Photo credit: Charles Deluvio, Unsplash

Short story: Multidisciplinary Misalignment

Eilís Delany
Jul 10, 2017 · 2 min read

It’s 15:45 on a rainy Tuesday evening in the Dublin office. I’m in a room with five other colleagues, all of which are victims of the 3pm slump. There’s an alarm ringing in the background as one of the Software Engineers begins pitching his work. I can’t quite hear what he is saying, so direct my attention to the schematic diagram he is presenting on screen.

As this happens, a member of the Analytics team chimes in, his voice is more projected. “This algorithm can flag potential cancerous cells which are currently invisible to the naked eye” he announces. I look around for a reaction, but am unsurprised at the lack of engagement.

The presentation continues with yet another complex diagram - this time, there are more arrows and text boxes. The Senior Sales Manager is twisting her ring in an anti-clockwise direction — it seems to be causing her discomfort.

Initially, our models will be trained to detect tumor’s, but that will evolve as we increase the feedback”. The Stakeholder seems totally confused and turns to the pages of her leather-bound notebook for some clarity.

It’s back to our Software Engineer who is now preparing a live demo of the initial prototype. The Financial Advisor seems restless and reaches into the center of the table for a quick fix of caffeine. “As you can see, these colour-coded tags make it easy to distinguish what type of tumor is present in the tissue”. This statement seems to catch our Stakeholder’s attention and I get the sense she is starting to construct a question.

More from the Software Engineer “When we started to collate the patterns, we were pretty astounded with the results”. This time, the slide shows a set of tables displayed under a detailed graph. I dart a glance in the Financial Advisors direction and hold my gaze on the coffee stain just above his shirt pocket. He catches my eye and pulls a crumpled tissue out of his sleeve, knocking his cup in the process. A small puddle of dark liquid floods the surface of the table. Nobody speaks.

Thirty seconds pass and the meeting closes with “Any questions?” Another brief silence is ended with a response from a now blushing Financial Advisor “Where can I find some more tissue?

Eilís Delany

Written by

Design Researcher who enjoys connecting the dots between humans, business and technology.

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