate aim of spinning the business off on its own as a successful social business.
The team is in the early stages of the assess phase testing a youth employment social enterprise of an online and mobile marketplace for short term and repetitive jobs.
The aim of this marketplace is expand the networks of youth to allow youth to become more productive and hire additional staff to meet growing needs as well as stimulate job creation for new services to capture latent demand by the growing lower to middle class.
This business functions both via mobile and web, leveraging SMS and mobile payments to link youth to individual employers for specific jobs followed up by individual reviews.
You will be a part of a cross-functional team working on new products development, in a startup-like environment, following Lean Startup methodology.
You’ll bridge technical and business worlds as you participate in the design of new products using rapid, customer-focused iterations. You will also take part in brainstorming, evaluation and development of ideas gathered through internal company innovation pipeline.
Areas of focus may include:
1. Supporting program in recruiting customers and validating profiles.
2. Supporting field tests and interviews documenting key learnings and summaries.
3. Supporting business team in developing business models and measuring key metrics.
Learning Objectives:
During the internship you will have a chance to get familiarized with following concepts
- Lean Startup
- Customer Development
- Business model design and prototyping using business model canvas.
- Idea brainstorming,
- Idea evaluation
- Marketing research
Deliverables:
The Intern will support the team through the following activities:
1. Support the design of monitoring and database indicators, forms, and tools of data collection instruments.
2. Work with team to organize, summarize and utilize data and data findings.
3. Assist in preparation, participate and coordinate pilot development, business product development, and trainings.
4. Supporting program team in incorporating social media into business.
Ideal candidate should possess the following qualifications:
- Last year students with strong interest in entrepreneurship and new emerging technologies.
- Excellent organizational and analytical skills with strong technical abilities
- Excellent written and oral communication skills
The following skills will be considered as advantage:
- Programming
- Experience with Agile Software Development
- Experience developing Internet products and technologies
- Experience with Google analytics or similar analytics tool
- Online and social marketing
Mercy Corps interns and volunteers represent the agency both during and outside of work hours and are expected to conduct themselves in a professional manner and respect local laws, customs and MC’s policies, procedures, and values at all times and in all in-country venues.
Interested candidates who meet the above required qualifications and experience should submit on or before August 1, 2014 a cover letter, detailed Curriculum Vitae (CV) listing three professional references to hrkenya@ke.mercycorps.org.
Applicants must clearly indicate on the email subject: “Social Venture Intern”.
Applications without the right subject heading will automatically be disqualified.
Please do not attach any certificates.
Only qualified short-listed candidates will be contacted.
NB: Mercy Corps does not charge any fee at any stage of the recruitment process.
