I really enjoyed my conversation with Dawan Stanford for his Design Thinking 101 podcast. The audio (57 min) is embedded above, and available on the episode page.

We talk about Steve’s excitement for and interest in spending more time with stakeholders within a client’s organization. He has learned why a stakeholder’s perspective is essential in relation to the success of a project. He talks about creating “learning-ready” moments, how he helps people have these moments, and how learning and sharing the journey of learning affect learning retention.

Listen in to learn:

• How Steve and others developed the design processes in the early stages of user experience and research
• How Steve’s skills, interests, and the work he does for his clients has evolved over the years
• When Steve knows he’s found a great client
• Why he believes that learning together is when change can happen
• Why understanding stakeholders gives better results with clients
• Being able to embrace realistic expectations of what you can accomplish

I had a really lovely conversation with Kavita Appachu and Mike Kendall for the SHIFT podcast. The 56-minute episode (available as either video or audio only) is embedded above, and available on the episode page.

Steve Portigal, Author, Speaker, and Customer Research Expert, shares how to drive innovation using the power of strategic customer insights. He reminds us that learning from customers is “messy” because we are complex beings. In order to go deep while interviewing customers, you should have clarity about what is uncomfortable for you versus what is uncomfortable for customers and not conflate the two. His provocation, “No One Cares,” highlights the risk of magnifying the significance of our solutions in a customer’s life and missing the opportunity to focus on things that customers care about.

In the past couple of months I’ve managed to post a raft of new episode of Dollars To Donuts, the podcast where I speak with people who lead user research in their organization.

Here are the latest episodes

• Danielle Smith of Express Scripts
• Amber Lindholm of Duo Security
• Julia Nelson of MOO
• Chris Kovel of First Abu Dhabi Bank
• Noam Segal of Wealthfront
• Laith Ulaby of Udemy
• Kathryn Campbell of Ticketmaster
• Laura Faulkner of Rackspace

You can also find the podcast on Stitcher, Spotify, Google Play, and Apple.

It was great to speak with Leigh Allen-Arredondo for the UX Cake podcast. The audio (32 min) is embedded above, and available on the episode page.

I had a great conversation with Jamin Brazil for the Happy Market Research podcast recently. The audio and video are embedded above, and available on YouTube, or on the episode page.

While I was in Poland last year I was interviewed by Tomasz Skórski about the state of UX and user research.

The audio and video from our conversation is embedded above, available on YouTube here, or on the episode page.

In case you missed it, Dollars to Donuts, the podcast where I talk to people who lead user research in their organizations, is back with new episodes! So far, I’ve spoken with Leanne Waldal, Marianne Berkovich, and Tomer Sharon. And there are more to come! Check out the podcasts on portigal.com, iTunes, Stitcher, or Spotify.

Big news! The Dollars to Donuts podcast is back. Check out my brand new episode, a fascinating conversation with Leanne Waldal, Senior Director of Product Research at New Relic.

If you don’t know, in this podcast I talk to people who lead user research in their organization.

You can get Dollars to Donuts in a few places, including

• portigal.com
• Apple Podcasts
• Overcast
• Stitcher
• Spotify

While I was in Manchester last year I had a very enjoyable and friendly conversation with Bex and Jonny, the hosts of Tech for Good Live. We talked about the role of the user researcher, the increasingly blurry line between design and research, design ethics, and my favorite stories from user researchers out in the field.

The conversation is posted at Tech for Good Live and embedded below.

I had the pleasure of speaking recently with Chirryl-Lee Ryan about user research and more – we got into outcomes versus deliverables, tipping points for the tech industry, and a few other fun areas. The conversation is now live on This is HCD (including a transcript), and embedded below.

Chi shared her own user research war story

We didn’t have a car. We should have hired a car or we should have had a driver because we had no idea what the traffic was like in Manila. One of the team members went to catch their flight back to Australia and the taxi driver kind of kidnapped them because they didn’t have cash – all the things that you don’t think about when you’re going to do research – they happened to us on that on that particular research trip. And so you know, we got great insights and the client was just amazed but at the same time we sort of went through this wild adventure of our own on the back side of what was actually happening on the trip.

Artwork by Eli Jorgensen

I had a wide-ranging and personal conversation with Jason Ogle for the User Defenders podcast. We talked about my professional trajectory, my disdain for Forrest Gump, rapport-building, listening, disgust, and war stories from fieldwork. Our conversation is now live on the User Defenders site, and embedded below



And yeah, that’s me in a black-and-purple cape, but you’ll need to listen to the episode to understand what’s about.

I had a really enjoyable conversation with Sarah E. Brown and Bill Cushard for their Helping Sells Radio podcast.

The episode is posted here and embedded below

Research is sometimes about not doing anything at all

“Sometimes the best thing you can do in user research is to sit on your hands,” Portigal said. For example when talking to someone and they use a product feature in a different way than you intended or mispronounce the name of your product. “Just let them talk, don’t correct them,” he advised.

By sitting back and letting the interview subject take control of the language they use and how they explain things, you’re giving them the power in the session. The power in any interview tends to lie with the interviewer, so by sitting back and letting them speak however they like, you’re giving it back to them.

The bonus lesson here is that interviewers are getting a first-hand look at the customer perspective and they can use that information to shift their own mindset. It can be hard figuring out what customers are thinking about or what they’re looking to get out of your products, so any interview you do with them helps with that. You are so invested in your product and so focused on it that it can be hard to step away and look at it from another view point. User research interview sessions give you that opportunity.

I had a great chat with Zack Naylor about user research for the Aurelius podcast. We talked about

• Why you should be doing [more] user research
• How to convince your stakeholders that user research is important
• 3 approaches to building brilliant products and features (and which one is best)
• Convincing your stakeholders and leaders to do (more) user research
• What is a user research process to make sure you’re learning the right things
• The difference between research analysis and research synthesis

It’s posted here and embedded below

It was great to speak about user research, the art of asking the right question, careers, and some favorite influences with SC Moatti on the Products that Count podcast.

It’s posted here and embedded below

I had a fantastic conversation with Karthik of the Design Your Thinking podcast, posted in two separate episodes.

The first episode is Problem Space vs. Solution Space

Listen at that link, or here, or embedded below

The second episode is Master The Art Of Listening

Listen at that link, or here, or embedded below