Worked 6 months - part time - at a food processing plant to better the user journey experienced by essential workers. Really cool work - they trained me to run the smoke room. I made craft BACON and HAM. It tasted AMAZING.
The Japanese have a term for this sort of field research - Genchi Genbutsu.
Genchi Genbutsu (現地現物) literally translates "real location, real thing”(meaning "the situation onsite") and it is a key principle of the Toyota Production System. The principle is sometimes referred to as "go and see." It suggests that in order to truly understand a situation one needs to observe what is happening at the site where work actually takes place: the gemba (現場). One definition is that it is "collecting facts and data at the actual site of the work or problem."
