Coneflowers - Ryan + Adam

Our team, the Coneflowers, is designing a useful physical tool for a campus client, a carpenter whose daily work involves hands-on, detail-oriented tasks. Our goal is to understand the challenges they face and prototype an assistive, practical solution over the next few weeks. Our first meeting was held on November 10th in the Facilities Management Services building. From there, we visited Scott Hall, where we observed Ryan and Adam as they replaced carpet tiles. This meeting helped us begin understanding their workflow, tools, and day-to-day needs.

Introduction

• Could you introduce yourself and tell us a bit about your role as a carpenter here?

• What’s a project you’ve enjoyed or found most challenging recently?

• How long have you been working in this field, and what brought you into carpentry originally?

• Are there parts of the job that you find especially challenging or rewarding?

Project overview

• We’re creating a practical, physical tool for a campus client whose job is highly hands-on. Over the next four weeks, our goal is to understand the challenges in your workflow and develop a supportive, functional solution. We’ll experiment with ideas, get your input, and improve each version along the way.

Understanding needs

• Daily work

  • What does a typical day look like for you from start to finish?

  • How do you usually start and prioritize your tasks?

  • What types of projects do you handle most frequently (e.g., repairs, installations, maintenance, fabrication)?

  • Do your tasks vary a lot day-to-day, or do they follow a predictable pattern?

  • How much of your time is spent moving between buildings versus staying in one location?

  • What tools, machines, or equipment are you using most regularly?

• Challenges

  • Are there tasks that are uncomfortable, repetitive, or physically demanding?

  • Are there any tools or setups that slow you down or feel awkward to use?

  • Are there processes that feel slower than they need to be?

  • Do weather or environmental factors (lighting, temperature, noise) impact your work?

• Observation

  • Where in that process do you find inefficiencies or difficulties?

  • What do you pay attention to most when doing precise work?

  • Are there points where you have to pause your work to handle something manually (like holding pieces together, aligning parts, etc.)?

  • During installations or repairs, what slows the process down the most?

• Improvement

  • If you could redesign or improve any tool or device you use, what would it be and why?

  • What small changes to your daily routine could make a big difference in comfort or efficiency?

  • Are there safety concerns that could be addressed with better tools or equipment?

  • If you could change one thing about your workspace, what would it be?

• They’ve been in this role at Carnegie Mellon for 2 and 3 years. 

• They were both freelance contractors previously, doing work for various clients. They enjoy the position at CMU because the role is a lot more secure than working outside

• Their main responsibilities are maintenance for carpets, ceilings, and doors. 

• Their day-to-day tasks really depend on the requests and work orders that are placed by the university and various departments in the university

• For tasks like replacing the carpet, it’s relatively low stakes, but it takes some waiting time as they need to wait for the glue to dry

  • They would want a way to make the glue dry faster 

  • When they were replacing the rugs, they seemed to have to move all the material around

• Sometimes, they have to make multiple trips back and forth between locations because some materials are located in specific locations

  • That could be a challenge because running around campus slows the entire process down and decreases efficiency

• People often walk into the areas they are working in and would step over materials, so they always have to be extremely careful with cleaning everything up during breaks and when they leave to get more materials, despite having to come back later

• A portable workbench

  • A portable toolbox that can be transformed into a portable workbench

• A Work in Progress Guard

  • An expandable barrier that can be used to guard the work in progress projects. 

  • Acts as a security system to prevent students and passersby from getting too close through a sensor system that will warn against contact through lights and an alarm

• If we were to run the interview again, we would prepare more follow-up questions about the emotional and physical strain of the job, especially around efficiency issues and safety concerns. 

• One surprise was how much time they lose simply moving materials across campus and protecting their workspace from passersby