Cytonn: Service Design and Innovation Internship 2019
Job Type: Internship
Job Category: Design
Closing Date: October 18th, 2019
Location: Nairobi
Cytonn Investments is an alternative investment manager, with real estate development capability, and a primary focus on private equity and real estate investments in the high growth Kenyan Region. Cytonn has a unique strategy of coupling two compelling demand areas – the lack of high yielding investment products due to the large banking spread, and the lack of institutional grade real estate; by providing high yielding instruments to attract funding from investors, and we deploy that funding to investment grade, well planned and comprehensive real estate developments that are largely pre-sold. With offices in Nairobi, Nakuru, Nyeri and Kisumu – Kenya and Washington, DC – USA, we are primarily focused on offering alternative investment solutions to global and local institutional investors, individual high net-worth investors, and diaspora investors interested in the East-African region.
Real estate investments are made through our development affiliate, Cytonn Real Estate, where we currently have over Kshs. 82 billion (USD 820 mn) of projects under mandate across ten projects. In private equity, we invest in banking, education, and hospitality. Our financial services investments in Sub Saharan Africa are made through our Cytonn Africa Financial Fund (CAFF). Investments in education and hospitality are made through Cytonn Education Services and Cytonn Hospitality, respectively.
Service design is the practical application of techniques borrowed from different disciplines (including but not limited to behavioral economics, sociology, and psychology) to shape both the consumers’ and service providers’ experiences. In addition to conducting in-depth research on how consumers behave and respond to products and services, designers examine the service delivery processes with a goal of increasing efficiency by eliminating inconsistencies and redundancy.
Cytonn leans heavily on innovation to remain ahead in the market. If successful, you will join a vibrant team that conceptualizes new products and thinks ways to improve processes within the company, tests them, pitches to stakeholders, tweaks them, and iterates until solid, final recommendations are reached. In addition, you will learn user experience (UX) design and work work with the software production team in delivering delightful and targeted experiences.
We’re looking to hire bold, fun, creative, curious, self-driven, action-taking interns who are keen to invest time and energy by going through the 12-week, intense training. This training will allow you to study, practice, and develop your creativity thus make you confident to apply it with the goal of becoming a service designer and innovation catalyst who will work on products and services across Cytonn while ensuring excellent user experience.
RESPONSIBILITIES
- Collaborate with colleagues to identify service design and innovation project opportunities
- Recognize inefficiencies within a service delivery process and where complexity can be removed
- Conduct qualitative design research
- Understand user needs, create personas, and map out the stages of their journey
- Analyze service metrics data to inform design solutions
- Lead co-design working sessions with multi-disciplinary teams to make relevant, feasible recommendations
- Communicate and present research and design insights to stakeholders
- Be the point person in collecting data that shows the impact through the solutions we create
- Promote service design efforts and methods through presentation and communication
- Any other duties as may be prescribed from time to time
- Conduct user research and usability testing to ensure all systems meet client and user requirements
- In association with the UX Designer, Assist in the production of wireframes, prototypes, concept sketches, interaction designs and user flows using key design tools
REQUIREMENTS
- Have attained at least a B+ in KCSE (or its equivalent)
- Have graduated or expecting to graduate with at least a Second Class Upper Honors (or its equivalent)
- Have a high tolerance for rejection and welcome constructive criticism of their work
- Be experimental with a curious mind and an enthusiastic work ethic
- Be able to work quickly in a constantly evolving environment
- Be able to explain ideas in a way that other people can understand
- Be able to constructively review others’ work
- Know how to interpret user research
- Work autonomously under extreme pressure
- Have an intrinsic passion for making things better
LEARNING OPPORTUNITIES
On the job, you will learn how to:
1. Brainstorm effectively
2. Solve problems using the design thinking process
3. Identify personas and map the customer journey
4. Create service blueprints
5. Create low-fi and hi-fi prototypes
6. Conduct effective service design research and analyze the resulting data
7. Identify and develop innovative practices in the fields of real estate, investments, and technology as well as support all internal business units to proactively identify innovation opportunities
8. Prioritize assignments and multi-task
9. Convincingly pitch recommendations to major stakeholders