From UX New Zealand 2015 - Improv is not ‘stand-up comedy’ but a series of games that offer huge degrees of freedom within a set of constraints. During improv, we bring out quickly-understood-and-communicated rules of culture that are implicit, not explicit. Design and improv have important similarities. Both practices involve collaboration and brainstorming; an emphasis on breakthrough thinking; in-the-moment aspects and ‘Aha!’ moments; a balance of process, structure, and unfettered creativity; an enormous unspoken interaction; and the need to learn upon reflection. Playing with improv can help us to be more mindful of the power of listening, to create a more collaborative work culture, to develop our own creativity, and to warm up teammates and clients in workshops and design sessions. In this interactive presentation, you’ll learn about improv, listening, and creativity, and how each supports the others. No tuataras will be harmed.

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Yes, My Tuatara Loves to Cha-Cha
Improv, Creativity and Design
Steve Portigal
@steveportigal

2. Yes, My Tuatara Loves to Cha-Cha Portigal
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Introduction

3. Yes, My Tuatara Loves to Cha-Cha Portigal
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Define and experience improv
Look at research, creativity, design
Overlaps, similarities and parallels
Some implicit; some explicit
Insight into new ways of thinking
Rather than rundown of how Portigal
Consulting uses improv in consulting
engagements
Today (and what’s this about tuataras?)
No tuataras will be harmed.

4. Yes, My Tuatara Loves to Cha-Cha Portigal
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We help companies to plan
strategically for user research and to
unlock their research super powers.
Portigal

5. Yes, My Tuatara Loves to Cha-Cha Portigal
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Resources, presentations and to purchase
http://rosenfeldmedia.com/books/interviewing-users/
Interviews with in-house user research leaders
http://portigal.com/series/DollarsToDonuts/
Coming in 2016
http://rosenfeldmedia.com/books/epic-fail/

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Improv: The funny will come

7. Yes, My Tuatara Loves to Cha-Cha Portigal
Click to edit Master title styleImprov is not stand-up comedy
In contrast to improv, stand-up is
Highly scripted
Rehearsed, with nano-second timing

8. Yes, My Tuatara Loves to Cha-Cha Portigal
Click to edit Master title styleImprov is...
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”
Improv is cheaper than therapy

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Corporate training on collaboration
and creativity
Meeting facilitation/ideation warm-up
Informance (from Interval Research)
User research methods
Improv finds it way into many areas
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 screw up.
Pixar tells story behind 'Toy Story‘, SF Chronicle,
8/23/05

10. Yes, My Tuatara Loves to Cha-Cha Portigal
Click to edit Master title styleImprov and collaboration
Throwing an idea
Accepting offers/saying yes
Trust
Listening
Setting up the spike
Chris Miller emphasizes that your task in
improv is to make your partner look good.

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Click to edit Master title styleImprov Dark Patterns

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Click to edit Master title styleImprov can bring
Insights about humor
Confidence in public speaking
Timing
Did I mention therapy?
Building skills in listening

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Click to edit Master title styleGame: Storytelling Circle

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Designing for users: needs and culture

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Click to edit Master title styleInterviewing users requires 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!

16. Yes, My Tuatara Loves to Cha-Cha Portigal
Click to edit Master title styleListening is in the body as well as the ears/eyes
Yes! Not so much.

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Game: Telephone 2.0

18. Yes, My Tuatara Loves to Cha-Cha Portigal
Click to edit Master title styleChange 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.”

19. Yes, My Tuatara Loves to Cha-Cha Portigal
Click to edit Master title styleBad ideas get you unstuck
Immoral
Dangerous
Bad for business

20. Yes, My Tuatara Loves to Cha-Cha Portigal
Click to edit Master title styleBad ideas get you unstuck

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So where does this leave us?

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Click to edit Master title styleEmerging principle: giving space to others
Multiple interviewers
Build on the ideas of others
Let there be silence
technique
Make your best contribution
by not talking
The Kids In The Hall are each hilariously talented, but
know how to keep quiet to make the scene work.

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Click to edit Master title styleBalance: Structure for Freedom
In user research, we anticipate the flow of the discussion,
but it can go in new directions – that’s the a-ha moment you
are looking for
Improv games give structure, we have a beginning, and
then we “look for the ending”
In ideation, we use a process to think divergently
Fuel creativity: extinguish I can’t do that by breaking
problems into smaller solvable ones and reframing success

24. Yes, My Tuatara Loves to Cha-Cha Portigal
Click to edit Master title styleTakeaway: Try 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.
Gain control by giving up control.
Try it in a situation you wouldn’t
expect to.
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.

25. Yes, My Tuatara Loves to Cha-Cha Portigal
Click to edit Master title styleHungry for more?
Attend an improv class
Attend an improv show
Start your own improv class
Watch improv or improv-based stuff

26. Yes, My Tuatara Loves to Cha-Cha Portigal
Click to edit Master title style @steveportigal
steve@portigal.com
www.portigal.com
Thank you!