Professor Sneddon, Professor Pierson, Madison

September 23, 2019: 9:00am

# Need Finding Interviews


## Interview 1:
* name: Annika Kouhia / Morgan Sorbaro 
* date: 09/23/2019
* occupation: Dartmouth Professor
* location: Fairchild
* interview partner: Professor Sneddon

### Some potential questions to get you started

* What does your day to day life look like?
  - Weekday: wife works really early, so wake up and grab coffee and hang for an hour. Drive/bus/bike in to campus.
    6-7 hours here, 8:30-3:30 or 4:00. Chair of Geography goes to a lot of meetings. Better day gets to speak with
    students. Sneak in writing and coordinating research projects and travel and such. Go home and have dinner and 
    read/TV and don't align TV watching.
* What are the hardest parts of your day? In general/long term?
  - Allergies
  - Coordinating multiple tasks and talking to everyone as the chair
  - Being in the right place at the right time for the right meeting
  - Everyone here is pressed for time
    - No easy solution?
    - Tried to use planners and such but by the time you set everything up you're late for a meeting
    - Infinite resources: more people who could share chair duties and help organize things
    - Time management resources
* If you had a lot of skills and money, what would you make or do?
  - Like to fund unusual research projects in the social sciences
  - Especially projects that are traditionally risk or not amenable to traditional funding resources
    - Geo colleagues in Southern Africa or projects that are conceptually challenging or would require
      major political and social changes
    - Actually implementing changes that they suggest!
* What is a time that you were pissed off at something?
  - A week away Sunday work hit and colleagues hit too
    - Behaving badly
  - Holding back the immediate response because you're angry
* What is a time you noticed a clever solution to something?
* What are some things you like?
* What do you dislike? 
  - People who are super narcissistic 
  - Behavior that is racist, sexist, homophobic
    - ALERTING KIDS WHEN THEY ARE TYPING SOMETHING BAD? APP FOR PARENTS TO TEACH KIDS WHEN THEY CAN'T BE WATCHING
      THEM 24/7
* Products that you wished existed?
* Could you tell me story about a time you ______?
* What was your best/worst/craziest/most memorable experience with (area of focus)?
* What would I find surprising about . . .?
* OTHER NOTES
  - Dont let cynicism stop you from trying
  - Start locally with self and don't stop there when it comes to environmental change
    - Structures in society that we bang our heads against
    - Then the changes you implement are far more tangible
      - Helping people not be paralized by inability to fix massive issues???
  - Minimizing plastic and waste that we produce
    - At home we compost, we recycle, we reuse but we are still an average American household
      - Economy is dependent on these issues as well
  - Why are people not putting in the effort
    - Anything I do at an individual level isn't going to make a difference
    - The cognitive frames that you build over the years keeps you on your tracks
      - Cynicism
      - Acknowledgment
      - Not denialists, but we don't ACKNOWLEDGE IT
      - Science education to instill, doing a better job
      - Sheer laziness?
  - Ideas:
    - Does this have a rating? When buying things? Hard to focus on the Amazon specifically?
      - If it's from somewhere else is it any better?
      - Geospatial data that exists in really interesting forms 
      - Transformative technologies that help people visualize and see what they're doing 
      - Forest watch: map timber concessions throughout the regions so if local communities want to know why
        parts of the forest are disappearing 
        - Forestwatch.com has cool APIs
  - Conflict between environment and economy
    - Amazon is such a special case since it's globally significant
  - A lot of interest now in using maps and social media in a way that tracks environmental changes
    - "Citizen Science"
      - So many more data points to work with when people are out there making data points
  - Sharing data about the impact of different things on the environment around you
    - Anecdotal evidence (may be more important than the actual data)
  - Someone's burning the forest, someone's building a dam
    - But a lot depends on the type of government you have (no space for non profits or advocacy groups)
    - Students, international organizations, sharing that type of organization
      - Can't protest in Laos, but can protest in Thailand if the company is Thai

### Record Any Observations

* What were they doing while you asked them stuff?
  * Sitting in Professor Sneddon's office, just talking
* Any particular reactions / emotions during the interview or specific questions?
  * Professor Sneddon felt strongly about how difficult it is to make real change without sweeping political and
    social reform, but he also felt strongly that we can't let that sort of cynicism stop us from trying
  * This is a wall Morgan and I had run into a few times before, but it was encouraging to have someone who knows
    so much about systems and societies tell us that even though this wall exists doesn't mean we shouldn't try to
    tackle it

### Reflect / Conclusions

* were there any problems or stories that made you think, "how might we help __ do __?"
  * Professor Sneddon suggested we look into mapping, which originally confused me, but then he explained that there's
    TONS of cool mapping data publicly available that we could leverage to make new insights about the world and 
    the environment. GIS systems, etc.
  * We also spoke about how difficult it is to give a product or food an environmental "rating" because so many companies
    use ingrediants that are from ALL over the world and go through a chain of actors before reaching a factory which means
    it's super hard to track their exact environmental impact. For a long time I kept thinking, "Well, we can't go down 
    this road because step 1 would be getting huge corporations to do this work and give us the data to use", but all of a
    sudden I thought maybe the reason they don't is because they don't have a platform that makes it easy! So maybe making
    a platform for companies that can actually help them analyze the lifecycle of each of their ingrediants. I was
    especially interested in this because I took a GEO class last spring called Food and Power that talked about this 
    issue within the food industry specifically a TON.
* what are some HMW statements you can draw from this conversation?
  HMW use publicly available mapping data to inform the general public about the state of the earth and environment?
  HMW make it easier for big companies to track their environmental footprint and the lifecycle of their products?
* for your favorite:
  * who is the target audience?
    Big companies--maybe just food industry based?
  * what would the problem statement be?
    The food industry lacks an effective measurement of the environmental footprint of the products each company circulates.
    We believe this is because many large companies use products that have progressed through a series of actors before
    reaching their final destination, making it difficult to track the lifecycle of each product's ingrediants. By
    creating a product which streamlines this process, companies can more easily regulate and stay informed on their 
    environmental footprint, hopefully making the data public and using this as an incentive to decrease their impact
    on the environment.
  * what would a potential solution be?
    We would have to do a lot of research to get the exact pain points of these large corporations (and the people in
    charge of sustainability within them), but a lot of articles have been written about this and in my Food and Power
    class we spoke to a few Dartmouth alums working at companies like Cargill and General Mills who were super friendly
    and offered to speak to any of us again if we had more questions. Then I think it would just be about creating a web 
    platform which easily tracked data and the lifecycle factors (origin, transport, line of custody, chemical processes,
    etc.) of each product and coming up with some sort of environmental rating based on these.
  
  
  
## Interview 2:
* name: Annika Kouhia/Morgan Sorbaro
* date: 09/20/2019  
* occupation: Professor
* location: Sudikoff
* interview partner: Tim Pierson

### Some potential questions to get you started

* What does your day to day life look like?
  * Like everyone else's. School year: prep for class, answer student questions, meet with people, class time, research/grant writing and getting to agreement. 
  * Creepy things that are going on that are concerning from a security and privacy POV
* What are the hardest parts of your day? In general/long term?
  * In research it's hard to stay ahead of what everyone else is doing--like the MIT team getting your HR wirelessly
* If you had a lot of skills and money, what would you make or do?
  * Make something that would help people who are struggling
  * No specific issue at this point 
* What is a time that you were pissed off at something?
  * Watching daughter's soccer game and other player shoved her after CONCUSSIONS
* What is a time you noticed a clever solution to something?
  * Strip out the green componenet and as your heart beats you can detect in the green component a change in skin color
  * Made an app called Card.io which 
* What are some things you like?
* What do you dislike? 
* Products that you wished existed?
  * Wish there was something that would help me recognize people as they came up to me and remember what we had talked about last
* Could you tell me story about a time you ______?
* What was your best/worst/craziest/most memorable experience with (area of focus)?
* What would I find surprising about . . .?

* IMPOSTER SYNDROME: FAKE IT TILL YOU MAKE IT
  * Showing up to Tuck everyone else went to Harvard//I can't believe how lucky I am to be here
  * This is fine I'm going to make it through this
  * Is there anything that would have helped you get to that realization sooner?
    * Dawn after the first few exams that he was doing fine
    * Getting feedback sooner rather than later would have been potentially helpful
  * Somewhat related to Kotz' work on stress management--how can we detect when stress is hitting
  * How can we mitigate that stress? How can we keep people healthier by lowering stress
    * MAYBE LOOK BACK AT EVOLUTIONARY MEDICINE CLASS
* SUSTAINABILITY/ENVIRONMENTALISM
  * I wish I did
  * At one point was invovled with a group that was considering buying and installing wind turbines
  * Super interesting to do some research on how turbines work 
    * The closest you've been to sustainable organization
  * It's not that I don't care, it's that I don't feel like I do enough
    * I try not to take the straw when I don't need one
    * I haven't moved into a YURT 
    * But I live in a house
    * Why not?
      * Awareness? Time? Knowledge? Resources?
      * I try to do the right thing but I FEEL like I'm not making that big of an impact
        * Would, but my suscpicions are that I miss opportunities
      * Really just not knowing what we can and should do
        * Why haven't you looked online
          * There needs to be a catalyst to say go do this NOW 
            * A trigger event
      * Daughter walked up to a construction crew and turn off things you're not using 
        * Contact principal of middle school
      * Education that makes children more aware
      * I wish I were doing better I'm just not

### Record Any Observations

* What were they doing while you asked them stuff?
  * Sitting in his office in Sudikoff chatting
* Any particular reactions / emotions during the interview or specific questions?
  * Professor Pierson is really passionate about research and security specifically (as of now) so whenever we talked
    about cool new research and the potential security and privacy implications he had a lot he wanted to share. He also
    has THE CUTEST daughter who has a funny and unique point of view. It was fun to hear about his daughter's take on
    the world and the ways in which children perceive things differently than adults do. Sometimes this unique perspective
    is exactly what we need to get a bump out of the rut we get stuck in of expectations of how things work and reliance
    on norms.

### Reflect / Conclusions

* were there any problems or stories that made you think, "how might we help __ do __?"
  * I liked hearing about Professor Pierson's daughter and her stories, but it wasn't until later when I was talking to
    a friend about education and sustainability that I thought back to Professor Pierson's daughter and her unique 
    perspectives. The malleability of children's perspectives on the world and their changing ideas about how things work
    and what they expect from the world around them means children's education is CRUCIAL to the future of the world. This
    made me think about making a sustainability platform specifically for children.
* what are some HMW statements you can draw from this conversation?
  * HMW ingrain a sense of responsibility in children for the world around them?
  * HMW make sustainability fun and exciting for children?
  * HMW ensure all children are getting some education in sustainability?
  * HMW bring sustainable curriculum to elementary schools? (Favorite!)
* for your favorite:
  * who is the target audience?
    * Elementary school classrooms (operated by teachers, for students)
  * what would the problem statement be?
    * The future of the world and the environment is often said to lie in the control of the next generation. The years
      of growth and development during elementary school are incredibly crucial in terms of developing a sense of 
      responsibility for the world around you and thinking about how your actions affect the world we live in. In order
      to raise a generation who thinks actively about the environment, we must instill these ideas and values from a 
      young age. This is best taught through experiential curriculum during those formative elementary school days.
  * what would a potential solution be?
    * Software or web app for teachers that guides them through an engaging and interactive study on the environment
      and the importance of sustainability in our world today. We want to make teaching these things SO easy that there's
      no reason to skip it. We should reach out to people familiar with education--specifically elementary age education
      --in order to understand the best way to convey this information and what tools would be useful in this setting.
  
  
  
  
  
## Interview 3:
* name: Annika Kouhia
* date: 09/19/2019
* occupation: Student
* location: Dartmouth College
* interview partner: Madison Hazard

### Some potential questions to get you started

* What does your day to day life look like?
  * Very different at school vs at home. At school it's classes, then attempt to do work, then do other fun things but dont schedule them. "I should be doing work".
    * "I should be doing work" with jobs and classes and stressors it's hard to block out time for something undetermined
    * Makes it hard to prioritize
    * Feeling guilty when you have two hours and you do less than you want to
    * Running between things makes it hard to tell why you're doing one thing or another
        * Mindfulness is difficult, blocking off time but doing less
* What are the hardest parts of your day? In general/long term?
  * Prioritization. Minute to minute. Hard to balance having long term goals in terms of direction but also flexibility! I have 10 nebulous things that I want to do or try
* If you had a lot of skills and money, what would you make or do?
  * "I have no idea"
  * I so rarely have a back burner of lists of problems you've acknowledged and want to fix
  * More of a running list of things you don't like
* What is a time that you were pissed off at something?
  * Visceral: Sig Nu doesn't have hot water. Boiler didn't get restarted. Came back from the gym at 10pm to no shower. Very upsetting
  * Traffic, webpages that are slow and won't tell you
* What is a time you noticed a clever solution to something?
  * Feeling of "damn okay that's clever" most recently: checking signs of two numbers, make a fake matrix and it will tell you
* What are some things you like?
* What do you dislike? 
  * Social settings that you don't know but you have to step into
* Products that you wished existed?
  * Buy in for VR, self driving cars!
  * Unless you get machine learning to the point
  * Putting wearables in clothes
  * Epigenetic data
  * Large data in health care--the amount of research you could do if you gave them genetic information and could TRUST it
* Could you tell me story about a time you ______?
* What was your best/worst/craziest/most memorable experience with (area of focus)?
  * Composting/Recycling
  * Did a science fair experiment on compost and it was the roguest thing I've ever done and it didn't work at all
  * Took temperature to see if composting was happening
  * Daily routine used to be go to school, come back, take compost temperatures
* What would I find surprising about . . .?

### Record Any Observations

* What were they doing while you asked them stuff?
 * We were just sitting at the table chatting
* Any particular reactions / emotions during the interview or specific questions?
 * Madison reacted strongly and went into detail when talking about how he felt pressured 
   to always be doing something and how he felt like he always COULD be doing work. 
   He said it made him feel guilty during the times when he wasn't doing work or searching 
   for jobs, ultimately making it harder for him to enjoy the free time he did have.

### Reflect / Conclusions

* were there any problems or stories that made you think, "how might we help __ do __?"
 * Madison's strong reaction to feeling pressure made me thing of Dartmouth's "floating duck phenomenon" which 
   conveys the feelings that many students have that everyone else is doing well and they are the only ones struggling
   when in reality everyone is stressed and nervous and having difficulty with SOMETHING. The floating duck
   metaphor encapsulates this with the idea that you see a duck floating serenely on the water, but can't see that to stay afloat
   it's paddling frantically just below the surface.
* what are some HMW statements you can draw from this conversation?
 * HMW... help students to have a more realistic view of the status of their peers compared to themselves? (FAVORITE)
 * HMW... help students to understand that everyone has challenges and successes?
 * HMW... make Dartmouth an environment that promotes self-care rather than feelings of guilt?
* for your favorite:
  * who is the target audience?
   * The target audience is college students, but could be expanded to include young professsionals or high 
     schoolers as well (maybe target imposter syndrome)
  * what would the problem statement be?
   * In colleges around the country America's next wave of bankers, businessmen, politicians and entrepreneurs
     are being stunted by incredible pressure. At competitive schools, high achieving students are failing to
     recognize their full potential as they fall victim to imposter syndrome and unhealthy mental outlooks. In
     order to help the next generation succeed, we must address this issue and create a comprehensive product
     which will help them to manage their time, thoughts and confidence.
  * what would a potential solution be?
   * Some sort of app where we can congregate data, advice, or time management/mental health tips and tools to help
     young professionals, college students and even high school students manage their time, confidence and expectations.