Steve Portigal: Yes, My Iguana Loves to Cha-Cha: Improv, Creativity and Design

Yes, My Iguana Loves to Cha-Cha
Improv, Creativity and Collaboration

Steve Portigal
1 @steveportigal

Click to edit Master title style

Introduction

Yes, My Iguana Loves to Cha-Cha ‹#› Portigal

Today (and Master title style
Click to edit what‟s this about iguanas?)

Define and experience improv

Look at user research,
creativity, design
You will start to see overlaps,
similarities and parallels
Some implicit; some explicit

Your thoughts welcome

No iguanas will be harmed.

http://iroisaac.deviantart.com/art/Iguana-65814718



Portigal
We help companies discover and
act on new insights about their
customers and themselves


Founded edit Master title style
Click to
by Steve in
2001

Small
footprint

Global
influence

Yes, My Iguana Loves to Cha-Cha ‹#›
Portigal
Portigal


Improv: The funny will come


Improv edit Master title style
Click to is not stand-up comedy

In contrast to improv, stand-up is
Highly scripted
Yes, My Iguana Loves to Cha-Cha
Rehearsed, with nano-second timing
‹#› Portigal

Improv edit
Click to is... Master title style

A highly-constrained performance with several
open parameters
Elements of problem solving

Unscripted
Specifics assigned right before performance starts
“Your first idea is often your best idea”

Emphasis on playfulness over being funny
“I could never do that, because I‟m not funny”
It can be (at times) funny to watch, but not about trying to be funny
“The funny will come”
“Don‟t let logic impede your fancy”

Cheaper than therapy


Improv edit it way title style
Click to findsMaster into many areas

Corporate training on
collaboration and creativity
Compare with popularity of
Drawing on the Right Side of the
Brain

Meeting facilitation/ideation
warm-up
At Pixar, when someone suggests an idea, others should
respond with “Yes, and ...” They‟ve used improv to create
the most trusting environment possible where people can
Informance (from Interval screw up.
Pixar tells story behind 'Toy Story„, SF Chronicle, 8/23/05
Research)

User research methods


Improv edit Master title style
Click to and collaboration

Throwing an idea

Accepting offers/saying yes

Trust

Listening
Chris Miller emphasizes that your task in improv is to
make your partner look good.

Setting up the spike


Improv edit Master
Click to can bring title style

Insights about humor

Confidence in public
speaking

Timing

Did I mention therapy?

Building skills in listening


Game: Storytelling style
Click to edit Master title Circle



Designing for users: needs and culture


User to edit Master title of user-centered design)
Click Research (as part style

Ethnographic interviews
Video ethnography
Depth-interviews
Contextual research
Home visits
Experience modeling
Design research
User-centered design
Observational research
Camera studies
User safaris


Instead, let‟s try this non-definition

Examine users (consumers or other) in their own context
What are they doing?
What does it mean?

Infer (interpret/synthesize/etc.)
Find the connections
The researcher is the “apparatus”

Apply to business or design problems
Use products, services, packaging, design to tell the right story


Interviewing users title style
Click to edit Masterrequires expert listening

At this level, most people can’t do this without
extensive training and practice

Listening is more than not talking when the other
person talks
How is what you do or say next, after they finish talking, influenced
by what they just said, or have said previously?

Interviewing looks and feels like ordinary conversation – but it isn‟t!


Listening is Master title style
Click to edit in the body as well as the ears/eyes

Yes! Not so much.


Game: Telephone 2.0


Change and Conformity in Balance

“Folks pick up on the
surrounding cultures in at
least somewhat idiosyncratic
ways…Even with a world of
conformers, each conformer
thus acts differently. With
each striving to emulate the
other, there will be a never-
ending chain of adoptions
and adaptations that, as they
move throughout the
network, change the
substance.”


Consider Cultural Rules

New technologies (especially those that enable
new, visible behaviors) are often met with distrust
Society sanctions people who violate these norms

People assert their own normalcy by verbally
distancing themselves from the end-points of the
normal curve
We hear these stories over and over

Me
Thinking someone is
weird or a jerk is a
manifestation of the
norms of one‟s society.
Weird in one age may
eventually become
People who are People who are
normal over time.
too… too…

Consider Cultural Rules

Normal isn‟t “right or wrong” – it‟s the
set of background rules that define
much of what people choose or ignore

To innovate, we must understand a
world view (including norms) from our
customer‟s perspective (which is often
different than ours).


User to edit Master title style
Click research exposes us to culture

Learning about yourself and
your own culture by having an
opportunity to reflect it against
things you didn't know
Understand “social norms” – i.e., how
messy your house is
Your own reaction is data

Human beings are judging
beings


Brainstorming/ideation style
Click to edit Master titleas collaborative generation

Works best as a collective,
out-loud activity! Talk, listen,
build on each other‟s ideas
Don‟t worry about a “bad” idea… it may
lead to a “good” idea

Don‟t correct; generate
alternatives
“Yes, and…” works very well here

Individual ideas matter less
than what the collective How can a sour lemon help keep things working
smoothly?
produces overall


Bad to edit Master title style
Clickideas get you unstuck

Immoral
Dangerous
Bad for business



So where does this leave us?


Emerging principle: giving space to others

Multiple interviewers

Build on the ideas of others

Let there be silence
technique The Kids In The Hall are each hilariously talented, but
know how to keep quiet to make the scene work.

Make your best contribution
by not talking


Balance: Structure title style
Click to edit Masterfor Freedom

Have a “plan” but be in the moment

In user research interviewing, a guide is used to anticipate
the flow of the discussion, but it can go in new directions –
that‟s the a-ha moment you are looking for

In improv, the basics of the game give structure, we have a
beginning, and then we “look for the ending”

In ideation, we have a process to focus our work, but we
use that process to think divergently

Fuel creativity: extinguish I can’t do that by breaking
problems into smaller solvable ones and reframing success


Takeaway: Master title style
Click to editTry a little more “yes”

When someone teases you
(just listen to how comics go
back and forth), try
responding with yes.

Even if you don‟t add the
“and…” the act of yes can
change the dynamic.
If I ever become a New Age guru offering a spiritual path
to a happier life, this will be the way I‟ll present myself.
Gain control by giving up
control.

Try it in a situation you
wouldn‟t expect to.

Hungry edit Master
Click to for more? title style

This deck will be on slideshare
Attend an improv class
Attend an improv show
Start your own improv class
Watch improv or improv-based stuff
?


Coming in September 2012

A book by Steve Portigal
The Art and Craft of User Research Interviewing
http://rosenfeldmedia.com/books/user-interviews/


Click to edit Master title style games?
Time for more



I find it works
for me like Yeah, I’ve
this… got a
question
for ya…

One new
thing I
learned
today is…



Thank you!

Portigal Consulting @steveportigal
www.portigal.com steve@portigal.com
Yes, My Iguana Loves to Cha-Cha ‹#› 415-894-2001
Portigal

Steve Portigal: Yes, My Iguana Loves to Cha-Cha: Improv, Creativity and Design

Steve Portigal: Yes, My Iguana Loves to Cha-Cha: Improv, Creativity and Design

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