Читать книгу Doorbells, Danger, and Dead Batteries - Steve Portigal - Страница 19

I was out of town with a colleague for a full-day customer visit, and while getting ready for the day, I burned my thumb pretty badly on my hair straightening iron. It was the kind of burn you can soothe for about two seconds before it makes you roll your eyes back and cry out in pain. We’d planned ahead and given ourselves plenty of time to get ready that morning, so we had a few extra minutes to find some burn cream. I ran down to the front desk of our hotel to see if they had a first aid kit. They did not. However, one of the hotel staff offered me a packet of mustard to soothe the burn, some kind of Southern old wives’ tale. I don’t usually believe in old Southern food-on-skin remedies, but I wanted it to work. So I slathered the burn in mustard, hoping for the best. This remedy was not the best.

Two seconds later, I was again whimpering in pain. I filled a cup with ice water and stuck my thumb in the cup. This provided a tremendous amount of relief, while being completely impractical. So we sped out to find a drugstore.

Being on the outskirts of a college town, there weren’t many places to find first aid items, but we did find a grocery store open before 8 a.m. I bought everything—burn cream, aloe, bandages, anything that looked like it might work, just in case. But nothing I purchased worked! Nothing but the cup of ice water could stop me from visibly wincing. We were running out of time and had to head to our meeting, hoping for some kind of miracle.

My colleague and I found our way to our customer’s office and had to wait for our interviewees to come get us from another part of the building. Fortunately, the front desk person at the office was keenly observant. Before I could even say a word, she’d found a refill of ice water for my aching thumb. And then it was time. We went in to meet our customers, my thumb fully immersed in this cup of water.

I should mention that we worked for a really creative and weird company, and we were visiting a very conservative and traditional Southern company. We were feeling more than a little out of our element. I thought for a moment that the interview was going to be a disaster, but my thumb on ice was actually a nice icebreaker (pun not intended).

Then I spilled the cup of ice water all over their conference room table.

In that moment, all I could do was laugh at myself and let everyone laugh with me. We continued the interview as I was cleaning up the mess—calmly and confidently.

In the end, it turned out to be a great interview and gave the guys at the company something to joke with us about over a BBQ lunch. Imagine trying to eat ribs with one thumb wrapped in gauze and burn cream. My confidence through all the awkwardness ended up making them feel comfortable with having strangers in their office all day, and we got great information we probably wouldn’t have otherwise. Sometimes, you just have to roll with it.

Takeaways

• Write down the key things you need to remember. Writing down “turn on the video camera” or “give the incentive to the participant” are tiny things you can do in the present to make life just a bit simpler for your future self. Once it’s written down (on a planning worksheet or an interview guide), then you are relieved of having to keep it in mind.

• Be prepared for things to go wrong. Acknowledging that possibility ahead of time means that you won’t be as surprised if or when something does happen, and it puts you in a better state to respond.

• Know that when one thing goes wrong, it’s highly likely that other things will go wrong. Once you’ve had one thing fail, remind yourself that you are more vulnerable to another thing going wrong. Even if you can’t prevent it, you can prepare emotionally.

• Manage your gear (even if it’s as basic as a notepad and an audio recorder) and know that it requires attention to detail. In this basic example, you should check that you have sufficient blank pages, that you have more than one pen, that the pens have ink, that there’s enough free storage space on your recording device, and that you have battery power to get through the interview. Throw in a video camera with a tripod, battery packs, and chargers, and there’s just that much more to pay attention to.

• Anticipate how you will handle your data. While you can hold onto physical artifacts like notes, digital data can be a problem, especially if you’re on the road. Video files are huge (even with the camera set to a lower quality). Some audio recorders also produce huge files. Make sure that you have space on another device (such as a laptop or a portable hard drive). Don’t expect to be able to upload large files, especially if you are using hotel Wi-Fi.

• Give some thought to backup plans and work-arounds. If your audio recorder breaks, can you record on your mobile phone? If your interview guide gets rained on, can you remember enough questions to lead the interview? You can’t prepare an alternative to everything, but some anticipatory thinking will help you problem-solve in the moment.

• You have to take care of yourself. Get enough sleep, get something to eat, and find a bathroom. Make a detailed plan with your team about where and when you will take care of those needs.