Yes, we’re hiring a Design Researcher. It’s a full-time position at our office in Pacifica, CA, one block from the ocean and 15 minutes from San Francisco.

The job
First, as a researcher, you’ll work on consulting engagements (sometimes a few at a time) where we are gathering new insights about people to help inform the product and service decisions our clients are making. That means planning the details of a study, finding participants, developing fieldwork methodology, interviewing people, analyzing data, synthesizing findings, preparing presentations, and delivering results to teams.

Second, as a member of the Portigal team, you’ll be sharing your expertise and point of view through blogging, speaking at conferences, and writing articles.

Requirements
You have at least 3 years of professional experience in all aspects of user research work. On your own you can do any of the tasks a project requires, such as writing a screener, preparing a field guide, leading an interview, analyzing and synthesizing data, preparing and delivering a presentation.

You can write clearly for a professional audience.

We’re especially interested if
You have experience as a consultant and are familiar with working in a professional services environment.

You have a history in thought-leadership, sharing your professional expertise and perspective through blogs, articles, conferences, etc. You may even have a set of topics that you are especially focused on.

About Portigal Consulting
Founded in 2001, Portigal Consulting is a bite-sized agency that helps organizations to discover and act on new insights about their customers and themselves. We are a small business but we work for very large businesses, giving us some of the best of both worlds. We have the good fortune to be hired by passionate individuals at top firms in consumer electronics, software, finance and other industries. Critical to our success is the strong relationships we’ve built with clients, containing a nutritious mix of leadership, talent, good customer service, and collaboration. We’d expect that you share our enthusiasm for establishing and maintaining those relationships.

To apply
Send an email to jobs AT portigal DOT com with your resume and

1. Why you want to work at Portigal
2. An overview of your user research skills (include examples if possible)
3. A writing sample that might fit at http://www.portigal.com/blog
4. The topics you’d like to explore, as a thought leader, at Portigal
5. If available, links to your blog, conference presentations, publications, or other examples of your thought-leadership
6. In This Week @ Portigal, we talk about what we’re consuming. What are you consuming?

Please and thank you
No phone calls. And we’re only able to consider people who have legal permission to work in the USA.
 
 

Brody takes a break from the action at Portigal

I spent some time last week walking around the area near our office in Pacifica. It’s amazing how often, when you break your usual routine, you find something fascinating and unfamiliar right around the corner. In this case, a whole pier fishing subculture, with its own set of tools, infrastructure, workarounds . . .

(Cell phone pix, so forgive the lack of detail)

Fishing, Pacifica Pier

Fisherman with homemade cart and pinups

Fishing pole held in crack (price tag $11.96)

Catch and release measuring scale on lamppost

Normal is defined by context.

Here’s a detail from a flyer from a local Coastside restaurant

Note the schematic indicating their location. There’s a lot of local knowledge required to interpret that. Which direction is north? Are each of those towns equal distance from each other? Are they equal size? Are there stop signs located at those locations?

(Answers: right, not really, not hardly, no way)

Here, then, is a more familiar map, from Google.

El Granada doesn’t even merit text on their map, but they do a get a green arrow!

Returned home today to news that Devil’s Slide will re-open by 5 a.m., Friday, Aug. 4. This is fantastic! Four months after it closed, and 7 weeks earlier than estimated. I have felt pretty trapped in Montara, with poor access to San Francisco, and more planning required for out-of-town meetings and lunches and like. My colleagues have been understanding of the limitations, but it’s still hard not to feel marginalized by location. And I don’t even have a regular commute like so many others!

The Aug. 4 opening does not mean all repair work will be done by then. While work required to stabilize the road will be complete, drainage and electrical systems work will continue together with some erosion control into September.