Designing your portfolio and smashing that next interview | Part 1
Tips and tricks for making your best first impression with your portfolio.
Finding your next job is a daunting and sometimes tedious process. Depending on your luck, it may be one interview or it could be hundreds before you find yourself in a new role. Having said that, being rejected over and over again isn’t fun.
I’ve recently transitioned into a hiring position and while I don’t have all the answers, I would like to share my insight into the process behind the scenes and what (in my experience) hiring managers are looking for in their candidates and hopefully help you land your next role.
Recently I gave a talk at a Product of Auckland meetup about all things portfolio-related for UX/product designers looking for a job; whether it’s their first job, a career transition into UX, or simply their next career move. It was a good night and we had some great feedback from our attendees. I’ve split this article into two parts, the first (this one) covers what to consider when designing your portfolio whereas the second part will cover the hiring process and the interview itself.
While this is primarily focused on jobs within UX design, some of these insights will apply to similar jobs or jobs in other industries.
First off, a quick disclaimer: the thoughts in this article are based on my experiences, and those of my team and some industry professionals. This is our advice, experiences and thoughts and you should always do your own research on companies you want to work for. At the end of the day, it’s your portfolio and your career so take what works for you, change what you need and ignore what doesn’t work for you.
When you’re on the look out for a new role, one of the first things designers look to update or create is their portfolio — it’s also one of the hardest pieces of the puzzle. A good portfolio (whether online or a PDF) should showcase the personality of the designer, and highlight their work through a couple of key case studies.
1. Showcase your superpowers
Employees aren’t looking for cookie cutter, pixel pusher designers — at least not from my experience. What they are looking for is someone who is unique, has their own superpowers, passions and energy that they can bring to the team. These will help you stand out from other candidates, so remember to highlight them.
Use your portfolio to highlight what you can do, and who you are. Whether you’re a passionate foodie or photographer (like me), are a guitarist in a band, love doodling or have a secret talent — share it and celebrate it.
2. An online and offline portfolio
Having a great online portfolio is well, great. It’s a first impression and a starting point for a hiring manager. It should include everything you want them to know to invite you in for an interview. Which means, by the time you’ve landed the interview (well done 👏), the hiring manager and designers have already viewed your portfolio — that’s what you got there.
For the in-person interview, you will generally have 45–60 minutes of your interviewers’ time to wow them, so you want to make a great first impression. I’ve seen this done in many ways, but what has worked is when a candidate considers how they will introduce themselves, their talents and their work. This could be an extension of your portfolio or website, or it might be a PDF, Keynote or a Figma presentation showing the behind-the-scenes thinking and iterations that you didn’t want to post publicly — in other words, don’t just run through your website, they’ve probably seen that already.
Here’s a sample of my offline portfolio below which I made in Figma. I can talk to these visual aids to tell the story — both of who I am as a designer, and a core case study👇
3. Showcase your skills through a kick-ass case study
Case studies are a great way for designers to showcase their process and previous work. They should tell a story starting with setting the scene before going into detail on the work and finally concluding with a summary. They can be as in-depth as you like and what you show online may differ to an in person presentation. In general, it’s better to go deeper on 2–3 case studies than have a handful of less in-depth projects. The framework below is adaptable to your own process and should be tailored to each project.
I recommend including:
- An overview of the project
- Outline the problem
- Tell the story of the project and process
- The final solution
- Results and impact
- Your key learnings and insights
An overview of your role, the project, the client and timeframes
UX design is collaborative; outside of university or personal projects it’s likely there was a wider multidisciplinary team that has contributed. Designers should be clear about their role within the project and avoid blurring the lines of their role. Some questions to ask yourself include: who did you work with or alongside? What was your role in the project — did you do everything, did you work with another designer, a product team or a third party? How long was the engagement, and who was the client?
What was the problem or challenge you faced?
Set the scene for the project and frame the problem. What was the challenge, the impact and value of solving this problem for the customers, and how did you turn that into an opportunity for the business?
Process, process, process
Take the audience through your design process for this project; this should tell a story and be a step-by-step process showing how the previous step informed the next. Highlight the key steps you took that help to tell the story of the project. The story should be more about the challenges, learnings and pivots than a checklist of design activities, artefact or post-it note photos. Place emphasis on any key quotes from users, or key insights that helped define the next step of the process. If there are constraints on the client side, or technical challenges, ensure to touch on these too. Good design is not about a pretty picture, it’s about the impact on the customers and the business.
The final solution
Finish with a summary of the final solution and how the insights from your research, user testing and so on informed the solution. If you weren’t able to do user research (sometimes timing and budgets don’t allow it), did you leverage any articles, statistics or insights from reputable sources like the Neilsen Norman Group? Include those too. Showcase the final product — this could be in the form of final screenshots, a prototype, a GIF or a short video.
“Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works.”
— Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple, Inc.
Describe the result and numbers
If you have any results or metrics to share, make sure to include them. Avoid too much jargon and be as specific as you can. If you don’t have numbers, don’t make them up. Leave this section out until you can get some numbers down the line, or include a quote that relates to the impact of the project.
Key insights and learnings
As humans we are constantly learning and no two projects are exactly the same. If there was something that you learned as part of the project, call it out. Ask yourself — what do you know how to do now, that you didn’t before? What would you do differently next time you face a similar problem or situation?
Three key takeaways when designing your portfolio:
- Be your authentic self and celebrate your super powers.
- Tell a story with your case studies; share your learning, your process and journey.
- Consider both an online portfolio, and a in-person portfolio for interviewing.
Need more? Check out these resources
- UX Portfolio Formula by Sarah Doody has some great insights, articles and Masterclasses around building your portfolio.
- Design Life — Why Focusing on your portfolio will pay off
- Bestfolios for a list of incredible portfolios to draw inspiration from
- Great questions to ask your next potential employer
Now, that’s a wrap for Designing your portfolio and smashing that next interview | Part 1 — Check back for Part 2 shortly.
I hope you found the article useful, and wish you all the best with your portfolio and next career steps. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to me for a coffee or Zoom chat via Linkedin, or my website.
Special thanks to Kinanti Desyanandini for encouraging me to do this talk and helping to organise it, Lucas Coelho for his mentorship and guidance over the years and Lee Young, Bear Liu and Michael Szeto for sharing their insights, experiences and feedback.
Article written by Thea Betts — Design Lead at Roam Digital.
