Protagonist Studio

We’ve spent over a decade designing, researching and writing about user experiences. And it’s made us notice something about the really meaningful, memorable ones: they have clear narratives. They make sense, in a way our brains are evolved to grasp. It’s our job to see the story in every design challenge. We know that the story has a hero, and it’s not you, your product or your brand—it’s your user. We’re fascinated by your users. Your story has power. It gets you to the right journey faster, and keeps your multi-talented team synced up and working toward a common goal. It bridges the gaps that can fragment an experience, and creates the moments that knit it into a seamless whole. At its core, the studio is two people—Victoria Kirk-Owal and Carl Alviani—who’ve been applying narrative to complex UX, content and service design projects for over a decade. We’ve worked with clients ranging from small startups to Fortune 100 companies, both independently and with agencies like Ogilvy, Ziba and Isobar. And in that time, we’ve learned that storytelling is probably the most powerful, most talked-about but least understood tool in the design strategist’s toolbox. We formed Protagonist Studio in 2018 in order to put that tool at the center of the design process, using it as a hub for a more integrated, more user-oriented approach to design strategy. We build up design teams on a per-project basis, tapping a trusted network of researchers, writers, designers and strategists in the US and Europe, to give you the right mix of expertise without the excess overhead.