Trip #2 to the Dry Zone

It’s been a while since I’ve written. This is largely because I have been traveling, have been busy at work, and haven’t had a good internet connection outside of the office.

Late last week I spent a couple days in the dry zone to help with concept testing for a new product we are developing (I visited two villages). It was an incredible opportunity to be out at villages and have so many people together to provide input. It was quite an experience stumbling through an introduction in Burmese in front of all the people!

This is from one village:

This is from another (the first picture is the left side and the second picture is the right side):

We provided a survey to the villagers to receive input about energy usage and product preference:

This is a group of leaders from a village:

The woman on the left here is the team member who led the design and structure of the process:

Here I am in action! (the woman on the right is our product lead)

Here is our business analyst, who speaks both Burmese and English, and did a fantastic job as the principal translator:

It was great being able to receive specific comments from individuals. This man gave us feedback during a smaller focus group after the survey. We provided stickers so that we knew the profile of the person who was speaking.

Here we are in a different village speaking with a group after the questionnaire session was complete:

Here is a picture of the one of the roads in a village we visited. This picture was taken by one of the Burmese Proximity employees:

The night of the first day I was in the dry zone, we went to some sort of geyser/volcano/mud pit. It was pretty wild. I dipped my hand into the bubbling liquid, which thankfully was not hot!