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Steve Portigal, Principal
Steve is fascinated by the stuff of a culture – its products, companies, consumers, media, and advertising. All these artifacts and the relationships between them are the rules that define a culture -- the stuff makes the culture, but it is the culture that makes the stuff.
Steve has an informal Museum of Foreign Grocery Products, a fun diversion that celebrates cultural differences through mundane consumer goods.
Steve takes pictures steadily whether for consulting work, travel, or as part of everyday life. Photography helps him discover another "frame" on our surroundings and to practice seeing the world differently.
Steve built one of the first online communities (Undercover, a Rolling Stones fan group) in 1992, nurturing it from a time when the Internet was an underground academic technology through to today, as part of a global info-infrastructure.
Connect with Steve: LinkedIn Flickr Twitter FriendFeed Dopplr
Dan Soltzberg, Consultant
Dan brings a background in design, facilitation, anthropology and communications to his work at Portigal Consulting.
Dan’s ability to “go deep” in his investigations supports a focus on generating provocative, actionable ideas, and creating processes and tools that empower client teams throughout the project lifecycle and beyond.
As a consultant and facilitator, Dan has worked with cross-functional and cross-cultural teams across a wide variety of industries and organization types.
Dan’s other loves include skateboarding and snowboarding, playing the bass, dogs, and old objects.
Connect with Dan: LinkedIn Flickr Twitter
Julie Norvaisas, Consultant
Julie considers consumers as artists, their marketplace choices as their palate, and the world they create for themselves as a creative act that reflects not only their individuality but also their society and culture. She revels in dissecting these choices to reveal patterns, needs, value and meaning. Julie is passionate about bringing this humane vision to the table as a way of collaboratively tackling business problems and driving innovation.
Julie's experience has toggled back and forth between a focus on product development and business strategy in a variety of categories, including medical devices, financial services, consumer packaged goods and communications.
Julie is the proud owner of a collection of vintage cookbooks, loves nothing more than a film festival and is, regrettably, a fan of the Chicago Bears.
Connect with Julie: LinkedIn Twitter
Tap into our network
We have an extensive network of partners available to support specific project requirements. We work with specialists in qualitative research, interaction design, industrial design, and others as well as teams around the world (including India, China, Latin America, Russia, and Europe) as part of REACH: The Global Design Research Network.
Past Speaking Engagements
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Amsterdam UX Cocktail Hour (2009) - Understanding Cultural Context
- BayCHI - Well, we did all this research … now what? (slideshow here) (2009); Kawaii: Adventures in a Parallel Universe (2004); Building Meaning Into Products (1998)
- CCA Design MBA Program (2009) - An Introduction to User Research
- EPIC - Moving from Data to Insights to Opportunities (2009), Interpersonal connections in ethnographic fieldwork (2005)
- Human Factors International (2009) - Understanding Cultural Context
- IDSA Project Infusion (2009) - "Yes, and" for Better Design/Design Research
- Istanbul Industrial Design Summit (2009) - Ethnographic Research for Inspiring and Informing Design
- Istanbul Technical University (2009) - An Introduction to User Research/Turning Data Into Opportunities
- Interaction 09 (2009) - Well, we did all this research … now what?
- IXDA-SF Interaction 09 Redux (2009) - Well, we did all this research...now what?
- IxDA Chicago (2009) - Understanding Cultural Context
- IxDA New York (2009) - Yes, My Iguana Loves to Cha-Cha: Improv, Creativity and Collaboration (slides, video)
- MEDEA Collaborative Media Initiative (2009) - Service Design: An Ethnographer’s Take
- Nokia Design Speaker Series (2009) - Well, We've Done All This Research...Now What?
- Pratt Institute (2009) - An Introduction to User Research
- SVA MFA in Interaction Design (2009) - Getting Generative: User Research Applied to Business Decisions
- SVA MFA in Interaction Design (2009) - An Introduction to User Research
- UC Berkeley Center for New Media and School of Information (2009) - Reading Ahead: Considering The Book’s Future in the iPod Era (video here)
- University of Oregon Contemporary Design seminar (2009) - Authenticity
- Web 2.0 New York (2009) - We've Done All This Research: Now What?
- BBC Future Media & Technology (2008) - Understanding Cultural Context
- Computer Market Analysis Group (2008) - The Listener's Journey
- Design Research Conference (2008) - Workshop: Did you see that? Tapping into your super-noticing power
- Undisciplined! Design Research Society Conference (2008) - opening keynote address
- From Here to There Design Research Symposium at ASU (2008) - Plenary speech about Cultural Context; workshop on Interviewing Techniques
- IDSA Southern Conference (2008) - A seminar about improv and ethnography
- Lextant's Design 40 (2008) - Design and research "hacks"
- Nortel Technical Conference (2008) - Keynote address on user-centered innovation
- San Jose State University (2005 - 2008) - Introduction to user research
- Silicon Valley American Marketing Association Morning Forum (2008) - International market research
- Taiwan Design Center (2006 - 2008) - introduction to user research
- Connecting IDSA/ICSID World Design Congress (2007) - Connecting the play of improv with the work of ethnographic research
- Shift, IDSA Northeastern District Conference (2007) - Seventeen ways to not suck at research
- UC Berkeley School of Information, Information Systems Clinic (2007) - introduction to user research
- Adaptive Path (2006) - the overlaps within cultures and disciplines
- ASTM E18 Sensory Evaluation (2006) - facilitated an observational research workshop
- Core77/BusinessWeek - Design 2.0 (2006) - Context Is King (summary here, audio here)
- DCamp (2006) - The Overlap: Design, Disciplines, Culture
- Easy6 (2006) - keynote address at India's national conference on software usability, in Bangalore
- IDSA-SF (2006) - keynote address and master-of-ceremonies for Bay Area's Best awards
- MarCamp (2006) - Participation and Authenticity: The new Prosumer and User-Generated Content
- Microsoft Research Bangalore (2006) - the overlaps within cultures and disciplines
- Overlap (2006) - planning team member
- San Jose State University (2006) - culture + artifacts
- UX Week (2006) - Cross-Cultural Research (slides here, audio here)
- About, With, and For at the Institute of Design (2002 - 2005; 2004 slides here)
- Adobe Systems (2005) - the challenges of being a creative inside a corporate environment
- Creative CanUX (2005) - seminar on ethnographic methods
- DUX05 poster - user research for the HP Home Cinema Digital Projector (PDF link to paper)
- DUX05 tutorial - innovation, ethnography and improv
- IDSA-SF (2005) - facilitated panel discussion on design entrepreneurship
- CHIFOO (2004) - innovation, ethnography and improv
- eBay (2004) - Global User Experience & Design Summit (review)
- Fisher-Price (2004) - Design Summit
- IDSA Western District Conference (2004) - facilitated panel discussions on i) design stories and ii) radical changes in our world
- IFL - Swedish Institute of Management (2003, 2004) - Beyond Market Research
- LIMA Licensing Trade Show (2004) - facilitated panel discussion on trends
- Masterfoods (2004) - R&D Excellence Week
- PDMA-SoCal (2004) - Learning about Customers, Demystified
- SF-AMA (2004) - international ethnography
- Art Center College of Design (2003) - introduction to ethnographic methods
- DUX03 (with Lynn Shade) - international ethnography (PDF link to paper)
- FX/PAL (2003) - Beyond Market Research
- Google (2003) - Designer Tea Time
- IBM Make IT Easy (2003) - Discovering Customer Value
- Institute of Design (2003) - international ethnography
- Thought At Work (2003) at the Rochester Institute of Technology (review here) - introduction to design research
- Chemical Senses Day (2002) - introduction to ethnographic methods
- Shure (2000) - training in ethnographic methods
- Stanford Design Program (1998 - 2000) - lecture on ethnographic methods
- Stanford Graduate School of Business (1996) - lecture on building usable products
Writing
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Organizational Empathy, from Top to Bottom (Appliance Magazine)
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The Cultures of Design - article about how organizations approach making design decisions (Design Management Institute)
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Take It from Consumers: Simpler Is Better - article about ease of use (Photo Reporter)
Let’s Embrace Open-Mindedness - the challenges to keeping our minds open (Johnny Holland) -
Object Obituary: My Flickr Meta-Content (PDF link) - reflecting on the loss of online data (Ambidextrous)
- True Tales - a regular column in interactions magazine
- Ever Notice? - the advantages of tapping into your “super-noticing power” (AIGA)
- FreshMeat - the semi-regular column about culture, design, business, and technology
- The Museum of Foreign Groceries (PDF link) - some highlights from the collection (Ambidextrous)
- Letter from Asia - cultural and design observations from our trip to Hong Kong, Bangkok, and India (Core77)
- Shopping for Innovation: What you need to know before hiring a design firm (with Niti Bhan) (Core77)
- Total Recall: Looking Back at 2004? - trying to look backwards when we are overwhelmed with experiences (Core77)
- The More The Merrier - how technology (and culture) is bringing participation even further into product creation (Core77)
- an analysis of the Japanese product Meary
- blogging about design and innovation at Core77
- blogging about design, culture, research, business, society, ephemera, media and more at All That ChittahChattah
- Design as a Cultural Activity in the SIGCHI Bulletin
- What's the Story? in LiNE Zine's special issue on Organizational Readiness in Turbulent Times
- Turn Signals, a fax-distributed (pre-blog) zine of current events, business, and culture (PDF sample here)
Press
- Will gadget revolutionize our reading habits? - San Francisco Chronicle, December 4, 2009
- What insight is ethnography delivering? (PDF) - MyCustomer, October 17, 2008
- Design an “Experience” for Users - Nikkei Electronics, January 28, 2008 vol. 970
- iLines: The sleek, smooth design of Apple's iPod is now mirrored in the architecture of some of the company's high-profile stores - Boston Globe, June 29, 2006
- The Cradle Will Rock - Boston Globe, June 8, 2006
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Ethnography Is The New Core Competence, BusinessWeek INside Innovation, June 2006
- Cheap Thrills: Its prices are just one way IKEA is altering how America decorates - Boston Globe, November 3, 2005
- Grocery strikers' difficulties mount - Ventura County Star, January 18, 2004
- Online Diary - New York Times, December 4, 2003
- All Eyes On Japan's Latest Trend - Wireless Flash News, November 11, 2002
Other
- Steve was interviewed for Speed of Innovation - podcast about the balance between speed, creativity and innovation in the design process
- Steve offers advice to aspiring designers
- Member of the Industry Steering Group for Dundee University Design Ethnography program
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Interview with Steve Portigal conducted at the ID Design Research Conference
- Interview with Ed Cotton at Influx Insights about design inspiration and design strategy
- Design Research Methods, a professional level course taught at the Involution Master Academy (2008, 2007)
- The Listening Revolutionary podcast (2006)
- Interview with Luke Wroblewski (2006) - part 1, part 2
- Undergraduate instructor in Design Research Methods in the Industrial Design department of CCA in San Francisco (2006 - 2007)
- Advisor to the board of The Information Architecture Institute (2005 - 2006)
- Photographic credit, Design: A Very Short Introduction, Heskett, 2006 (Swedish translation)
- Photographic credit, Creating Breakthrough Ideas, Squires & Byrne, 2002
- Discovery mailing list established to help form a community of practice among those who study customers in order to drive product development (1995)
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