Here’s the third episode of Off the Path with Sam and Steve

Good Interviewing

Apple Podcasts

YouTube

Here’s the second episode of Off the Path with Sam and Steve

What Do You Do When You Want To Grow

Apple Podcasts

YouTube

Here’s the first episode of Off the Path with Sam and Steve

The Good Enough Career
Apple Podcasts

YouTube

Sam Ladner and I have a new podcast, called Off the Path with Sam and Steve. It’s a limited series, where we talk about what a research career looks like, even when it goes “off the path.” It’s on Apple Podcasts, YouTube, and Spotify. Our first three episodes are live.

Here’s a few videos with Sam and I talking about what we’re talking about with this podcast.

My new novella, Occupied Minds, is now for sale at Amazon. If you’ve enjoyed my writing, I hope you’ll check it out and leave a review. It’s only $2.99!

On a quiet and humid night, good-hearted county employee Bubba Montgomery meets a strange visitor who needs his assistance. When Bubba agrees to help, he soon discovers that his decision will impact not only his fate but the fates of his girlfriend Mitzi, his fellow residents of Hubberton, and ultimately the entire planet and indeed the human race!

The adventure unfolds across a dazzling set of viewpoints – different characters, different times, different planets – as we see the terrifying consequences of Bubba’s and Mitzi’s choices.

Darkly funny and deeply weird, Occupied Minds blends alien invasion small town life with dark humor science fiction, absurdist comedy, and a touch of Philip K. Dick–style paranoia.

“Steve Portigal’s characters are (at times literally) from another world, yet drawn so deftly as to be tangible, recognizable, and deeply human.”
–Nadine Perez Fox, James Kirkwood Award-winning writer

Thanks to Kyle Soucy for the conversation with me and my collaborator Justin Dauer on her podcast The UX Consultants Lounge.

The episode is embedded at the bottom of this post and is on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Amazon Music. Visit the episode page for a transcript.

In this new episode of The UX Consultants Lounge, I talk with Steve Portigal and Justin Dauer about their recent decision to collaborate — not “partner” — while keeping their solo consulting practices alive and well.

* Why they’re so values-aligned, from healthy culture to business beliefs

* How the “chocolate and peanut butter” analogy became part of their collaboration story

* Why they intentionally avoid the word partnership and what “collaboration” allows them to do instead

* How their complementary skills create a broader, more impactful offering for clients

Hearing them describe how they’ve found a way to work together without giving up their independence is inspiring, and a great reminder that there’s no one “right” way to structure a consulting career.

One of the most powerful moments in my conversation with Steve and Justin came when I asked them to fill in the blank: “One of the hardest things about consulting is…”

Steve’s answer? Comparison.
The kind that creeps in when you see others posting about wins on social media or casually mentioning how many proposals they’ve sent out. He spoke openly about the negative self-talk that can follow, and how grounding it can be to remember that this challenging market is impacting everyone.

Justin’s answer was different, but equally relatable. He reflected on the privilege and responsibility of being your own boss, how “the buck stops with us” as consultants. Yes, the work is hard, and there are days of doubt, but being able to control your own destiny is something to be valued and cherished.

You might call it a nano-interview, but it’s just 10 questions, and it’s just for fun. Check it out here!

I’m happy to announce that – in addition to my existing practice – I’m also working with clients in partnership with Justin Dauer. We are really excited about our small-but-mighty unified offering.

We’ve helped a lot of teams grow and thrive—as well as build and ship great products that people want.

Through research and design, here’s how we can help you, too:

For an organization that is formalizing how research and design should be working, we help you build effective teams.

That means spending time together in a way that works for your culture. Whether it’s in a collaborative session, or a training program, or ongoing conversations, we’ll utilize our decades of experience teaching and coaching others.

For a team that needs product and market breakthrough, we help you find out what to ship, and ship it right.

We do that by starting with your goals, your current offering, and your initial hypothesis, then talking with cross-functional stakeholders, customers, and users, and iterating to drive impactful, intuitive product design that connects with people.

If you want to know more about what we’re doing, please reach out for a chat.

Thanks to Guy Segal for having me on Design Downtime to talk about creative writing. The thirty-minute episode is here, as well as YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Amazon Music. I’ve also embedded it below.

Tomer Sharon passed away last week. This is his appearance on Dollars to Donuts from 2019.

Show Links

• Episode (and show links) from 2019
• From LinkedIn, announcement of Tomer’s passing

Help other people find Dollars to Donuts by leaving a review on Apple Podcasts.

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