A mighty wind...

One of the most interesting things I get to do in my job is observational research.

There are, however, a lot of variables in a study, lots of things (small and large) that can go wrong:

• The study design may not be effectively addressing the research questions (in which case you need to revise the study mid-stream)
• The participants may not match the defined profile (either because the participant fudged their profile or the recruiter did, or there was a problem with the screening method)
• Even when the above are in line, the client may have second-thoughts about details of the study once it's underway
• Despite reminder emails, participants may not show up or cancel at the last minute.
• The participant may be particularly difficult to draw out or may talk incessantly about issues unrelated to the study.
• There may be technical problems with recording equipment or the system that is being observed.

Over the years, I've developed various little techniques to help mitigate these risks or at least contend with them when they occur. But there are always new and exciting things to go wrong!

In my most recent study, the offending piece of equipment was an inappropriately powerful air conditioner blower that is installed in our tiniest conference room (the room I was using for research conducted via web conferencing software). The blower had, in theory, been set permanently to off, because when it's on, it's much like being in the proximity of a small jet engine. I've conducted many studies from this conference room and never heard even a peep from the dreaded air conditioner vent. Until...

I started my very first session for a new study this week. The participant called in and, as if on queue, the blower went off full-boar. Literally, the phone rang and the blower started. So I am trying to hear and talk to the participant, with my ear up against the speaker-phone while my hair and papers are all blowing around. Long story short, I wound up doing the whole 1-hour session that way, barely being able to hear a thing. A colleague of mine tried everything he could to shut the thing off (building management was in theory 'on their way'), including physically taking apart the themostat. Yet, the blower just kept on a-blowing.

It might have been funny except the participant was an important customer of my client's--a department head at a major-city children's hospital. So I was desperate to make a good impression. He was actually quite gracious and we did get good data out of the session, but what a nightmare. Because of the web-conferencing set-up, it wasn't practical to re-locate for the session. So I just had to grit it out. By the end of the session not only was I wind-blown, but I was freezing to death because in the hour that the air conditioning was blasting, the temperature must have dropped to 50 degrees!