CALL: Design Research Apprenticeship

Design Research Apprenticeship

The application window for the Taxi & Limousine Commission apprenticeship is now open! This role is open to current graduate students and recent graduates.

A Design Research apprenticeship with our team is an opportunity to grow your expertise in product and service design, digital prototyping, public policy, and help improve the lives of New Yorkers. Projects will focus on the delivery, on-going success, and continuous improvement of government services.

Where you will be working:

The New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission (TLC) is the nation’s largest for-hire transportation agency, licensing and regulating the City’s yellow and green taxicabs, for-hire vehicles (including apps like Uber, Lyft, Via), commuter vans, and luxury limousines. The division of Licensing & Standards is responsible for maintaining the 300,000+ licensee population and ensuring compliance with the agency’s rules and policies. You will get a front door experience to develop best practices in design research while contributing to equity and access through government. Ultimately the experience will shape your view of how design can advance social equality and see your impact such a large community.

Who you will be working with:

You will be part of the NYC TLC Analysis Innovation & Research (AIR) Lab (https://nyc-tlc-airlab.github.io/) , housed inside the New York City Taxi & Limousine Commission. The team leverages the tools and methodologies of Big Data, Service Design, and Data-Driven Product Development to help the agency better serve its clients – the City of New York and the agency’s licensees. We are made up of highly skilled product researchers, designers, data scientists and engineers. You will largely be supporting the product team and collaborate with the data team.

Apprenticeships are paid positions with a minimum of two days/week commitment starting January/February 2020 through June 2020. Internship may be used to fulfill graduate credit requirement. Travel within the five boroughs may be required.

Responsibilities:

Based on your skills and interests, responsibilities will include supporting the product team with the following goals:

User Research:
• Build out processes to deeply understand the issues that our customers face;
• Conduct qualitative research to understand the issues at their fundamental core;
• Mine existing data sources to understand common issue trends;
• Succinctly document needs of our customers and communicate them to the team;
• Collaborate in the creation of design research and digital prototyping artifacts, including user research, prototypes, project briefs, and user stories.

Product Development:
• Prototype low, medium, and high fidelity solutions;
• Use prototypes to support conversations with customers and get early feedback on solutions;
• Design and carry out experiments & evaluations to quantitatively demonstrate impact of the enhancements;
• Participate in the development and execution of quality assurance (QA) testing of products.

Education and Experience:

Apprenticeships are open to current graduate students and recent graduates with an interest in these disciplines: product and service research and design, front-end development, public policy, and social impact.

Skills We’re Seeking:

• Commitment to the mission of advancing greater equality and opportunity through best-in-class digital products and human-centered design practices in government;

• Strong written and oral communication skills;

• Strong problem-solving ability;

• Previous experience with product and service design, involving the prototyping and development of technology projects;

• Interest in using plain language to help users access and interact with government services;

• Experience working with users with limited English proficiency;

• Turning user research insights and data into new product features or enhancements;

• Design skills including user interface design, iconography, and rapid prototyping;

• Experience with front-end frameworks, HTML/CSS, JavaScript and Design Systems;

How to Apply: