Right from the start, it was made extremely clear to the teams how important a resource their clients would be to them. Their clients were the ones who, of course, provided us with the projects, and were also the best people for the teams to interact with early on. The teams were encouraged to prepare an entire list of questions prior to the actual meeting so that they could interview the clients efficiently and professionally. Additionally this forced them to think about the most crucial aspects of the project and prioritize which factors were the most critical to investigate further into, which was a very constructive process overall. Each team for the Rice project came up with a list of about 20 questions for their respective projects.
The OEDK roof team talks with Bart Sinclair, Assistant Dean of Engineering
The OEDK Roof team was the first one that Camille and I interacted with, and their client was Dr. Bart Sinclair, the Associate Dean of Engineering, and the brains behind the OEDK Green Roof project. The main focus of the team was to try to learn more about the roof itself, which they have not been allowed onto yet, due to safety concerns. They geared their questions to trying to understand what the roof actually looked like, as well as what the current system was on top of the roof. Understanding the deficiencies of the current system was very important to them, along with really trying to understand what were the final achievable goals that were expected of them. Although initially slightly hesitant in their questioning, the team picked up in confidence, especially after Dr. Sinclair’s friendly and detailed answers to all their questions.
After about 4-5 questions into the Roof team’s interview, we moved over to the Surrey team’s meeting. This transition was a touch untidy, and since then we have decided to only switch every class period between teams. The Surrey team was meeting with Mr. Richard Johnson, Director of Sustainability for Rice; Ms. Susann Glenn, Manager of Communications for Facilities, Engineering and Planning (FE&P) and Mr. William Heath, the Equipment Repair Supervisor for FE&P, representing the current golf cart operators.
Member of the Surrey team make their first contact with their Rice clients.
It was apparent in the meeting that Mr. Johnson and Ms. Glenn were extremely enthusiastic about the Surrey project, and couldn’t wait to see the Rice students get started on modifying it for FE&P’s use. Mr. Heath however, was a greater voice of caution and gave very practical advice on what he expected from his carts and why he was worried by the Surrey and its extensive use. The team was once again extremely proficient at asking probing questions that dealt with the technical side of the design and user requirements, but also the very necessary logistical aspects of the project, such as which departments would be using the Surrey, and how current operations are carried out by FE&P. A very impressive point about this group was how they had identified some of the constraints with the Surrey and asked the sponsors of the project what sort of initial ideas they had about these problems. For example the question of whether the Surrey would be required to reverse or not was brought up and the team carefully noted the additional requirement for the Surrey. They also learned a great detail about the current golf carts used, and tried to find out what sort of incentives could be used to convince the staff to move from the carts to the Surreys.
Both teams had a slightly different approach to the way they asked their clients questions. The Roof team all participated in the interview, with each person assigned certain questions to ask Dr. Sinclair, while on the other hand the Surrey group was seen to have a couple of spokespeople for the entire team who dictated the bulk of the interview, with an occasional question from the others as it fit into the flow of the conversation. A very encouraging sign to notice was the efficient and organized manner in which the teams decided to schedule regular meeting with the sponsors to provide them with updates and ask further questions about their projects.