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steve@portigal.com

Speaking

Steve is an inspiring and entertaining speaker, delivering presentations that teach audiences how to better achieve their professional objectives while inviting them to look at their world in a fresh way.

Selected Talks

Great User Research For Non-Researchers

User Research War Stories


The Designer is Present

Steve Portigal - The Designer is Present - #NUX7 - @steveportigal

Improv, Creativity, and Design

Steve Portigal @ UX New Zealand 2015

Designing the Problem

Steve Portigal: Designing The Problem

The Power of Bad Ideas


Speaking

Steve is an inspiring and entertaining speaker, delivering presentations that teach audiences how to better achieve their professional objectives while inviting them to look at their world in a fresh way.

Upcoming Events

Product Makers – Boosting user research impact
April 6, 8:00 AM – 9:00 AM PT (online)

Testimonials

“Steve’s ability to see things that others miss and to develop profound insights about people and culture make for a provocative presentation. He opened my eyes and got me thinking in new ways. I learned a lot and enjoyed his sense of humor.”

Denise Lee Yohn, Brand Expert

“When we were putting together the roster for Core77’s 2nd Design Innovation Conference, Steve was our first phone call. Steve made a connection with the audience that was emotional and profound. His storytelling, empathy and insight really helped the attendees see the world in a new way.”

Allan Chochinov, Editor-at-Large, Core77

“Steve provided a spectacular capstone presentation to our professional speaker series. By all accounts, Steve’s CHIFOO presentation was considered one of the best, inspiring a great deal of discussion and comment.”

Leo Frishberg, Product Design Manager, Intel

About Steve

Past Events

2022

BetterUX Virtual Summit – Boosting User Research Impact (video)

CEDIM Innovation Talks – Stop Solving Problems! (video)

University of California, Santa Cruz, Human Computer Interaction Seminar – Stop Solving Problems!

2021

Advancing Research Community – Research and Bridging the Gaps (panel)

Delta CX – Ask Me Anything (video)

IDSA Design Research Section – Ask Me Anything

Mind the Product – Research and Discovery (panel)
June 16

The Research Society – Human Insights Conference (keynote)

2020

Advancing Research 2020 – War Stories Live! (panel)

Business of Software USA – Understanding Users (breakout)

Business of Software USA – User Research – Uncovering compelling insights through interviews (workshop)

Business of Software USA – We’ve done all this user research, now what? (workshop)

Hotjar UX Lightning Talks –
How to ask questions (especially user research questions)

Mind the Product – Ask Me Anything (video)

Mind the Product – We Need To Do Research…But We Can’t (talk)

Remote Design Week – Stop Solving Problems!

Rosenfeld Media Slack – Ask Me Anything (recap)

QRCA UX SIG Book Club –
discussion and Q&A about “Doorbells, Danger, and Dead Batteries”

TBD – Stop Solving Problems!

UK Home Office – Stop Solving Problems!

uxWaterloo – Stop Solving Problems! (writeup)

2019

CanUX – Stop Solving Problems (talk) (sketchnote)

D-Fifteen dialogues: IoT – Stop Solving Problems (talk)

Design Research – What we (DON’T) talk about when we talk about research (keynote) (Tweet thread); Learning From User Research War Stories (workshop)

Digital Thinkers Conference – Great Research for Non-Researchers (talk) (video)

Mind the Product – Great Research for Non-Researchers (talk) (video, writeup, sketchnote 1, sketchnote 2)

OutSystems – Stop Solving Problems! (talk)

Productized – Great Research for Non-Researchers (keynote)(video), We’ve Done All This Research, Now What (workshop)

Rosenfeld Media – Fundamentals of Interviewing Users (workshop)

UXinsight – What we (DON’T) talk about when we talk about research (keynote)

World IA Day San Francisco – Dollars to Donuts live

2018

Houston UXPA – The Power of Bad Ideas (talk)

IxDA Sydney – The Power of Bad Ideas (talk) (video)

NUX7 – The Designer Is Present (keynote) (video, slides)

ProductCamp Poland – Interviewing Users: Uncovering Compelling Insights (workshop), Stop Solving Problems (keynote)

Mind the Product – User Research Interviews (workshop)

UX Australia – Interviewing Users: Uncovering Compelling Insights (workshop), Stop Solving Problems! (talk) (slides, audio, sketchnotes; interview)

uxWaterloo – Soft Skills Are Hard (presentation)

UX Week – We’ve Done All This Research, Now What? (workshop)

Web à Québec – Interviewing Users: Uncovering Compelling Insights (presentation)

2017

Big Design – Learning From User Research War Stories (presentation)

Confab Higher Ed – User research: Uncovering compelling insights through interviews (workshop); We’ve Done All This Research, Now What? (presentation)

Confab Intensive – We’ve Done All This Research, Now What? (workshop)

IDEO – Discussion of Doorbells, Danger, and Dead Batteries

Interaction 17 – User Research War Stories (video)

InVision Design Talks – User Research War Stories (video)

Midwest UX -Interviewing Users workshop; User Research War Stories (video)

Mind The Product – User Research Interviews (workshop)

O’Reilly Design Conference – User Research War Stories (slides, video)

Radical Research Summit – Learning From User Research War Stories (keynote) (slides)

Rome UX Book Club – Discussion of Doorbells, Danger, and Dead Batteries

San Diego Experience Design – User Research War Stories (presentation/workshop)

User Research London – User Research War Stories (presentation) (video)

UX Book Club: PDX – Discussion of Doorbells, Danger, and Dead Batteries

UX Melbourne Book Club – Discussion of Doorbells, Danger, and Dead Batteries (video)

UX Week – User research: Uncovering compelling insights through interviews (workshop)

2016

Amuse UX (Budapest) – Doorbells, Danger, and Dead Batteries: User Research War Stories keynote (video)

Ask the UXperts: Learning from the comic, tragic & astonishing moments in user research (transcript)

Confab Intensive – Interviewing Users workshop

Design Thinking Meetup – User Experience Research panel

Design Week – Designing Products: Research Stories Untold panel

Lean Product & Lean UX Silicon Valley Meetup – How to Interview Users to Uncover Insights (video, slides)

NASDAQ Pro/Design Masterclass (fireside chat)

Product Tank SF – The Power of Bad Ideas (video)

User Friendly China – Interviewing Users: Uncovering Compelling Insights (workshop); Learning from User Research War Stories (keynote); From User Experience to Brand Experience (panel)

UX Australia – Soft Skills Are Hard workshop, Fieldwork Fundamentals talk (slides, audio)

World IA Day Boston – Soft Skills Are Hard

2015

18F – The Power of Bad Ideas (video, summary)

Ask the UXperts: Using Insights to Inform Design & Innovation (transcript)

Association of Registered Graphic Designers – Interviewing Users Webinar

CCA – Improv, Creativity and Collaboration

DELVE – Designing for Unmet Needs

Design Writing Summit – Beating the Blank Page

Fluxible – Epic FAIL: Takeaways from the War Stories Project

EnterpriseUX – Theme leader for Insight at Scale

EnterpriseUX – Soft Skills workshop

General Assembly UX Intensive – The Power of Bad Ideas

Great Schools – Improv, Creativity and Collaboration

Interact 15 – The Designer is Present keynote (podcast, slides, video) and Soft Skills Are Hard workshop

Interaction 15 – Soft Skills Are Hard (slides)

IxDA San Francisco – Moments of Influence with Dan Szuc and Jo Wong (slides)

People Skills for UX – Listening

Rackspace UX Book Club – Interviewing Users

RE:DESIGN/UXD 2015 – Improv, Creativity and Collaboration

UX Careers 2015: Where is the field headed and how do you stay current?

UX Community on Slack – Ask Me Anything (transcript)

UX New Zealand – Well We’ve Done All This Research, Now What? (workshop) and Yes, My Tuatara Loves to Cha-Cha: Improv, Creativity and Design (video, slides)

UX Week 15 – Soft Skills Are Hard (workshop)

World IA Day DC – The Designer is Present workshop (video, highlight video, slides, sketchnote)

2014

BrooklynUX – Soft Skills for Design and Innovation (slides)

CHIFOO – Epic FAIL – Takeaways from the War Stories project (summary)

Code for America – Interviewing Users workshop

Denver UX Book Club (video)

EuroIA – Well We’ve Done All This Research, Now What? workshop (slides)

Fundraiser – Advice for Early-career Designers (summary)

HOW Interactive Design – Interviewing Users (slides, Vimeo, YouTube)

Interaction South America – Designing the Problem (video, slides, audio, sketchnotes)

IxDA Grand Rapids – Soft Skills are Hard (slides, video, photos)

IxDA Seattle – Healthy and Creative Work Environments Workshop with Dan Szuc

IxDA Seattle – Soft Skills Are Hard – A Journey To Healthier Work with Dan Szuc (slides)

Rosenfeld Media – 32 Awesomely Practical UX Tips (tweets)

UX Australia – Epic FAIL – Takeaways from the War Stories Project (slides, audio, sketchnotes)

UX Australia – The Designer is Present (workshop)

uxWaterloo – Building the Muscles of Innovators

Warm Gun – Designing for Unmet Needs (slides, audio, sketchnotes)

2013

UC Berkeley New Product Development class (2011, 2013) – We’ve Done All This Research, Now What?

Citrix – UX Research Methods

Catapult Labs – Interviewing Users

Design Research Fireside Chat

Fluxible – The Designer Is Present (review, slides)

Fluxible – The Power Of Silence (video)

IxDA Silicon Valley – The Power of Bad Ideas (slides)

IxDA Los Angeles/LA UX Meetup – Interviewing Users (slides, video, alternate video, tweets)

IxDA NYC – Interviewing Users

Mozilla – Interviewing 101

O’Reilly Webcast – Interviewing Users – Uncovering Compelling Insights (video, sketchnotes)

MIMA Summit – Interviewing Users – Uncovering Compelling Insights

PayPal UX Summit – User Research for Mobile

Rome UX Book Club – Interviewing Users

School of Visual Arts – The Power of Bad Ideas

SJSU Human Factors/Ergonomics Alumni Symposium – The Power of Bad Ideas

SXSW – The Power of Bad Ideas (slides, sketchnotes)

TiE Silicon Valley – Panel on Design-led Innovation – Building Successful Products

TorCHI – Skill Building for Design Innovators (slides)

Twitter – Design/Research Fireside Chat

UX Book Club DC – Interviewing Users

UX Book Club Philly – Interviewing Users

UX Week – Interviewing Users Workshop – How To Uncover Compelling Insights

Walmart Global UX Summit – Yes, My Iguana Loves to Cha-Cha – Improv, Creativity and Design

Wolters Kluwer – User Research Methods

2012

User Experience Design class @ General Assembly – Early-stage User Research (slides)

IDSA Silicon Valley – Yes, My Iguana Loves to Cha-Cha – Improv, Creativity and Design (summary)

Mozilla – We’ve Done All This Research, Now What? (video)

San Francisco Bay Area ACM – Yes, My Iguana Loves to Cha-Cha – Improv, Creativity and Design (slides)

Schwab’s “Brain Circus” – Yes, My Iguana Loves to Cha-Cha – Improv, Creativity and Design

Service Design Melbourne – Skill Building for Design Innovators (writeup, video).

UIE Virtual Seminar – Championing Contextual Research in Your Organization

University of Dundee Masters of Design Ethnography – Qualitative Data Analysis

UX Australia – Immersive Field Techniques (Sketchnotes 1, 2, 3 and also here)

UXLx – Well, We’ve Done All This Research, Now What? (slides, sketchnotes) and Discover and Act on Insights About People (video, slides, sketchnotes, sketchnotes)

WebVisions Barcelona – Synthesis to Ideation – Making Research Real and Championing Contextual Research in Your Organization (slides)

WebVisions Chicago – Championing Contextual Research in Your Organization (slides)

2011

APDF Exchange – Spontaneous Invention – Improv Techniques for Brainstorming

Center for Design Research at the University of Kansas – Finding the Right People (slides)

CHI2011 – We’ve Done All This Research, Now What? (slides)

Frontiers of Interaction – Successful Collaboration – Keep Your Clients Happy (slides, sketchnotes, summary video)

Lift – Discover and Act on Insights about People (slides and video)

Rosenfeld Media UX Workshops – Interviewing Users: Spinning Data into Gold (slides)

SXSW – Diving Deep – Best Practices For Interviewing Users (slides and audio)

UIE Virtual Seminar – User Research Analysis Techniques

UIE Web Apps Masters Tour – Design Fieldwork – Uncovering Innovation From The Outside In (notes)

Unfinished Business – Lecture – Culture, User Research & Design (slides and audio)

Unfinished Business – Workshop – Working with User Research Data (slides)

User Experience Hong Kong – Well, We’ve Done All This Research, Now What? (presentation slides, workshop slides)

User Interface 16 – Immersive Field Research Techniques Workshop; Culture – You’re Soaking In It

2010

Adobe HCI Breakfast – Reading Ahead – Considering The Book’s Future in the iPod Era

Amazon UX Team Workshop – Skill Building for Design Innovators

Austin Center for Design – Synthesizing User Research

CHI – Well, We Did All This Research…Now What?

CHIFOO – Skill Building for Design Innovators (slides and audio)

Formation Design Group – Enabling Research And Other Things We Never Talk About

HFES – When Not To Follow User-Centered Design Techniques (slides)

Interaction10 – Well, We Did All This Research…Now What?

IxDA Munich – Deep Dive Interviewing Secrets

PARC Forum – Ethnography as a Cultural Practice (video)

PDX IxDA Redux – Keynote presentation of “Well, We Did All This Research…Now What?”

Puget Sound SIGCHI – Yes, My Iguana Loves to Cha-Cha – Improv, Creativity and Collaboration

SF Interaction’10 redUX – Well, We’ve Done All This Research…Now What?

Savannah College of Art and Design – Reading Ahead – Considering The Book’s Future in the iPod Era

SXSW – UX Process Improved – Integrating User Insight with Aviva Rosenstein (slides and audio)

UIE Virtual Seminar – Deep Dive Interviewing Secrets

University of Oregon Contemporary Design Seminar – Synthesizing User Research

User Research Friday – We’ve Done All This Research…Now What? (slides)

2009

Amsterdam UX Cocktail Hour – Understanding Cultural Context

BayCHI – We Did All This Research, Now What? (slides)

CCA Design MBA Program – An Introduction to User Research

EPIC – Moving from Data to Insights to Opportunities

Human Factors International – Understanding Cultural Context

IDSA Project Infusion – “Yes, And” for Better Design/Design Research

Istanbul Industrial Design Summit – Ethnographic Research for Inspiring and Informing Design

Istanbul Technical University – An Introduction to User Research/Turning Data Into Opportunities

Interaction 09 – Well, We Did All This Research…Now What?

IXDA-SF Interaction 09 Redux – Well, We Did All This Research…Now What?

IxDA Chicago – Understanding Cultural Context

IxDA New York – Yes, My Iguana Loves to Cha-Cha – Improv, Creativity and Collaboration (slides)

MEDEA Collaborative Media Initiative – Service Design – An Ethnographer’s Take

Nokia Design Speaker Series – Well, We Did All This Research…Now What?

Pratt Institute – An Introduction to User Research

SVA MFA in Interaction Design – Getting Generative – User Research Applied to Business Decisions

SVA MFA in Interaction Design – An Introduction to User Research

UC Berkeley Center for New Media and School of Information – Reading Ahead – Considering The Book’s Future in the iPod Era (video)

University of Oregon – Contemporary Design Seminar: Authenticity

Web 2.0 New York – We’ve Done All This Research – Now What?

2008

BBC Future Media & Technology – Understanding Cultural Context

Computer Market Analysis Group – The Listener’s Journey

Design Research Conference – Workshop – Did You See That? Tapping Into Your Super-noticing Power

Undisciplined! Design Research Society Conference – Opening Keynote

From Here to There Design Research Symposium at ASU – Plenary Speech about Cultural Context; Interviewing Techniques Workshop

IDSA Southern Conference – Improv and Ethnography Seminar

Lextant’s Design 40 – Design and Research Hacks

Nortel Technical Conference – Keynote on User-centered Innovation

San Jose State University (2005–2008) – Introduction to User Research

Silicon Valley American Marketing Association Morning Forum – International Market Research

Taiwan Design Center (2006–2008) – Introduction to User Research

User Research Friday – Design and Research: Ships in the Night? (slides, video)

2007

Connecting IDSA/ICSID World Design Congress – Connecting the Play of Improv with the Work of Ethnographic Research

Shift, IDSA Northeastern District Conference – Seventeen Ways to Not Suck at Research

UC Berkeley School of Information, Information Systems Clinic – Introduction to User Research

2006

Adaptive Path – The Overlaps within Cultures and Disciplines

ASTM E18 Sensory Evaluation – Observational Research Workshop

Core77/BusinessWeek – Design 2.0 – Context Is King (summary, audio)

DCamp – The Overlap – Design, Disciplines, Culture

Easy6 – Keynote at India’s National Conference on Software Usability

IDSA-SF – Keynote and Master-of-ceremonies for Bay Area’s Best Awards

MarCamp – Participation and Authenticity: The New Prosumer and User-Generated Content

Microsoft Research Bangalore – The Overlaps within Cultures and Disciplines

Overlap – Planning Team Member

San Jose State University – Culture + Artifacts

UX Week – Cross-Cultural Research (slides, audio)

2005

Institute of Design (2002–2005) – About, With, and For (slides)

Adobe Systems – The Challenges of Being a Creative in a Corporate Environment

Creative CanUX – Seminar on Ethnographic Methods

EPIC – Interpersonal Connections in Ethnographic Fieldwork

DUX05 – User Research Poster for the HP Home Cinema Digital Projector (PDF) and Tutorial on Innovation, Ethnography, and Improv

IDSA-SF – Panel on Design Entrepreneurship

2004

BayCHI – Kawaii – Adventures in a Parallel Universe

CHIFOO – Innovation, Ethnography and Improv

eBay – Global User Experience & Design Summit (review)

Fisher-Price – Design Summit

IDSA Western District Conference – Panel Design Stories and Radical Changes in Our World

IFL – Swedish Institute of Management (2003–2004) – Beyond Market Research

LIMA Licensing Trade Show – Panel on Trends

Masterfoods – R&D Excellence Week

PDMA-SoCal – Learning about Customers, Demystified

SF-AMA – International Ethnography

2003

Thought At Work at the Rochester Institute of Technology – Introduction to Design Research (review)

Institute of Design – International Ethnography

IBM Make IT Easy – Discovering Customer Value

Google – Designer Tea Time

FX/PAL – Beyond Market Research

DUX03 with Lynn Shade – International Ethnography (PDF)

Art Center College of Design – Introduction to Ethnographic Methods

1996–2002

Chemical Senses Day (2002) – Introduction to Ethnographic Methods

Shure (2000) – Ethnographic Methods Training

Stanford Design Program (1998—2000) – Lecture on Ethnographic Methods

BayCHI – Building Meaning Into Products (1998)

Stanford Graduate School of Business (1996) – Lecture on Building Usable Products

Get In Touch

My consulting projects range from weekly coaching to intensive multi-month engagements. Let’s explore how to work together!

  • steve@portigal.com
  • 14158942001

  • Portigal Consulting LLC
  • PO Box 370252
  • Montara, CA

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Interviewing Users: How to Uncover Compelling Insights

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