It’s December! We’re in the home stretch for 2013. Also, it’s CyberMonday, a fact which Facebook reminded me of today, sending a notification to the Portigal Consulting page with the helpful advice to “write a post about it.” Gee, thanks.

• Check out the eLearning Coach podcast, where I spoke about Interviewing Users with Connie Malamed.
• I’m headed to New York later this week. I’ll be giving a talk about Interviewing Users at IxDA NYC on December 6 (long since sold out).
• I’m going to be spending a day at SVA, speaking about The Power of Bad Ideas at the Products of Design program and guesting at the Interaction Design program in their Research Methods class.
• Ten years gone: From December 2003 – Golden Bull Awards, Automobile product placement in videogames.
• What we’re consuming: latkes, Full Circle, Hendrix, pop stars aging gracefully.

I’m technically off today, spending today and yesterday in LA for a short birthday trip to see the Turrell retrospective at LACMA and eat delicious food. It’s a short week otherwise, with Thursday (and sorta Friday?) as Thanksgiving.

• Last week was my O’Reilly webcast Interviewing Users. You can see the recording at the link, also two summaries from the Twitters here and here.
• Next week I’ll be in New York for a few days. I’ll be giving a talk about Interviewing Users at IxDA NYC on December 6. You can sign up at the link but it was waitlist only a few hours after it was announced last week.
• Also in New York, I’ll be visiting SVA, speaking about The Power of Bad Ideas at the Products of Design program and guesting at the Interaction Design program in their Research Methods class.
• Ten years gone: From November 2003 – Kung Faux, Recruiting fail, Luxury Golf Cart Lawsuit.
• What we’re consuming: Underworld U.S.A., Flightfox, Osteria Mozza, 31st Union, Like a Rolling Stone, Bazaar.

I’m back from a relaxing week in Hawaii and plowing through email, catching up, trying to figure out what is going on.

• This Thursday is my free O’Reilly webcast Interviewing Users: Uncovering Compelling Insights, Sign up at the link.
• I was interviewed by Cruxial CIO for an article about design, user experience, and customers.
• Ten years gone: From November 2003 – Diamante Poems, Dirty Toilets, young people who swindle older people by pretending to be their children or grandchildren urgently in need of money.
• What we’re consuming: The Best American Noir of the Century, Big Island Brewhaus.

I’m in Hawaii.

That is all.

It’s Fall-Back Monday. What the heck time is it?

• Coming up, I’m going to be doing a free O’Reilly webcast Interviewing Users: Uncovering Compelling Insights on November 21. Sign up at the link.
• Out-and-about this week, I’ll be at Brenda Laurel’s book launch for Computers as Theatre, Second Edition.
• Ten years gone: From November 2003 – Kate Pierson has her own motel, TAMALA 2010: A Punk Cat in Space.
• What we’re consuming: Levon Helm, standard time, Momiji, BrainWash Cafe.

Hello, week!

• From a Monday point of view, it seems like this is a week for writing. I’m holding for a bunch of different clients and while their different planning processes stretches out, it’s a good time to dig into stuff that’s been brewing for me.
• portigal.com should be all set. I think I’ve found all the weird formatting issues that didn’t move over properly. I also updated several hundred rotten links although there will always be more.
• Ten years gone: From October 2003 – Flashmob tipping point, TERMINAL BAR: the film.
• What we’re consuming: Touchez pas au grisbi, Oh! Sweet Nuthin’, The Midnight Coterie of Sinister Intruders.

Greetings from the San Francisco Bay Area!

• I’m staying local this week, which is a bit of a relief, after several weeks of airplanes and hotel rooms.
• It looks as though portigal.com was moved to its new host without significant downtime for the website or our email. Phew! There’s some weird formatting things we keep finding on older blog posts, and I’m sure various other gremlins will crop up so if you see something, say something!
• Out on the town this week, I’m looking forward to Kim Erwin’s presentation about Communicating the New, her new book (where I’m one of a diverse group of interviewees).
• Ten years gone: From October 2003 – Knee Defender, Brand Names for Kids.
• What we’re consuming: Cinematic Titanic, Mori Point, Margaret.

Greetings from Minneapolis!

• I’m in Minneapolis this week to speak about Interviewing Users: Uncovering Compelling Insights at the MIMA Summit. Looking forward to the local cuisine and of course meeting up with some cool people.
• We’ve moved the webhost for portigal.com so that will likely impact when this gets posted, and perhaps some other things. Fingers crossed that all goes smoothly.
• As I dig more into the different collaborations and other engagements that are on the table right now, I’m excited and intrigued.
• Back home, looking forward to meeting up with Lou Rosenfeld to talk about the various doings we’ve got going. Or the goings-on we’re doing. Either way.
• Ten years gone: From October 2003 – KFC is healthy?, ACME products.
• What we’re consuming: Butcher & the Boar, Hell’s Kitchen, The Sense of an Ending.

Greetings from Tampa!

• I’m in Tampa for a few days to teach a workshop at Wolters Kluwer. I’ve got about 24 hours to explore and sample the local cuisine and then diving into working with this team on their research skills.
• There’s are seven different prospective projects floating around right now; some are speculative and won’t ever become actual prospects, others will take their own time to fully emerge, and so it goes. We’ll see what happens.
• In case you missed it last week, we tried a new format of group post at Rosenfeld Media (dubbed the QuickPanel) with our first effort discussing the challenges when Launching a Healthcare Exchange with No User Testing.
• Around town this week, there’s a meetup in Menlo Park this Friday for design researchers. There’s no website so ping me if you want details.
• Ten years gone: From October 2003 – General Mills Cereal Adventure, Sinkems: Dissolving Toilet Targets.
• What we’re consuming: Shipley Do-Nuts, Crossfire, The Salvador Dali Museum, Bo’s Ice Cream.

All hail the beginning of the week!

• No travel for me…well, until this weekend, when I head off to Tampa to teach a workshop at Wolters Kluwer next week.
• I’m in wait-and-see mode about a number of projects (including two that would be very interesting collaborations); last week was the week where I tried to close the loop on a pile of projects that urgently entered wait-and-see mode back in August. One of them was defunded; another team decided to hire rather than outsource; the last is not returning my emails. That’s how it goes!
• On Wednesday I’m heading over to Berkeley to lead a session on analyzing user research data with the New Product Development class at the Haas School of Business.
• I’ve got a few colleagues in town this week and have plans to meet for catching up, networking, and general talking-about-everything. I’m expecting some good inspirations.
• Ten years gone: From September 2003 – Bad Toon Rising.
• What we’re consuming: Pusher, Felina,
  Ristobar.