Your portfolio is a story about you and your work \u2014 your expression of growth through all the obstacles, surprises, successes and failures. This is your epic. Illuminate the arc of your career and why you matter.<\/p>\n
For the audience, your portfolio showcases your problem-solving superpowers, hard and soft skills, and your ability to reflect upon your successes and failures.<\/p>\n
For you, the act of telling your story<\/a> is just as important for your growth as the story itself. This growth, is what makes you, you.<\/p>\n Do it for you first, employers second.<\/strong><\/p>\n Here is some advice to help tell your story.<\/p>\n Your portfolio is not a backlog. Curate 3\u20135 projects that align with the kind of work you want to be doing<\/strong>. Clarify what your audience seeks and accentuate how your expertise, skills and uniqueness exceed their needs. Strive for flexibility and tailor what you show to the people viewing it.<\/p>\n Remember, respect the time and attention of your audience. Go deep on a few, broad on the rest \u2014 quality is what matters.<\/p>\n Focus on compelling storytelling. Demonstrate your ability to communicate concisely with words and imagery\u2014showing the what<\/em> and telling the why<\/em>.<\/p>\n Prioritise what information your reader needs and focus on the vital moments of the project that make it interesting. The story behind the design is often more compelling than the design itself.<\/p>\n Don\u2019t let the medium get in the way.<\/p>\n What were you responsible for? Who were your partners and how did you collaborate? What were your contributions? Unveil the team dynamics and how you facilitated to realise an outcome greater than the sum of the parts.<\/p>\n Highlight moments where you displayed leadership. How did this influence the project? Did it have a lasting impact on your organisation?<\/p>\n Share credit with your peers. Claim credit for your innovations.<\/p>\n You are a problem-solver. It\u2019s critical that your empathy for the people and the problems you were solving for shines through. Clearly articulate both the business and user needs.<\/p>\n Discuss your view of the problem space, and your plan for the short-term and long-term. What insights did you uncover along the way? What opportunities did you spot? How did this shape your vision and strategy? How did you deal with ambiguity?<\/p>\n Show and tell key moments of divergent and convergent thinking and output. What possibilities did you dream of? What concepts did you explore and how did you discern the great ideas from the good? Were there any assumptions you needed to operate under to move forward?<\/p>\n Highlight the barriers that you faced. How were you able to see beyond these barriers to communicate a bold, rational and achievable direction?<\/p>\n Time constraints, limited resources, silos, turf wars, egocentricity, apathy, personal biases, politics and difficult personalities are only but a few of the realities<\/a> that you work with over the course of a project.<\/p>\n Talk about what worked and what didn\u2019t work. What specific challenges were you faced with and how did you overcome them?<\/p>\n Your portfolio is not an avenue for making excuses<\/a> \u2014 it\u2019s your story of how you adapted and improved upon environmental challenges to deliver great design for your users.<\/p>\n Tell the story about how your design solves a problem in the context of user goals. You should have good, compelling and thoughtful explanations that tie back to the problems you were trying to solve. Share anecdotes and critical thoughts about the tradeoffs you made.<\/p>\n Show your initial attempts and why they failed. Show your ability to accept that failure, how you learned from it and built upon on it iteratively. Remember, iterating is a key part of problem solving and no one expects that you got it right the first time.<\/p>\n Bring your designs to life by revealing the design system and the thinking behind it. Don\u2019t just show the polished product, but show your process \u2014the sketches, prototypes, deliverables and other artefacts you produced along the way.<\/p>\n Quality and an attention to detail should be conveyed in all of your work.<\/p>\n It\u2019s important that you can be self-critical and assess the outcome of your work. Does the design successfully solve a problem? Is the thing that is designed useful? Does it contribute value for your users and the business? How is success defined?<\/p>\n Share the outcomes of the project and why you think it was or was not successful.<\/p>\n Your portfolio should not only demonstrate what you already know, but also your capacity for learning, adapting, and growing. What worked well? What would you do differently? How did you deal with your failures? How did you deal with your team\u2019s failures? What lessons did you learn and how did this project impact you for the better?<\/p>\n Demonstrate your self-awareness. Don\u2019t fingerpoint.<\/p>\n Your portfolio is an opportunity to paint a rich picture of yourself.<\/p>\n A prospective employer is looking to hire you, not your portfolio. Allow them to connect with you by revealing your motivations and values. Your reader should get a sense of what you enjoy working on, where you most shine and what value you will ultimately bring to their team.<\/p>\n Selling yourself through a great story helps your audience envision how you could contribute to theirs. So, get out there, do great work, and share it with the world.<\/p>\n \"Talk about the accomplishments you\u2019re most proud of and don\u2019t leave out any detail that shows what you can do when the world decides to test you. That\u2019s the portfolio of a great designer.\" \u2014 Jared Spool<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Your portfolio is a story about you and your work \u2014 your expression of growth through all the obstacles, surprises, successes and failures. This is your epic. Illuminate the arc of your career and why you matter. For the audience, your portfolio showcases your problem-solving superpowers, hard and soft skills, and your ability to reflect upon your successes and failures…. Read More ￫<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":203,"featured_media":15901,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15894","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-viewpoint"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\n\n\n\n\t\nShow your best\u00a0work<\/h2>\n
Craft your narrative<\/h2>\n
Be honest and clear about your\u00a0role<\/h2>\n
Frame the problem and define the\u00a0goals<\/h2>\n
Expose how you\u00a0think<\/h2>\n
Reveal your\u00a0context<\/h2>\n
Present your solution and the\u00a0journey<\/h2>\n
Celebrate your accomplishments<\/h2>\n
Reflect upon your learnings<\/h2>\n
Sell yourself<\/h2>\n