(Re-advertisement) Terms of Reference: Chatbot UX Designer Girl Effect India At Girl Effect

Who We Are

Girl Effect is an international non-profit that builds media that girls want, trust and need.From chatbots to chat shows, TV dramas to tech, our content helps adolescent girls in Africa, and Asia make choices and changes in their lives.

We create safe spaces for girls, sharing facts and answering questions about health, nutrition, education, and relationships, empowering girls with the skills to negotiate and redefine what they are told is possible “for a girl”.

Our reach is 50 million and counting. And we’re using technology to reach girls at scale so every girl can choose to be in control of her body, her health, her learning and her livelihood.

Because when a girl unlocks her power to make different choices that change her life, it inspires others to do so too. She starts a ripple effect that impacts her family, community, and country.

That’s the Girl Effect.

The Brand

Working with girls in India, Girl Effect UK (a UK-based charity) has created Chhaa Jaa (Go Forth and Shine) – a powerful youth brand that girls can access via social media. Chhaa Jaa focuses on inspiring, entertaining and empowering girls with the right skills and confidence to navigate adolescence – from accessing information about sexual and reproductive health to preparing them to enter the workforce.

Launched in June 2019, Chhaa Jaa is designed for girls aged 16-22 and is accessible online and via mobile – because we know that’s the best way to reach and interact with girls. Our ecosystem of products includes –

• Digital media content that girls can access on Facebook, YouTube and Instagram that is entertaining and informative. Characters and storylines have been developed with girls and are designed to reflect their lives and the challenges they might face;
• An online, moderated peer-to-peer community Bak Bak Gang which acts as a safe space for girls 16 and above years of age to discuss sexual and reproductive health concerns, interact closely with Chhaa Jaa’s content, explore the themes and topics that have been taboo, discuss their SRH journeys and apply what they’ve learnt to their own lives;
• A chatbot Bol Behen that offers a private way for girls to ask questions about the themes and topics raised by Chhaa Jaa content and safely get information.

The ecosystem has been designed for demand generation – encouraging girls to access relevant services (for example, health services include clinics, telemedicine, pharmacies, etc.) and, when they are ready, linking them to youth-friendly services. Through signposting, targeted campaigns, partnerships and a service directory – we have connected over 100,000 users to information about youth-friendly services to date.

Background

Built on Rapidpro, Bol Behen is an automated, menu-based chatbot that lives on Facebook Messenger and Whatsapp. It has been adapted from another chatbot product that Girl Effect has developed in South Africa, Big Sis.

Over the last two years, we have successfully piloted and launched Bol Behen through Chhaa Jaa. Over 250k users have initiated conversations with Bol Behen, and over 2.7 million messages have been received. We have also conducted impact evaluations demonstrating that Bol Behen can successfully shift girls’ knowledge and attitudes on health-related issues (specifically tested around sexual and reproductive health and COVID-19 vaccine confidence).

Now that the product has been tested and proven, we are building a roadmap for the next 1-2 years to evolve the product and make it much more relevant and meaningful for girls. A key priority identified through this exercise is to link girls to health services (like clinics, pharmacies etc.) more directly via Bol Behen.

Objective

To strategically analyse, amend and improve the entire Bol Behen chatbot’s conversational menu and flow structure. Currently, there are 7 main menu categories (5 leading to content/message sets, 1 for girls trying to find services, and 1 emergency option for distressed girls). As more content has been added to the chatbot, this structure is untenable as it leads to very long conversational flows (which offer a subpar user experience and run the risk of having a high user dropoff rate). The chatbot flow restructures must position Bol Behen in a readier state for future improvements and efforts to make the chatbot more naturally conversational with the power of Natural Language Processing (NLP) and Artificial Intelligence (AI).

The successful agency will have the requisite chatbot/conversational design skills to not only build out a new structure for the chatbot logically/visually but also (once approved), to upload the message sets (which will be provided by Girl Effect) into our RapidPro chatbot backend in a manner to bring the new structure to life.

Who You Are

Experience

• 8+ years of professional experience in a design consultancy or equivalent position working in multidisciplinary (digital product development) teams

Must haves

• Experience building conversational interfaces specifically for chatbots and ideally with teenage/youth population
• Primary/Bilingual proficiency in the Hindi language
• Understanding digital consumption behaviours and patterns of adolescent girls and young women in India – specifically in the Hindi belt
• Basic Understanding/development of Natural Language Processing and Machine Learning

Skills

• Fluency in the human-centred design process from qualitative research and synthesis to ideation, prototyping, and implementation.
• Service Design, UX, UI
• Conversational Design
• RapidPro
• Presentation/Workshop Facilitation skills

Mindset

• Solution-focused and medium-agnostic, willing to step out of your core skill set or discipline to find the correct solution to a challenge.
• Cultural sensitivity, creativity, and resourcefulness—comfortable finding your way through.

Highly Desirable

• A content engineering background.
• Experience with Messaging Content Management Systems or Flow Builders like RapidPro
• Cross-cultural design experience and/or working in design for ICT4D.
• Experience collaborating with in-house and third-party developers in agile sprints, stewarding the transfer of design to development.

Deliverables

• Familiarise yourself with the Bol Behen chatbot (content, structure, links between different message flows, etc.).
• Analyse the existing message sets, content, structure and message flow connections to conceptualise an improved structure and message flow connections (i.e. a visual logical model and, once that is approved, implementation of the new model in RapidPro). This new chatbot flow and structure should consider how Bol Behen interacts with other products in the ChaaJaa ecosystem (website, service finder, Facebook, Instagram, SEO, etc.).
• Feedback loops post the access moment – The new flow and structure should also include the necessary feedback loops and/or quizzes.
• If there is any new content to be created to enable the new flow and structure to function correctly and maintain a superior user experience, this need (with all details needed to brief a Content Writer) must be raised and presented to the Bol Behen team.
• Conduct user testing of the new chatbot flow, structure and RapidPro infrastructure to troubleshoot and resolve any bugs or unforeseen issues.
• Assistance with establishing digital tracking and measurement strategies on the backend for upcoming digital campaigns (e.g. A/B testing; control vs intervention group comparison in terms of exposure to specific content, etc.)

Intended Timeframe

● Terms of Reference Published: Tuesday, 11th April

● Deadline for responses: Tuesday, 18th April

● Supplier selection, contracting and briefing: End of April

● Project commencement: 2nd May

Location

Consultants based out of India will be given preference and must be conducive to working with teams in South Africa, Tanzania, Ethiopia, the UK, the USA, and India.

Expected Commitment

• The assignment is expected to take approximately 40 Consultancy days to complete.
• The consultant will be expected to work up to 5 days a week until the end of June 2023.

Reporting

This consultant will be managed by Girl Effect’s Bol Behen Product Owner in India, supported by the wider Create team – particularly the global Experience Design Lead.

Proposal Submission

Interested consultants are asked to submit the following to support their candidature (Max 5 pages):

• Your understanding of the brief and why you feel you are well-placed to advise us on this
• Credentials – Please showcase any previous work that you consider relevant to what we are trying to achieve, how we approach our work, and the audience we cater to. Describe the qualifications, experience, and capabilities of the firm or consultant in providing the requested services.
• Your Approach towards conversational design, and this specific project, if chosen
• Breakdown of Costs with applicable taxes and other charges in INR clearly identified. Consultants should provide their daily or hourly billing rate or their proposed fixed fee for the requested deliverables.
  • All applicable taxes should be quoted separately;
• **Reference-**Provide at least three references for similar contracts with a description of the service provided, the value of the contract, and the contract periods of performance.

In their technical proposal, the bidder must demonstrate an understanding of the requirements described in the RFP and demonstrate how the bidder will meet the requirements of the evaluation criteria.

GE (and its associated entities) is not liable for any cost incurred during the award/contract preparation, submission, or negotiation of the award/contract. All submitted documentation and/or materials shall become and remain the property of GE.

VALIDITY of the proposal shall be for 90 days from the date of bid closure.

Evaluation Criteria

The criteria against which proposals will be evaluated are listed below:

Technical Evaluation

• Relevant experience as demonstrated by CV/Profile – 20%
• Technical UX deliverable execution experience-10%
• Demonstrated experience working with chatbots – 25%
• Demonstrated experience working with young people in India – 5%
• Client testimonials (At least 3 references) – 10%

Financial Evaluation

• Value for money/proposed budget breakdown – 30%

GEEI is not liable for any cost incurred during the award/contract preparation, submission, or negotiation of the award/contract. All submitted documentation and/or materials shall become and remain the property of GEEI.

Payment Terms

• Monthly fixed fees, Invoice after each deliverable and time and expense as per the above details.
• The professional fee quoted by the consultant shall be valid for the entire contract period.
• Statutory Taxes will be paid at the prescribed rate during the contract period.
• TDS will be deducted as per prevailing rates prescribed in the Income Tax Act from all payments made by GEEI.

Disclaimer

GE India reserves the right to determine the structure of the process, number of short-listed participants, the right to withdraw from the proposal process, the right to change this timetable at any time without notice and reserves the right to withdraw this tender at any time, without prior notice and without liability to compensate and/or reimburse any party. GEEI shall inform ONLY successful applicant(s). The process of negotiation and signing of the contract with the successful applicant(s) will follow.

Safeguarding

You may be required to undertake safeguarding checks. Shortlisted consultants will be assessed on our organisational values at the interview stage, and the successful consultant will be expected to adhere to our safeguarding policy. We encourage you to read and understand our safeguarding policy, the executive summary of which can be found here. We have zero-tolerance for all forms of violence against children, beneficiaries and staff.

Equal Opportunities

Girl Effect Services is committed to equal opportunity regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, marital status, disability, gender, gender identity or expression. We are proud to be an equal opportunity workplace.

We are committed to building an organization that is increasingly representative of, and works extensively with, the communities that we serve. To this end, due regard will be paid to procuring consultancy service organizations and individuals with diverse professional, academic and cultural backgrounds.