Understanding the Landscape of Global Development Work

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I am on my second week in Boston interning at MIT D-Lab and I have started thinking about my special project. This project will be creating an influence strategy that will focus on the D-Lab’s Inclusive Business (IB), Social Entrepreneurship (SE), and Participatory Design Workshops/Tailored Training. This influence strategy will be recommendations for D-Lab to improve their marketing and outreach of the various research and tools that they create.

My project will have four major components:

  • Desk Research: An excel database with information (channels, industry focus, and more) of organizations that have similar programs to IB, SE, and Workshops and Training.
  • Interviews – After initial research, I will conduct interviews with a few (3-5) organizations to understand the outreach strategies such as channels used to promote content and how do they identify potential partnerships.
  • Archetype Categorization – Make 4 categorizations from analyzing research and interviews to understand what similarities between organizations so that outreach strategies can be more targeted and focused.
  • Recommendation – Provide recommendations on how D-Lab should go about their outreach/marketing of their materials. Some questions I plan to answer include how channels should be targeted for different types of organizations, who and how can D-Lab have partnerships.

D-Lab produces many great resources (toolkits, case studies, workshops) but the staff feel like their work isn’t being shared to its fullest potential. The result of my project will provide D-Lab with recommendations that can help them:

  • Reach a wider audience for their publications and toolkits
  • Find potential partners that will lead more collaborative projects, workshops, training
  • Use their social media for the best engagement and reach

As I start to dive into making the excel spreadsheet, I am excited to share my progress and the outcome of my project throughout the semester. I am also excited to share my adventures in Boston and my experience living in a city for the first time. So far, I have gotten on the wrong train and gotten off the wrong stop so hopefully, my public transportation skills improve!