Bay Area Freelancers_Report

Bay Area Freelancers Project Report Design Research 2013 Client: MeetUp.com Team: Anette Shitinian, Chloe Zhang, Lois Wang, Matt Pearson

DESIGN RESEARCH 2013 | Client: MeetUp | Design Team Three

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Executive Summary

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Appendix A: Bibliography

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Secondary Research

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Appendix B: Research Plan

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Appendix C: Field Guide

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Phase 1, Phase 2

Phase 3, Phase 4

Research Plan & Field Guide

Appendix D: Interviews

Freelancer Interviews

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Career Map Analysis

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Appendix E: Prototype Ideations

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Primary Research

Biases, Assumptions & Early Hypotheses

Mentor Interviews

Interviews

Data Analysis

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Observations, Themes

Hypotheses

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The ‘Aha’ Moment: Key 5 Whys Exercise

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Prototyping and Concept Testing

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Opportunity

Executive Summary

DESIGN RESEARCH 2013 | Client: MeetUp | Design Team Three

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INTRO

work alone. Missing out on collaborative

work, early-career freelancers do not

taking the next step in their careers.

Our team’s goal was to help Meetup.

work experiences leads to stagnation

develop a toolkit for improvement. Many

Our goal was to get freelancers out of

com develop a product or service for

in their skillset and slows the growth

of the people we talked to said they did

“lame job land” (as our professor Martin

freelancers in the bay area. Meetup’s

of their network. Many freelancers we

not know how to improve and deepen

Venezky calls it) and into work that they

core mission is “is to revitalize local

talked to were not meeting enough new

their skills to produce better work.

were genuinely invested in.

community and help people around

clients and collaborators. Therefore they

the world self-organize. . . into groups

were not getting enough fresh work

THE PROCESS

that are powerful enough to make a

opportunities.

As we wrapped up our interviews, we

difference.”

Second, many of the freelancers we

The number of freelancers in the Bay

talked to had a great sense of vision in

Area is growing rapidly. Right now,

their careers, but were nervous that they

almost a third of the workforce is part-

were not taking the appropriate steps

time, contracting, self-employed, or

to achieve their goals. We realized that

temporary. But even as the numbers

many people who work independently

grow, freelancers continue to earn less

are inherently ambitious. They want

and struggle more than salaried workers.

to be their own boss; they strive to be leaders. But left alone, they lack quality

THE PROBLEM

advice on how to head in the right

We engaged with nine early- and

direction in their careers.

mid-career freelancers here in the Bay Area, and as we talked to them, we started to recognize some patterns.

First, we realized that many freelancers have trouble growing their network of clients and collaborators because they

Last, we heard over and over again that freelancers yearn for feedback on their work. Clients and contract bosses do not provide meaningful critiques that can lead to deeper understanding of craft. Without someone to critique their

started to ideate around possible opportunity areas. We researched what products already exist for freelancers, and we found that there is a glut.

Services and software for freelancers are so numerous that it is difficult to cut through the noise to find real value.

The market is saturated with agencies for employment (Elance, Gigwalk) and products for software (Mint.com), marketing (Adroll and Mailchimp), project management (Apollo, Blimp), invoicing (Freckle), and project proposals (Bidsketch), just to name a few.

These are all great products, but we felt they did not cut to the core of what was holding independent workers from

By isolating the core needs of the freelancers we had talked to during our research, we were able to quickly hone in on the most feasible opportunity areas.

We identified freelancers core needs to be quality feedback, an expanded network, and more project experience.

Our opportunity area started to coalesce around the idea of mentorship. Great mentors provide access to the each of the core needs we had identified.

Best of all for freelancers just starting out in a field, a mentor has been there before. We decided providing quality mentorship for freelancers was the best way to create a positive impact in their lives.

THE OPPORTUNITY Open Door Mentorship Program

is our proposal to help freelancers

CONCLUSION

move into rewarding, exciting careers.

We believe a Meetup.com affiliated

The program pairs people who are

mentorship program like the one we

established in their field (mentors) with

propose would benefit both Meetup.

freelancers who are looking to find

com and Bay Area freelancers.

meaningful work in that field.

For Meetup, the program would

The first step in building this program is

increase their paying membership base,

the most important: recruiting quality

compliment their existing peer-to-peer

mentors. We had some great responses

services, and bring people’s attention its

from established Bay Area professionals

core values as an organization.

in a variety of fields. Everyone we talked to liked our idea and said that they would be interested in being involved.

For freelancers, the our proposal offers a single solution that addresses several of their core needs. Mentorship provides

Once freelancers apply and are paired

freelancers with quality feedback on

with appropriate mentors, Open

their work, access to an expanded

Door supports the relationship over

network of clients and collaborators, and

time by meeting regularly with the

opportunities to gain valuable project

freelancer, holding networking events

experience.

across industries, and identifying promising competitions and projects for freelancers to apply for with the support and guidance of their mentor.

DESIGN RESEARCH 2013 | Client: MeetUp | Design Team Three

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Secondary Research

Secondary research continued throughout our process, from beginning to end. As we conducted our interviews and gained a greater grasp of the scope of the problem, our research needs shifted. As such, our collection of secondary research progressed in four distinct phases.

For a full bibliography of all secondary research sources, see Appendix A.

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Phase 1: Defining the existing narrative We first wanted to know what kinds of problems freelancers were dealing with, and what the conversation around those problems was. We read up on the kinds of concerns that people were writing and talking about in trade publications, personal blogs, and newspapers.

We found a lot of information on much talked-about pain points like time management, contract negotiations, and finding new clients.

Phase 2: Scouting other services for freelancers The second phase of secondary research involved mostly internet research on existing services for freelancers. At this point in the process, we were very interested in the idea of shared workspace, so much of our research pivoted around that idea.

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Phase 3: Digging into the economics As we wound up our interviews, we started to research the kind of data that might allow us to make a larger argument about the importance of our project. By this point in the process, we were narrowing in on mentorship as an idea, but we were still weighing several possible opportunity areas.

This research helped us place the problems of freelancers within the context of larger economic and cultural trends.

Phase 4: Scouting other mentorship programs As we wound up our interviews, we started to research the kind of data that might allow us to make a larger argument about the importance of our project. By this point in the process, we were narrowing in on mentorship as an idea, but we were still weighing several possible opportunity areas.

This research helped us place the problems of freelancers within the context of larger economic and cultural trends.

DESIGN RESEARCH 2013 | Client: MeetUp | Design Team Three

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Research Plan & Field Guide

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Research Plan With such a large project before us, the assignment to develop a plan for research was extremely helpful, as it forced us wrap our heads around how to approach the problem. In the first weeks of the project, we articulated how we would recruit for interviews, gather and record data, share files within the team, and divide labor.

To view our Final Research Plan, see Appendix B.

Field Guide Getting out in the field can be as challenging as it is rewarding. If you are not prepared, things can go wrong quickly, resulting in valuable time lost.

To make sure we all double- and triple-checked our gear, locations, and overall goals before each interview session, we developed a field guide for engaging our interview subjects. In it, we had a checklist, interview strategies, and materials for interactive activities.

To view our Final Field Guide, see Appendix C.

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Primary Research

For full description of all primary data, including interview notes, audio/video, photos, and card sorting results, see Appendix D.

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Biases, Assumptions & Early Hypotheses Before we dove into our interviews, we catalogued our existing beliefs and assumptions about freelancers. Our aim was to use the use the primary research process to challenge everything we thought we already knew about freelancers, their goals, and their lives.

Here is a list we made in the first week of the project: Biases -Freelancers are taken advantage of.

-Freelancers are disorganized.

-Freelancers have a really good work ethic.

-Freelancers don’t have a distinction between work and life.

Assumptions -Freelancers are treated with less respect than those who have a job.

-Freelancers do not make as much money as employed workers.

-Freelancers do not experience growth in salary over a period of years as compared to employed workers.

-Freelancers are seen as the cheaper alternative

-Freelancers have trouble finding appropriate work space.

-Freelancers have a problem with authority.

-There is a competitive conflict between freelancers and

-Freelancers have weaker skills than others.

employed workers within a given industry.

-Freelancers don’t handle stress well.

-Freelancers have a hard time managing multiple clients.

-Freelancers have a financial cushion to fall back on (or

-Freelancers have a hard time managing their time.

else why would they risk financial insecurity?)

-Freelancers choose to freelance because they can’t

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find a better job.

-Freelancers choose to freelance because they want creative freedom.

Hypotheses -Freelancers have a hard time managing their time because they don’t have a team around them to help them.

-Freelancers don’t have a distinction between work and life because they don’t have a fixed schedule.

-Freelancers have difficulty growing creatively and monetarily because they are preoccupied with maintaining clients.

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Interview We began our interview process close to home; with our friends in the design department who were freelancers before enrolling at CCA. Interviews with fellow first-year designers Lawrence and Lizzie gave us a great baseline framework to begin our exploration.

Next, we branched out and began approaching people we knew less about. We found strangers who were willing to talk to us at two co-working spaces in San Francisco. We also pursued leads for interviews through our extended network of friends and family in the Bay Area.

In all, we conducted full interviews with nine freelancers (see Appendix D).

We also had smaller, informal chats (phone, email) with six others.

DESIGN RESEARCH 2013 | Client: MeetUp | Design Team Three

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Data Analysis

Once we completed our interviews, we began analyzing what we had seen and heard from our freelancers.

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Observations The first step in our process was to break the data up into little pieces and begin to group them into themes. We went through each interview and wrote down everything we had seen and heard. Each individual observation became a post-it.

Themes Once we had all of our data laid out, we started to see some patterns emerge. We grouped our observations into a number of themes. Freelancers, we were hearing, were primarily concerned with

- expanding their network

- improving their time management

- pursuing skill improvement

- getting quality feedback on their work.

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Hypotheses Based on these thematic areas, we began to develop hypotheses as to why freelancers were struggling with these problems. We developed a number of early hypotheses around each theme:

-Freelancers have trouble expanding their network

because marketing themselves in social situations makes

them uncomfortable.

-Freelancers have trouble managing their time well because they

do not have a separation between home and work space.

-Freelancers struggle to develop their skills because they do not

interact with colleagues often.

-Freelancers do not get quality feedback on their work because

only clients see their final products.

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Our major breakthrough came once we began to probe into these hypotheses a little deeper. During a “5 Whys” exercise, we landed on something that felt like we had struck a nerve.

After that exercise, we began looking at the core needs of freelancers through the lens of role models, of mentorship.

If freelancers had people to talk to about their careers

The ‘Aha’ Moment: Key 5 Whys Exercise Hypothesis: Freelancers struggle to develop their skills because they do not interact with colleagues often.

Q: Why don’t freelancers interact with colleagues often?

A: Because they don’t have a forum where colleagues gather regularly.

Q: Why don’t they have a forum where colleagues gather regularly?

A: Because they have not prioritized getting together with colleagues.

Q: Why haven’t they prioritized getting together with colleagues?

A: Because they are confused about what to prioritize.

and connect them to a larger network, we thought, it could

Q: Why are they confused about what to prioritize?

have a profound impact on

A: Because they do not have positive role models that can help them

their careers.

make sense of their career choices.

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Prototyping and Concept Testing

We structured our mentor interviews in order to

We generated five ideas for the prototype (see Appendix

a) get feedback on our mentorship program idea and

E), and got feedback from the class. We took key

gauge feasibility, and

elements from each idea, and developed the prototype

b) collect “career sketches” from our interviewees to

for Open Door Mentorship program to meet the core,

develop our Career Map prototype.

unmet needs of freelancers. At this point in the process, we had succinctly identified those needs as

-quality feedback

-expanded network

-project experience

Using secondary research, we developed a first iteration prototype of a Meetup.com-affiliated mentorship program. We booked interviews with mentors in order to concept test our idea.

During the interviews, we asked mentors what would make them want to participate in a program like ours.

As we got their feedback, we continued to tweak our concept.

We also asked our interviewees to draw “career sketches” to show how they had built their careers.

Using those sketches, we began to prototype wireframes for a central feature of our concept, the Career Map.

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Opportunity Open Door Mentorship program became our proposal to help freelancers move into rewarding, exciting careers. The program pairs people who are established in their field (mentors) with freelancers who are looking to find meaningful work in that field.

We developed wireframes for a website, including a signature feature of the website, the Career Maps.

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Appendix

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Appendix A: Bibliography Phase 1: Defining the existing narrative

Sharma, Devesh. “The top 10 tools for freelancers.” ‘

Wright, Joshua. “Temp Employment is Dominating

Alboher, Marci. “Shifting Careers: Fighting a War

Job Growth in the Largest Cities.”

EMSI. 6/21/13

Against Distraction.” New York Times.

6/22/2008 Dietz, Miranda. “Temporary Workers in California Are

Twice as Likely as Non-Temps to

Live in Poverty: Problems with Temporary

and Subcontracted Work in California.” UC

Berkeley Labor Center. August 2012.

Macgillis, Alec. “The Ruse of the Creative Class.” The

American Prospect. 12/18/09

Needleman, Sarah E. “Negotiating the Freelance

Economy.” Wall Street Journal. 5/6/2009

Pofeldt, Elaine. “Surviving in the Freelance Economy.”

Forbes. 10/31/13

Phase 2: Scouting other services for freelancers Chapman, Sandra Bond. “Why Single-Tasking Makes

You Smarter.” Forbes. 5/8/13

Dunn, Brendan. “Best Software for Freelancers.”

Planscope. 12/17/12

Horowitz, Sara. The Freelancer’s Bible. New York:

Workman Publishing. 2012.

Creative Bloq. 9/24/13

Phase 3: Digging into the economics Gartside, David, et al. “Trends Reshaping the Future

of HR: The Rise of the Extended

Workforce.” Accenture Institute for High

Performance. 3/1/13

Horowitz, Sara. “A Jobs Plan for the Post-Cubicle

Economy.” The Atlantic. 9/5/11

Intuit. Intuit 2020 Report: Twenty Trends That Will

Shape the Next Decade. October 2010.

McKendrick, Joe. “Tomorrow’s workforce will come

from the cloud, study predicts.”

Smartplanet. 3/21/13

Neuner, Jeremy. “40% of America’s workforce will be

freelancers by 2020.” Quartz. 3/20/13.

Schenkel, Ben. “Freelancers Spur Gig Economy by

Tapping Online Exchanges.”

Bloomberg.com. 10/15/13

Woodall, Angela. “Oakland feels the burden of the

rise in temp employment.” Oakland

Tribune. 6/2/13

U.S Department of Labor Statistics. “Contingent and

Alternative Employment Arrangements.”

7/27/05 Phase 4: Scouting other mentorship programs Bay Area Mentoring: http://www.bayareamentoring.org/ CCA Connects Externships: http://center.cca.edu/community Gilbert, Andrew. “ODC’s Pilot Program Gives Flight

to Dancers’ Dreams.” Mercury

News. 11/22/10

MENTOR/National Mentoring Partnership. “The

Urgent Need for Mentoring Research.”

2004.

ODC Dance Pilot Program: http://odcdance.org/school_innerpage.

php?linkid=12&categid=110&subcategid=79

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Appendix B: Research Plan

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Appendix C: Field Guide

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Appendix D: Interviews | Freelancer Interviews (with Card Sorting)

Name: Lizze Profession: Graphic Designer Freelance experience: 1-2 yrs What She Says: "I had an unhealthy lifestyle when I was working from home, I want to be more regimented."

"Networking feels like a scary word, word of mouth is key" "Recognition is very important to me, I need some sort of validation about my work"

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Name: Lawrence Profession: Graphic Designer Freelance experience: 1-2 yrs What He Says: "When you are a freelancer, all you have is your personal brand, which is your creative freedom."

"Being a successful freelancer, you need to have good social skills and be really good at what you do. People recognize you from your work, and most of the time you get work through word of mouth.�

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Name: Bryan Profession: Marketing Specialist Freelance experience: 4 yrs What He Says: “If you work remotely too often, you can feel a little bit separated.

Sort of isolated. “

https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0Bx5As0XXLiFaZjJqVXM4Y1dObm8&usp=sharing

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Name: Vijay Profession: Founder of Startup Freelance experience: 3 yrs What He Says: “I know I’ve done the things that one is supposed to do after graduating from school. You know working in a consulting firm. I’ve checked that box. I knew I wanted to go in a different direction. “

https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0Bx5As0XXLiFaZjJqVXM4Y1dObm8&usp=sharing

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Name: Achimar Profession: Photographer Freelance experience: 1 yr What She Says: "I wouldn't be able to quit my job and freelance if I didn't have a support system. If I wasn't living at home there is no way I could pursue photography, so I'm really greateful for that" "having my photography be a side business just wasn't working. I was not getting my work done and that's really frustrating. I just need time away from stuff that has nothing to do with what I want to do" https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0Bx5As0XXLiFaZjJqVXM4Y1dObm8&usp=sharing

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Name: William Profession: Photographer Freelance experience: 2-3 yrs What He Says: "I love collaboration. I love that everyday is different, and it's so gratifying to know that it's all on you although freelancing is a thankless environment." "creative freedom means production without restraint" "What I hate about freelancing is how long it takes to be succesfful. I wish things moved faster."

https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0Bx5As0XXLiFaZjJqVXM4Y1dObm8&usp=sharing

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Stability Nest Egg Networking Creative Freedom Recognition Personal Brand

Name: Tory Profession: Accountant Freelance experience: 6 Months What He Says: “Once you have the right person to ask, you are on the right track.”

Family Friends Free Time Dedicated Work Space

https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0Bx5As0XXLiFaZjJqVXM4Y1dObm8&usp=sharing

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Name: Jessie Profession: Choreographer & Nutritionist Freelance experience: 1.5 yrs What She Says: “It takes a lot self-reflection on what is working about this[freelancing]. ” “My free time is not necessary work, but they are feeding into me in a different way. “

https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0Bx5As0XXLiFaZjJqVXM4Y1dObm8&usp=sharing

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Name: Kevin Profession: President of Wrecking Ball Ad Agency Freelance experience: 2 yrs What He Says: "I don't really have the need for full time employees, my company has had no more than 11 full time emplyees sinse 1997."

"I hire freelancers from all over depending on the project, as long as they do good work I don't need them to physically be here."

"My advice for freelancers is network, you can't know enough people." https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0Bx5As0XXLiFaZjJqVXM4Y1dObm8&usp=sharing

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Appendix D: Interviews | Mentor Interviews (with Career Maps)

Name: Megan Profession: Professor, Principal at zDp Models What She Says: "When you're 20, you know the big title jobs but you don't know that you can actually craft your own way in the world. I think that's mentorship."

https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0Bx5As0XXLiFaZjJqVXM4Y1dObm8&usp=sharing

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Name: Justine Profession: Curator, San Francisco Arts Commission What She Says: "I see mentorship more as a collaboration" "In my early stages, I didn't know what it was that I wanted to do. So with people being transparent and letting me it, it enabled me to see what possibilities there were. That was really instrumental for me forging my own path"

https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0Bx5As0XXLiFaZjJqVXM4Y1dObm8&usp=sharing

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Name: Michele Profession: Designer/ Design Consultant and Professor What She Says: "I work as mentor through teaching. I like to see mentorship as a teamwork. I can choose who I am interested in and create this mentoring relationship. �

https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0Bx5As0XXLiFaZjJqVXM4Y1dObm8&usp=sharing

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Name: Martin Profession: Graphic Designer and Professor What He Says: " I see mentorship a form of teaching— bringing them into a process, showing them what I work and the materials. ”

https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0Bx5As0XXLiFaZjJqVXM4Y1dObm8&usp=sharing

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Name: Chris Profession: Designer and Senior lecturor What He Says: "It’s sort of sharing. You basically wanna take the things you have learned to kind of help some body else.”

“I just want to make it easier. If they are gonna go through the woods, take this machete, it will be a little better. ”

https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0Bx5As0XXLiFaZjJqVXM4Y1dObm8&usp=sharing

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Appendix D: Interviews | Career Map Analysis

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Appendix E: Prototype Ideations

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