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Show your best work
Your portfolio is a story about you and your work — your expression of growth through all the obstacles, surprises, successes and failures. For the audience, your portfolio showcases your problem-solving superpowers, hard and soft skills, and your ability to reflect upon your successes and failures.
Your portfolio is not a backlog. Curate 3–5 projects that align with the kind of work you want to be doing . 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.
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127 reads
Craft your narrative
Focus on compelling storytelling. Demonstrate your ability to communicate concisely with words and imagery—showing the what and telling the why.
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.
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49 reads
Be honest and clear about your role
Share credit with your peers. Claim credit for your innovations.
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.
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46 reads
Frame the problem and define the goals
You are a problem-solver. It’s critical that your empathy for the people and the problems you were solving for shines through. Clearly articulate both the business and user needs.
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40 reads
Expose how you think
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?
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31 reads
Reveal your context
Your portfolio is not an avenue for making excuses. It’s your story of how you adapted and improved upon environmental challenges to deliver great design for your users.
If you’re a designer, you’ll be able to deliver great design for your users.
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34 reads
Present your solution and the journey
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.
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32 reads
Celebrate your accomplishments
It’s 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?
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20 reads
Reflect upon your learnings
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’s failures? What lessons did you learn and how did this project impact you for the better?
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25 reads
Sell yourself
Your portfolio is an opportunity to paint a rich picture of yourself. A prospective employer is looking to hire you, not your portfolio. 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.
Get out there, do great work, and share it with the world.
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24 reads
IDEAS CURATED BY
Donald Garner's ideas are part of this journey:
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