Overview

The Street Roots vision is to give people a hand up, not a hand out. I worked with them to help streamline the discovery process for potential customers of the newspaper and refine the efficiency of the program.

A hand up, not a hand out

Street Roots is a non-profit organization in Portland, OR that creates income opportunities for people experiencing homelessness.  One of the main focuses of their efforts is the vendor program – a system where people can buy the newspaper for $0.25 and sell it for $1.00. Through the program, hundreds of people a year are able to get a “hand up” out of poverty. I first became familiar with Street Roots after purchasing the paper from vendors around town.

I engaged with the organization to offer my professional skills on a pro-bono basis, providing a detailed experience analysis of the overall process a person goes through when engaging with the vendor program – from not knowing a thing about it, to buying the paper for the first time, to ultimately becoming a regular buyer and hopefully a supporter of the organization.

Customer Experience analysis

Through interviews with the key stakeholders at the organization as well as observing the vendors in the field, I was able to provide high-level suggestions to enhance the program’s effectiveness and increase vendor success.

High-level program suggestions

Street Roots was able to use the document I prepared to stimulate a discussion both internally and with other like-minded organizations about how they think about and frame their vendor program.