Slides from my presentation to Chrstina Wodtke's General Assembly class.

1. User Insights Start the Design Process
Steve Portigal
1 @steveportigal

2. Portigal
We help companies discover and
act on new insights about their
customers and themselves
Steve Portigal @steveportigal

3. Coming soon!!!
A book by Steve Portigal
The Art and Craft of User Research Interviewing
http://rosenfeldmedia.com/books/user-interviews/
Steve Portigal @steveportigal

4. Be a methods-polygamist
Choose, mash-up, or create methodology based on the problem
Integrate (triangulate) with other methods
Create a library of methods and artifacts
Screeners, interview guides, stimuli, storyboards, etc.
Steve Portigal @steveportigal

5. Different Methods Work Together
Music Application Usage
55%
Windows Media Player 55%
55%
38%
RealPlayer 33%
35%
18%
iTunes 23%
28%
18%
MusicMatch Jukebox 17%
20%
7%
Winamp 7%
16%
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60%
Steve Portigal @steveportigal

6. Different Methods Work Together
Music Application Usage
55%
Windows Media Player 55%
55%
38%
RealPlayer 33%
35%
18%
iTunes 23%
28%
18%
MusicMatch Jukebox 17%
20%
7%
Winamp 7%
16%
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60%
Steve Portigal @steveportigal

7. Innovation means getting beyond pain points
Diving deep is essential if we want to use
the information we’ve gathered to do more
Steve Portigal than solve known pain points. @steveportigal

8. Pain points may not really be that painful anyway!
Satisficing (coined by Herbert Simon in 1956) refers to our
acceptance of good-enough solutions
These can drive engineers and designers crazy…but the
real problem isn’t always what it appears to be
Steve Portigal @steveportigal

9. Use fieldwork throughout the development cycle
Take a fresh
look at people Use existing ideas
as hypotheses
What to Refine & Launch
make or do prototype
Iterate & improve
Explore new
ideas
Steve Portigal @steveportigal

10. Fieldwork leads to refined beliefs about customers
Migrant Mother by Dorothea Lange
“You are not your user” is
a powerful empathic
takeaway…but it doesn’t
always tell the whole story
Steve Portigal @steveportigal

11. Fieldwork highlights unmet organizational goals
Migrant Mother by Dorothea Lange
Weblogs show where
people are clicking but
interviews revealed what
people didn’t know about
the organization
Steve Portigal @steveportigal

12. Sometimes it can do both
Migrant Mother by Dorothea Lange
Intranet home page real
estate devoted to
management goals but not
actively used functions
Anticipated knowledge-
sharing functionality was a
critical mismatch with how
Project was not for SocialText; this is just a suggestive intranet image!
people believed they
should be working
Steve Portigal @steveportigal

13. Problem Formulation
What do we know and
what do we want to
know?
Business goals
• What the result will be
This project was not actually the “Smart Fridge” but another inevitable technical
innovation that we’ve been hearing about for years
Research goals
• What you want to learn
Steve Portigal @steveportigal

14. Planning and executing a design research study
Who do you What do you Do
want to talk want to do Fieldwork something
to? with them? with the data!
Methodology, Interviews, self-
Screening Analysis,
field guide, reporting,
criteria, recruiting synthesis, design
stimuli debriefs
Steve Portigal @steveportigal

15. Planning and executing a design research study
Who do you What do you Do
want to talk want to do Fieldwork something
to? with them? with the data!
Methodology, Interviews, self-
Screening Analysis,
field guide, reporting,
criteria, recruiting synthesis, design
stimuli debriefs
Steve Portigal @steveportigal

16. Recruiting criteria: Relationship to product
What is the desired relationship to the product/service/brand?
• Typical user
• Non-user
• Extreme user
Triangulate through multiple
• Peripheral users perspectives
• Expert user
• Subject matter expert
By creating contrast, you
• Wannabe user
reveal key influencing
• Should-be user
factors that you wouldn’t
• Future user otherwise see
• Past user
• Hater
• Loyal to competitor
Steve Portigal @steveportigal

17. Recruiting criteria: Type of user
There may more – or different – “users” than you
initially think
Think about the whole system: the chooser, the
influencer, the user, and anyone who is impacted
by those roles
Challenge assumptions about who the
organization is implicitly/explicitly designing for
• Is that everyone?
• Do they even exist?
This will surface a broader sense – even prior to Is your “typical customer” real or aspirational?
research – about who is affected by the product
and who is being designed for
Steve Portigal @steveportigal

18. Recruiting criteria: Demographics
Gender Occupation
Age • From outside the industries in
question
Lifestage/lifestyle
• Married
• Stage of family Income
• Retirement • Can afford the product in question
• Not in the middle of a major life-
change (unless that’s of interest)
Dwelling
• Suburban/urban/rural
• Apartment/living alone/ Demographic factors are
roommates/single family home
typically secondary when
Race defining the sample
• Reflect the population
• Reflect the user base
Steve Portigal @steveportigal

19. Recruiting criteria: The softer side
Whatever their relationship with the product/brand/service, you want
the person to be engaged, have a point of view, care about the thing,
and be articulate
Steve Portigal @steveportigal

20. The screener
Screeners are very formal, linear
documents
Screeners have two purposes…
• Figure out if the person fits your
criteria
• Convince them to participate
…and three main sections
• Introduction
• Checking off criteria
• Invitation to participate
Steve Portigal @steveportigal

21. Creative recruiting
Outside of the traditional method of working with a
recruiting agency, there are other approaches
• Friends and family/Social networks
• Snowball recruiting (participants find more participants)
• Craigslist
• Intercepts
• Etc.
Pros and cons
• Cheap but time-consuming
• Quick but harder to control and manage (tempting to sacrifice process
for results)
• Likely to find “pure” participants but they might be too close to you
(talking to yourself)
Steve Portigal @steveportigal

22. Planning and executing a design research study
Who do you What do you Do
want to talk want to do Fieldwork something
to? with them? with the data!
Methodology, Interviews, self-
Screening Analysis,
field guide, reporting,
criteria, recruiting synthesis, design
stimuli debriefs
Steve Portigal @steveportigal

23. Use a range of methods
Interview “Tell us about how you’re using this product…”
Tasks “Can you draw me a map of your computer network?”
Participation “Can you show me how I should make a Whopper?”
Demonstration “Show us how you update your playlists.”
“I’ll be the customer and you be the receptionist, and you
Role-playing
show me how they should respond.”
Steve Portigal @steveportigal

24. Use a range of methods
Participant takes regular digital photos or fills out a booklet
Logging
documenting their activities
Participant saves up all their junk mail for two weeks to
Homework
prompt our discussion
Stimuli Review wireframes, prototypes, simulations, storyboards
What’s in your wallet? What’s in your fridge?
Exercises
Sketch your idealized solution
Steve Portigal @steveportigal

25. Ask how they would solve a problem
Participatory design Engage people in the non-literal
Doesn’t mean we implement the through games and role-playing
requested solution literally
Uncover underlying principles and
“I wish it had a handle” explore areas of opportunity that don’t
Many ways to solve the underlying yet exist
need (“I need to move it around”)
Designers work with this data to
generate alternatives
Steve Portigal @steveportigal

26. Show people a solution
Consider the difference between
testing and exploring
Avoid “Do you like this?”
Don’t show your best guess at a solution;
instead identify provocative examples to
surface hidden desires and expectations
Image from Roberto and Worth1000.com
Make sure you are asking the right
questions
What does this solution enable? What
problems does it solve?
Especially for new products, needed before
getting into specifics of your implementation
Steve Portigal @steveportigal

27. The interview guide (or field guide)
A detailed plan of what will happen in the interview
• Questions, timing, activities, tasks, logistics, etc.
Transforms questions-we-want-answers-to into
questions-we-will-ask
Share with team to align on issues of concern
• Especially with multiple teams in the field
Helps you previsualize the flow of the session
• Include questions as well as other methods that you’ll use
Prepping an interview guide means that you may not need to
use the interview guide
• This is counter-intuitive
• It does come in handy during freeze-up moments – scan it over to see
what else you want to cover
Steve Portigal @steveportigal

28. Minimalist field guide
Steve Portigal @steveportigal

29. Detailed field guide
Steve Portigal @steveportigal

30. Planning and executing a design research study
Who do you What do you Do
want to talk want to do Fieldwork something
to? with them? with the data!
Methodology, Interviews, self-
Screening Analysis,
field guide, reporting,
criteria, recruiting synthesis, design
stimuli debriefs
Steve Portigal @steveportigal

31. Fieldwork principles
Check your worldview at the door
Embrace how other people see the world
Build rapport
Listen
Steve Portigal @steveportigal

32. Check your worldview at the door
Before you start doing interviews, do a team-
wide brain dump of all your assumptions and
expectations
• Get closely-held beliefs out of your heads
• You needn’t go back to verify your assumptions;
goal is to make assumptions explicit
Make the interview about the interview
• As a transitional ritual, agree explicitly that you are
going to Learn about Paul rather than Identify
NextGen Opportunities for Roadmap
Steve Portigal @steveportigal

33. Embrace how other people see the world
Go to where your users are rather than asking them to
come to you
Nip distractions in the bud
• Eat!
• Leave plenty of time so you aren’t rushed when you arrive
• Find a bathroom beforehand
Be ready to ask questions you (think you) know the
answers to
• Think about: “When are your taxes due?”
• What do you know? What are you afraid they’ll say? What might you
learn?
Steve Portigal @steveportigal

34. Build rapport
Be selective about social graces
• Just enough small talk
• Accept what you’re offered
Be selective about talking about yourself
• Reveal personal information to give them permission to share
• Otherwise, think “OMG! Me too!” without saying it
Work towards the tipping point
• From question-answer to question-story
• You won’t know when it’s coming; be patient
Acknowledge the interview as something…unusual
• “What I want to learn today…” over friendly chat
Steve Portigal @steveportigal

35. Listen
You can demonstrate that you are listening by asking
questions!
• Follow-up, follow-up, follow-up
• “Earlier, you told us that…”
• “I want to go back to something else you said…”
Signal your transitions: “Great, now I’d like to move onto a
totally different topic”
This level of listening is not how we normally talk to each
other
• Remember that you are interviewing, not having a conversation
• This is really hard
Steve Portigal @steveportigal

36. Listening body language
Yes! Not so much.
Steve Portigal @steveportigal

37. Silence defeats awkwardness
After you ask your
question, be silent
• Don’t put the answers in the
question
After they’ve answered you,
be silent
Steve Portigal @steveportigal

38. Use natural language
Talk like your
subject talks!
Steve Portigal @steveportigal

39. If you want to fix something, wait until the end
It’s frustrating to watch
users struggle with your
product
• Remember, you are there to
learn from them
You will lose the interview if
you start taking their
questions
When it’s time to go, show
or tell them only what will
help them
Steve Portigal @steveportigal

40. We learn from mistakes and mishaps
Collect and share
war stories with
other interviewers
www.portigal.com/series/WarStories
Steve Portigal @steveportigal

41. Planning and executing a design research study
Who do you What do you Do
want to talk want to do Fieldwork something
to? with them? with the data!
Methodology, Interviews, self-
Screening Analysis,
field guide, reporting,
criteria, recruiting synthesis, design
stimuli debriefs
Steve Portigal @steveportigal

42. Analysis
Steve Portigal @steveportigal

43. Typical timelines
2-3 weeks 2-3 weeks 2-3 weeks
Who do you What do you Do
want to talk want to do Fieldwork something
to? with them? with the data!
Methodology, Interviews, self-
Screening Analysis,
field guide, reporting,
criteria, recruiting synthesis, design
stimuli debriefs
When working in tighter timeframes, consider where you want to cut
back. Be mindful of the tradeoffs!
Steve Portigal @steveportigal

44. Going rogue
1 day?! 1 day?! 2 days?!!
Who do you What do you Do
want to talk want to do Fieldwork something
to? with them? with the data!
Who can you
Small sample,
get? Co-workers, Wide-eyed
massively
intercepts on the observation, Debrief
parallel data
street or in the winging it
gathering
mall, etc.
Steve Portigal @steveportigal

45. An example of delivering research findings
http://www.portigal.com/blog/reading-ahead-research-findings/
Steve Portigal @steveportigal

46. Documentation: audio, video, notes
Essential to capture exactly what is said
Difficult (impossible) to maintain eye contact, manage
interview, and write down everything
• Potentially a role for a second interviewer
Taking notes – not as the definitive record – can help you
process, notice, think about follow-ups, etc.
• I strongly recommend privileging being in-the-moment (e.g., eye
contact, listening) over trying to capture everything yourself
Steve Portigal @steveportigal

47. Interviewing Exercise
Get in groups of 3
Use the field guide handout
• Imagine you are in a startup looking for opportunities in (news, food,
media)
• Treat it as a guide, as a starting place
• Let yourself follow-up
Three rounds of interviews, X minutes each
• One interviewer, one interviewee, one observer
• Each person plays each role once
• Stay in the exercise!
Group debrief
Steve Portigal @steveportigal

48. I’ve got a tip
(that you
didn’t cover)
that works Yeah, I’ve
well for me… got a
question
for ya…
One new
thing I
learned
today is…
48 - #DeepDive Steve Portigal @steveportigal

49. Click to edit Master title style
Thank you!
@steveportigal Portigal Consulting
steve@portigal.com www.portigal.com
+1-415-894-2001
Lift11 49 Portigal