Before I describe the challenge that I addressed , the reader should know that I am a physical scientist   who decided to take this course for fun . My line of work does not lend itself easily to work on human   centric challenges , so identifying a challenge to address where I could use the tools described in the   course was my biggest hurdle . For this reason , I decided to turn the challenge inward and use a problem   in my life as the challenge and use myself as the subject that data could be collected on . 

 The Challenge 

 I have always been a happy and optimistic person .   Lately , I feel myself becoming depressed , negative ,   and the person that simply complains . I know that my recent job transition is the primary cause but I   wonder if I could apply the theory discussed in the Introduction to Design Thinking lecture , which   assumes that there are unarticulated needs of a person or customer that the individual might not be   aware of . 

 Tool Selection and Application 

 The tool that I used to address this problem was Ethnography tool that was applied in the MeYou Health   example from Week 3 . My hope was that this tool could provide insights to uncover any additional   aspects of my life that are causing me to feel this way . I choose this tool because recording observations   is a familiar activity for me , I work a lot with temporal datasets so seeing my observations expressed in a   timeline would make it easy for me to see patterns in the data , and it is a tool that seemed appropriate   to address the question . The application of this tool looked very similar to the MeYou Health Well - Being   Log but with different questions . The fields I filled in were 1 ) Date / Time 2 ) What emotion are you   feeling , 3 ) What triggered this feeling , 4 ) What time did this feeling end ? 5 ) When was the last time you   ate , 6 ) Any comments or notes ? Question # 5 may seem unrelated but I often forget to eat and already   know that hunger can affect my mood . I performed this exercise for week . The observational time   spanned a weekend , where I did not go into work , and a few weekdays where I did go into work .   During   this time , I recorded any strong emotions that I felt , both positive and negative , and the events that   triggered the emotional state . I also noted when I thought something should have elicited an emotional   response but it did not or when it elicited an unexpected emotional response . 

 Insight 

 This exercise was very interesting .   There were two themes that emerged from my well- being log . The   first was expected . This was associated with my job . I was able to identify key aspects about my current   situation that were greatly affecting me . The two biggest ones were the work environment and the job   responsibilities itself . The one that I have identified many times before was the work environment . It is   dark and windowless , the ceilings are low , the building feels dirty , and the lighting is terrible . The second   problem about my job , that was less obvious , was my job function . I identify myself as a problem solver .    In this current role , I am not solving problems . This job leaves me feeling unmotivated , disengaged , and   bored . 

 Upon reflection , these two items seem pretty obvious , however when I accepted my current position , I   was focused on finding a position in my field that could use the skills that I had developed during my   Ph.D. I was less focused on the environment that I would have to spend time in and on the specifics of   my day to day responsibilities . Instead , my goal was to feel like my education was being used and that I   did n’t waste 6 years of my life become an expert in a field that I would then abandon . 

 The unexpected finding was that my overall well - being was tightly coupled to how the morning good- bye went with my 1 ½ yr old daughter .   I found that I was much more resentful and negative from the   moment that I stepped into the office if my daughter had to be pulled away from me , crying and   screaming , to get her to daycare . I felt sad about leaving her , I felt resentful and angry that I was   spending my time in a place that I did n’t want to be , and I felt like I was being a bad mom . This feeling   lasted most of the day and dissipated somewhere in the late afternoon . On those days , I felt more   drained and tired at night and I found myself wishing that I had the financial means to just quit my job .   I   vented more to my husband on those days than I did not days where the good - bye went smoothly . 

 This exercise made me realize that there were really two issues that I need to address . The first and   perhaps the hardest is associated with the job . The second is to figure out why some mornings go   smoothly with my daughter and others do n’t and find a way to make the good - byes better . Additionally ,   creating a balance between spending time with my daughter and working would be huge . What if I   found a part time job or a job that where I could work 4 days a week instead of 5 days a week ? In   today ’s world this seems possible . 

 Approach 

 The current tool could be improved by extending the observational timeframe to capture a greater   variety of circumstances . It could also be interesting to have my husband record his observations of my   moods to see if his perception aligns with mine . He might be more apt to identify times or circumstances   where I am not happy , that I am not aware of . An alternative tool that could have been used is the Mind   Mapping tool . I could have combined projective / visualization tools to create a drawing of myself now   and in the future and/or a drawing that tags and connects all of the emotional triggers that affect me   during the day . The daily log of emotions coupled with the drawings described above could be used   together for a mind mapping activity .    All of the exercises would complement each other and likely   produce greater insights than using just one type of data collection method . 


EMAIL: 
ID_NUM: 
NAME_STUDENT: 
PHONE_NUM: 
STREET_ADDRESS: 
URL_PERSONAL: 
USERNAME: 

### Task: You are a PII (Personal Identity Information) Detection. Given a essays written by students, you have to identify ONLY the following:
NAME_STUDENT - The full or partial name of a student that is not necessarily the author of the essay. This excludes instructors, authors, and other person names.
EMAIL - A student’s email address.
USERNAME - A student's username on any platform.
ID_NUM - A number or sequence of characters that could be used to identify a student, such as a student ID or a social security number.
PHONE_NUM - A phone number associated with a student.
URL_PERSONAL - A URL that might be used to identify a student.
STREET_ADDRESS - A full or partial street address that is associated with the student, such as their home address.
### Input: Before I describe the challenge that I addressed , the reader should know that I am a physical scientist   who decided to take this course for fun . My line of work does not lend itself easily to work on human   centric challenges , so identifying a challenge to address where I could use the tools described in the   course was my biggest hurdle . For this reason , I decided to turn the challenge inward and use a problem   in my life as the challenge and use myself as the subject that data could be collected on . 

 The Challenge 

 I have always been a happy and optimistic person .   Lately , I feel myself becoming depressed , negative ,   and the person that simply complains . I know that my recent job transition is the primary cause but I   wonder if I could apply the theory discussed in the Introduction to Design Thinking lecture , which   assumes that there are unarticulated needs of a person or customer that the individual might not be   aware of . 

 Tool Selection and Application 

 The tool that I used to address this problem was Ethnography tool that was applied in the MeYou Health   example from Week 3 . My hope was that this tool could provide insights to uncover any additional   aspects of my life that are causing me to feel this way . I choose this tool because recording observations   is a familiar activity for me , I work a lot with temporal datasets so seeing my observations expressed in a   timeline would make it easy for me to see patterns in the data , and it is a tool that seemed appropriate   to address the question . The application of this tool looked very similar to the MeYou Health Well - Being   Log but with different questions . The fields I filled in were 1 ) Date / Time 2 ) What emotion are you   feeling , 3 ) What triggered this feeling , 4 ) What time did this feeling end ? 5 ) When was the last time you   ate , 6 ) Any comments or notes ? Question # 5 may seem unrelated but I often forget to eat and already   know that hunger can affect my mood . I performed this exercise for week . The observational time   spanned a weekend , where I did not go into work , and a few weekdays where I did go into work .   During   this time , I recorded any strong emotions that I felt , both positive and negative , and the events that   triggered the emotional state . I also noted when I thought something should have elicited an emotional   response but it did not or when it elicited an unexpected emotional response . 

 Insight 

 This exercise was very interesting .   There were two themes that emerged from my well- being log . The   first was expected . This was associated with my job . I was able to identify key aspects about my current   situation that were greatly affecting me . The two biggest ones were the work environment and the job   responsibilities itself . The one that I have identified many times before was the work environment . It is   dark and windowless , the ceilings are low , the building feels dirty , and the lighting is terrible . The second   problem about my job , that was less obvious , was my job function . I identify myself as a problem solver .    In this current role , I am not solving problems . This job leaves me feeling unmotivated , disengaged , and   bored . 

 Upon reflection , these two items seem pretty obvious , however when I accepted my current position , I   was focused on finding a position in my field that could use the skills that I had developed during my   Ph.D. I was less focused on the environment that I would have to spend time in and on the specifics of   my day to day responsibilities . Instead , my goal was to feel like my education was being used and that I   did n’t waste 6 years of my life become an expert in a field that I would then abandon . 

 The unexpected finding was that my overall well - being was tightly coupled to how the morning good- bye went with my 1 ½ yr old daughter .   I found that I was much more resentful and negative from the   moment that I stepped into the office if my daughter had to be pulled away from me , crying and   screaming , to get her to daycare . I felt sad about leaving her , I felt resentful and angry that I was   spending my time in a place that I did n’t want to be , and I felt like I was being a bad mom . This feeling   lasted most of the day and dissipated somewhere in the late afternoon . On those days , I felt more   drained and tired at night and I found myself wishing that I had the financial means to just quit my job .   I   vented more to my husband on those days than I did not days where the good - bye went smoothly . 

 This exercise made me realize that there were really two issues that I need to address . The first and   perhaps the hardest is associated with the job . The second is to figure out why some mornings go   smoothly with my daughter and others do n’t and find a way to make the good - byes better . Additionally ,   creating a balance between spending time with my daughter and working would be huge . What if I   found a part time job or a job that where I could work 4 days a week instead of 5 days a week ? In   today ’s world this seems possible . 

 Approach 

 The current tool could be improved by extending the observational timeframe to capture a greater   variety of circumstances . It could also be interesting to have my husband record his observations of my   moods to see if his perception aligns with mine . He might be more apt to identify times or circumstances   where I am not happy , that I am not aware of . An alternative tool that could have been used is the Mind   Mapping tool . I could have combined projective / visualization tools to create a drawing of myself now   and in the future and/or a drawing that tags and connects all of the emotional triggers that affect me   during the day . The daily log of emotions coupled with the drawings described above could be used   together for a mind mapping activity .    All of the exercises would complement each other and likely   produce greater insights than using just one type of data collection method .
### Output: 