Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Culture: Youre Soaking In it

Steve Portigal Portigal Consulting

Culture: Youre Soaking In It

@steveportigal

@steveportigal

www.portigal.com

Portigal Consulting is a bite-sized California firm that helps companies discover and act on new insights about their customers and themselves

@steveportigal

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We work throughout the development cycle

Take a fresh look at people

Use existing ideas as hypotheses

What to make or do

Refine & prototype

Launch

Iterate & improve

Explore new ideas

@steveportigal

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What is culture?

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What is culture?

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Culture defined
How a group of people make sense of the world, through common
Experiences Beliefs Knowledge Values Attitudes Behaviors Meanings Patterns Symbols

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Youre Soaking In It?

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Madge
Jan Miner played the Madge the manicurist in Palmolive ads for 27 years Is Madge an example of culture?
Advertising is obviously pop culture Youre Soaking In It and the accompanying gesture represents a shared experience from a time and place

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Madge: The Cultural Bridge

Tilly

Francoise

Madge

Marissa

Madge

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Cultural norms Articulates what is normal Normal isnt right or wrong, its the set of background rules that define much of what people choose or ignore Seen in artifacts

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Media Products Advertisements Street culture Trends and fads

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What is Normal?

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Steve Portigal

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Steve Portigal

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Steve Portigal

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Ethnography and technology reveal 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

People who are too

People who are too

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

Thinking someone is weird or a jerk is a manifestation of the norms of ones society. What is weird in one age may eventually become normal over time.

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Beyond manicures: Some cultures we care about

Inside Company cultures different organizations Profession cultures different ways of working

Outside Regional cultures different places User cultures different groups of people

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Company cultures
Belkin, 2011

Belkin, 1982

Belkin, 1983
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Company cultures
Communication tools Communication preferences Speed Decision-making styles Hierarchical/flat Shared beliefs Natural language Internally/externally oriented

Company culture on display in an employees cubicle

Uncover em. Work with em. Work around em. Change em. You cant ignore em, though!

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@steveportigal

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Company culture meets customer culture

Executives at Harley-Davidson are also Harley riders, and spend time with their consumers. There is no distinction between executives, dealers, and consumers. They are all part of the same group of authentic enthusiasts.

Clif Bar founders are passionate about outdoor activities and environmentalism. They are actively involved and encourage their customers to join them in their efforts, enabling people to be more active and reach their aspirations.

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Inauthenticity dooms culture change efforts

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Not yet time to eat

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Profession cultures

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Profession cultures

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Profession cultures

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Regional cultures

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@steveportigal

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@steveportigal

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@steveportigal

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User cultures

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User cultures

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User cultures

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Pop culture is user culture

Pop culture is a rich source of information that can often be crucial for our work. When the public begins to compare and contrast the voting for American Idol with voting for the American president, thats something we want to pay attention to. Dismissing this cultural data by sniffing I dont watch American Idol isnt a relevant response.
Steve Portigal Living In the Overlap interactions, Sep+Oct 2008
35 @steveportigal www.portigal.com

Pop quiz

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Pop quiz

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Pop quiz

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Pop quiz

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Pop quiz

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To know (about) him Is not to love him

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Innovation means getting beyond pain points

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Understanding culture is essential if we want to use the information weve gathered to do more than solve known pain points.
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What do pain points ultimately reveal?

While we always uncover so-called pain points, the bigger opportunity may come from understanding why how did we get here?

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Using culture (and design) to innovate

Ethnography answers more than just
What features do people want? What do they like or dislike about our current service or prototype? Where is the ideal button placement? Which version reduces error rates? What are the three personas to share with our marketing team?

Ethnography uncovers cultural data

What do they care about? Where are people trying to accomplish? What do people have in common? How are people making sense of their world?

Design doesnt just fix known problems, it addresses cultural insights Answers How can we help people to?
44 @steveportigal www.portigal.com

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Cultural data from fieldwork

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Collect Your Own Stories

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Collect Your Own Stories

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Collect Your Own Stories

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Collect Your Own Stories

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Collect Your Own Stories

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@steveportigal

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What About Changing Culture?

From A Good Way to Change a Corporate Culture, Peter Bregman, HBR blog

To start a culture change we need to do two simple things: 1. Do dramatic story-worthy things that represent the culture we want to create. Then let other people tell stories about it. 2. Find other people who do story-worthy things that represent the culture we want to create. Then tell stories about them. We can change our stories and be changed by them.
52 @steveportigal www.portigal.com

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What About Changing Culture?

Flickr user dougbelshaw

53 @steveportigal www.portigal.com

Coming in 2012!

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

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Thank you!

@steveportigal steve@portigal.com 55 +1-415-894-2001

Portigal Consulting www.portigal.com

@steveportigal www.portigal.com

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