Skill Building for Design Innovators, Steve Portigal, Sept 2012

How can you broaden your sphere of influence within the field of human-computer interaction? You can start by building your muscles! Steve will take a look at some fundamental skills that underlie the creation and launch of innovative goods and services. He will discuss the personal skills that he considers to be “the muscles of innovators” and the ways you can build these important muscles, including noticing, understanding cultural context, maintaining exposure to pop culture, synthesizing, drawing, wordsmithing, listening, and prototyping. Along the way, he will demonstrate how improving these powerful skills will equip you to lead positive change.

About Steve Portigal
Steve Portigal is the principal of Portigal Consulting, a bite-sized San Francisco firm that helps clients discover and act on new insights about themselves and their customers. Steve speaks regularly at design events such as IDSA and IxDA conferences. He writes for interactions magazine, Core77 and the Portigal Consulting blog All This ChittahChattah. He is an avid photographer who has a Museum of Foreign Groceries in his home.