Home is where the heart is

We finished on Friday. Saturday we did some paper work and saw the city. Then on Sunday we traveled back home. Since everyone was so tired from the week, most people slept. I longed for a conversation, but it's okay, I knew not everyone likes to talk frantically like I do.

The trip as a whole brought up some interesting issues. Some of them I've talked about and some I haven't.
- Crossing the Gender Barrier (when the interviewers don't share gender with the interviewee)
- Profiling (you've noticed a trend in your interviewees and use that trend to pick out new interviewees)
- Fear of Gender (when your interviewee is uncomfortable with a gender and because of that, they won't relax)
- Planning and Adapting (How much planning do we need when heading out into the field and how rigid does one need to be)
- Learning to Communicating without using words (How can you talk to your teammate without being able to say anything)
- Never trust Technology

Crossing the Gender Barrier: I've talked about this one pretty early in the project. An added strain occurs when you've got two interviewers of one gender who are interviewing someone of the other gender. Especially since you know some of the greatest stories this person has may put them in a compromising situation. I know, personally, I bite my tongue when talking to girls. I don't often tell the stories where I did something particularly stupid (not to say I have *shifty eyes*). So how do you deal with this problem? You can address the fact that everything is confidential, but that might have them escape for a moment and remember they're being "interviewed" and not just having a casual conversation. But if they're tense, they're already aware of the situation and can't immerse themselves. It's a tricky problem.

Profiling: This is one I've also discussed (just in the previous post). If you've noticed a trend in all your interviewees, such as they're all Caucasians  do you save time by only asking Caucasians to join you for future interviews or do you try finding that small percentage of non-Caucasians that also fits your profile? When do you sacrifice time for opportunity?

Fear of Gender: This ties into Crossing the Gender Barrier but a bit different. If you're on a team that is mixed gender, and your interviewee is extremely shy towards one of the people on the team. What then? Obviously you hope that your other partner can jump in and get the job done, but the person can no longer relax. In one situation, where my partner (Code Named: Wonder Woman) had made the interviewee quite uncomfortable, I found changing my words to exclude my partner helped a lot; I would say things like, "tell me about it", "I know what you're saying", "I would like to hear more about", etc. A side problem that ties into this one, is picking attire. Wonder Woman is into fashion, and as such dresses to look pretty, but this may make the interviewee feel uncomfortable. Ask most guys and they'll tell you, it's hard to relax when around a pretty girl.

Planning and Adapting: This is quite a pickle, because it ties into timing. How much time do you spend planning your tactics and how much time do you spend practicing them? Sometimes practicing them gives you a great flow, but without planning you might forget some key aspects. This is even more of an issue when   you only have a 4 days to do your work and it is the first time you're doing this work.

Learning to Communicate without using words: I think a good team has enough under-the-table gestures  and can read each others body language well enough that you two should be able to communicate without actually having to turn to each other. This was essential with the dynamic I had with Wonder Woman, because she was the only one I got to work with for two days. However, the problem comes that if you have 4 days to work on a large team, how often do you switch partners to obtain breadth, and how much time do you spend with one partner to obtain depth? What's more important?

And, I must repeat this again because it seems people are forgetting it repeatedly: Never Trust Technology!: We live in a world where technology is involved in almost everything we do. We wake up by alarm clocks, we listen to music to pump ourselves up, we talk on phones and live on our computers and TV's. This is a problem, because technology has no compassion towards us. It doesn't care if our day goes wrong. So make sure you double check all your equipment and that everything is functioning properly. I'm overly paranoid, but since I've become that way I've never had an e-mail that was never sent, a text message undelivered, an assignment not received, and in this case: an interviewed not recorded. I had 4 different places for back ups for each interview. A manageable level of stress and paranoia creates a working final product - never underestimate that.

Well, now I'm home and I can get back to studying for testing and reading chapters for classes. I'll update this blog less frequently now. Just whenever a major thought comes along. When I do update it, I'll put out a message on Twitter and LinkedIn.

Thank you all for reading it and giving me your feedback.
Au revoir à tous
". . . Home is where the heart is / So your real home's in your chest / Everyone's a hero in their own way / Everyone's got villains they must face" - Captain Hammer, from Dr Horrible's Sing-Along Blog