It’s almost the ides of January! It’s c-c-c-old and we’re thinking about what’s ahead for us this week.

• We’ve got foamcores full of sticky notes from last week’s client workshop. Now we’ve got a few more interviews to review and then we’re going to start putting together our big themes and getting them written up for an upcoming presentation.
• I’m putting together a talk for a Silicon Valley firm’s UX retreat. Much of the material is new for me so right now I’m outline mode, trying to organize thoughts, examples, and points of view.
• Last week we published five War Stories (Daria, Prasad, Jen, Ryan, and Valerie) and this week already we’ve got one from Rachel. We’ll have one tomorrow for sure, and we’ll see what the rest of the week brings. Interested? Let us know your story!
• In the community this week is the QRCA local chapter meeting. Beth will be there. Will you?
• Ten years gone: From January 2003 – Infiltration, music industry upside
• What we’re consuming: The Staircase, banchan, Django Unchained.

Hello Monday and hello all. We’re back into the swing of things; one of my favorite tweets last week was someone saying it was the longest 3-day week ever. So true for us as well. Anyway, here’s what we’ve got happening:

• We’ve been closely reading a bunch of transcripts and are spending a full day and a half this week with visiting clients to sort through the fieldwork stories and pull out the bigger themes and patterns. I’m pretty excited about some of the ideas that the transcripts prompted for me just on my own, so no doubt once we get into the room some interesting things will happen.
• We just published Daria’s War Story – an epic one – and there should be one more each day for the rest of the week or so.
• In the community this week is Cyd Harell’s talk on Fearless Mobile Research. I’ll be there. Will you?
• Ten years gone: From January 2003 – Steve’s sci-fi detective fiction from the 80s, Flasher the Clown.
• What we’re consuming: This Is My Kingdom, chicken and waffles (for breakfast!), Last Train Home, Gang Nam Chicken.

Happy 2013 to everyone! It’s Wednesday, back to work for a short week after a long break. Chilly and sunny outside, foggy inside (well, inside my head at least, as I fight off the last bits of a holiday cold).

• We’ve taken a set of fieldwork transcripts and divided them up between ourselves and our client team in preparation for an extensive synthesis workshop next week.
• Proposals! We’re working with a number of different organizations to lay out a range of interesting engagements for the next few months.
• I turned in my latest book manuscript before I took off for holidays; am waiting to hear from the editorial team about next steps but I know we’re making serious headway towards actual publication. More details when I have them.
• Ten years gone: From January 2003 – clown names, streaming audio of porn music, exotic meats.
• What we’re consuming: crab, Frequency and Volume, ramen, Weird Al and Bill Plympton.

It’s our last real week of work for the year. And as seems to happen every Monday for the past little while, rain has turned to sunshine by the time I sit down to tell you about our week ahead.

• Wonderful topline session with our team concluded last week; we’re on the cusp of diving into synthesis, full-on, but as often happens with this organization, we’re in a bit of a holding pattern on schedule.
• Potential projects abound. Our cup nearly runneth over with a diverse set of interesting projects for the first quarter of 2013. We’ll be excited to see which we’ll move ahead with.
• I’ve set aside some time to do our Portigal-in-2012 writeup. Watch for that!
• I’ve got one War Story in hand, a near-final draft of another, and a promise of a third.
• We’ve got our winners for the IxD13 Student Design Challenge. Lots of logistics to get them sorted for travel to Toronto next year and now the planning for the conference moves forward: figuring out the details of their assignment, setting up our judges for Toronto, and looking to see what kind of prizes we can arrange for these folks.
• I’m taking a book day to finalize the next revision of the manuscript before the year runs out. It’s been a while since I had the time to focus but I’ve got a deadline to meet!
• Ten years gone: From December 2002 – The 250-word short story
• What we’re consuming: SF Sketchfest, The Day the Earth Stood Cool, Best Music Of 2012, Best Books Of 2012, The 100 best British films, Top 100 Bay Area Restaurants 2012.

I was out of the state during a big storm and arrived back just in time for more gorgeous weather. We know it won’t last but in the meantime, we’re enjoying it. And this week looks like this:

• After wrapping up fieldwork last week, we’re sitting down with the team later this week for a topline summary; we haven’t yet begun the in-depth analysis but we find it critical to gather everyone together and align on what we think we’ve heard and what we think it means. No doubt that will be replaced by the outcomes of the analysis, but having a discussion before that begins in earnest is very valuable for the end result.
• This Thursday in Mountain View I’ll be giving a talk about improv, creativity, and design. Tickets available here. Hope to see you!
• I’ve got jury duty this week. Let’s see what happens with that!
• The judges are reviewing the IxD13 Student Design Challenge submissions and we’re planning on announcing the winners in a few days.
• Out on the town this week: Tragically Hip at the Fillmore, Rick Prelinger’s Lost Landscapes of San Francisco
• We just published David’s War Story. As usual, I’ve got a few more in progress that I hope to see come to light before too long.
• Ten years gone: From December 2002 – Hotel soap confessions
• What we’re consuming: Latkes, Marina Abramovic, Radiolab, Memrise.

Here’s the scoop for this week, written ahead of Monday, as I am already at an undisclosed location for a brief yet long-awaited vacation.

• We’re finishing up the last interviews and crafting the initial deliverable, a top-line summary of initial hypotheses and observations. This is before we get into any of the formal analysis, but establishes a point for checking in among the entire team about what we’re hearing and what we think it means.
• Ten years gone: From December 2002 – clearing up the marmoset/marmot confusion, what’s in a name?
• What we’re consuming: Gorilla Barbecue, The Queen of Versailles, Nina Conti.

It’s Monday after a holiday weekend. Whoah.

• Today we begin fieldwork! We’ve been revising the field guide, developing materials, prepping incentives and release forms, collecting homework exercises, coordinating schedules, parking lots, and meeting locations, and today it all starts. Our whole week is primarily dedicated to completing this round of in-home interviews. We’ll be looking at how people live now and how they want to live in the future. Broad enough for you?
• The UXPA has just posted Stick to the Knitting, my invited editorial for the Journal of Usability Studies. I challenge designers – especially those involved with technology – to return to the still-unsolved problems that we originally set out to address.
• What we’re consuming: Gorilla Barbecue, The Queen of Versailles, Nina Conti.

Another gorgeous day here in Northern California. The rain has come, and then the sun comes back. Fingers crossed for the rest of the holiday week!

• Today began early with a conversation with an industry expert who gave us a lot to think about as we prepare to head into the field next Monday AM. We’ve got a few more of those conversations lined up for the rest of the week; meanwhile we’re also in full-on logistics mode, scheduling clients to join us in the field, figuring out parking and meeting locations in different San Francisco neighborhoods, and convening a brief briefing to talk everyone through what to expect when we go in the field.
• Last week we published Sharon’s War Story. I’m not holding my breath for another one this week but it’s possible. A couple of folks are very close!
• Ten years gone: From November 2002 – How (not) to hire a marketing consultant
• What we’re consuming: The Mind of a Chef, Cloud Atlas, Point Blank, Turkey Tips from Alton Brown, The Abbot’s Cellar

Wake up, it’s Monday already! I’m still confused a week after the time changed, but it is indeed Monday.

• While we’re still reaching out to stakeholders and just beginning to connect with industry experts, our recruiter has already set up most of the field visits. It should be a busy time right after Thanksgiving.
• Last week my latest interactions article went live, and another article went through final edits. Hope to see it appear this week.
• Last week we published Jaimes and Aico’s War Story. Today we published Elysa’s story. If things work out, we should get one more this week. And of course, we’re looking for your story, too!
• Local folks, we’ll be at Larry Cornett’s Design Talk on Wednesday. Will you?
• Coming up in December, IDSA Silicon Valley will be hosting me for An Interactive Talk on Improv, Creativity and Design at the Computer History Museum.
• Ten years gone: From November 2002 – Zoloft Norms
• What we’re consuming: Craft & Commerce, Cobra Verde, Alex Jamieson’s Delicious Vitality, Josie’s Global Soul Corner

Welcome to a new week!

• It’s fascinating and challenging at the outset of a project as there’s sometimes more enthusiasm than momentum, and many parallel pieces to get rolling that move by inches instead of miles. At the bullet-point level, we’re in much the same place as we were last week except we realize we need to push our fieldwork til after Thanksgiving so we can have time to get fully immersed in the topics and build a great fieldwork method.
• I’m expecting to see publication of one, if not two, of the articles I’ve been working on lately.
• Last week we published Apala’s War Story. I think a few other people are close; I saw some outlines last week and am excited about what those will turn into.
• Ten years gone: From November 2002 – Fresh Meat at the American Girl Store
• What we’re consuming: Strangers podcast, Cartems Donuterie, Letterpress