To begin the meeting, we gave Slavko our problem statement and tentative goal:
Problem:
The routine behaviors associated with household water consumption among Americans produce negative long-term consequences without producing noticeable short-term effects.
End Goal:
Global: Reduce water consumption patterns among Americans.
Local: Design a system that effectively reduces a household's water consumption. This system should be easily adoptable and scalable.
Slavko pointed out that we were making assumptions in our problem statement that all routine behaviors associated with household water consumption among Americans produce negative long-term consequences, while in reality, some routine behaviors produce positive consequences. He also pointed out that we did not specify who was affected by these consequences. The problem statement will have to be revised considering this input.
We then discussed our interview questions. Slavko stressed to us that we should know in advance what we wanted to find out through interviews, then form strategic questions. We can then ask questions that have nothing to do with water consumption; for instance, we could ask the interviewee to rate his/her priorities concerning comfort, cost, and functionality. Then we can say that people that value comfort the most will be least likely to respond to a proposed change that would reduce comfort; however, they will be the most likely to respond to a comfort-producing change.
We informed Slavko of our intention to interview a contractor with the assumption that contractors may make many purchasing decisions regarding plumbing fixtures and could shed light on what factors affect those decisions. Slavko commented that there was likely a set of contextual factors that contribute to these purchasing decisions. For instance, the contractor might have a Home Depot rewards card that would influence him to always shop at Home Depot in order to save money. Or perhaps the contractor just shops at the nearest supplier. So in this case, we should also look at who is making the decisions of what to carry at Home Depot and what factors inform these decisions? In summary, we need to understand the various players in the water supply, what decisions they make, and why they make them. We can then focus on finding the area to intervene that will result in the greatest impact.
We also informed Slavko that we wanted to interview someone working in the supply end (e.g., Philadelphia Water Works, AQUA). We wanted to understand the natural source of Philadelphia’s water and if the company had calculated how long that resource would exist at the current rate of consumption. We also wanted to understand the company’s attitudes regarding water consumption. We thought that the water provider may have at least investigated a long-term strategy of extending their water supply through encouraging its customers to conserve water as opposed to encouraging its customers to consume more water and benefit in the short-term while the water supply runs out at a faster rate. Slavko assumed that the company is not inherently motivated to think long-term; their primary goal is to be productive as long as possible and deal with problem as they occur. The company may only be motivated to change when customers cannot afford to make payments; in these cases they provide the customer with flexible payment options and conservation kits (or at least AQUA does). This is in the company’s best interest as it ensures income in the short-term.
We also distinguished between purchasing decisions and behavior. Since we chose to expend our research scope to include purchasing decisions as a point of entry, our problem statement became inaccurate; we are no longer focusing exclusively on the routine behaviors of end-users. This conclusion will inform the revision of our problem statement.
Meeting “take-aways”:
We will revise our problem statement to maintain consistency with our research strategy. We will also try to better understand what we need to find out through our interviews and then strategically form questions with this in mind.
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