Portfolio & CV

I’ve looked at hundreds of designers’ portfolios and resumes. Everyone lists tasks and activities Few people talk about impact.

But impact is key. Here's how you can demonstrate it:

In Portfolios: ------------ Use Minto's Pyramid. Structure your case studies to lead with the impact and images of the final product. Show the key achievements. After that, you can present supporting arguments and methodology.

By doing this, you immediately engage the visitor and demonstrate an understanding of how your design fits the broader context.

On Resumes: ------------ Adopt the format recommended by Google recruiters: "Accomplished [X], as measured by [Y], by doing [Z]". This method quantifies your impact and clarifies your contribution.

For example, instead of writing: "Responsible for redesigning the onboarding", write: “Using a combination of funnel analysis, session recordings, and usability testing, I redesigned the onboarding flow, increasing subscription rates by 12%”.

Blocker: no data ------------ One of the main reasons I hear from designers on why they don’t do this is they don’t have access to the data, especially if the project was a previous employer.

Avoid getting into that situation again by asking these types of questions on all your current and future projects:

• What is the measurable change in user behaviour we hope it will create? And where is that data currently tracked?

• If we don’t have the data, who can I work with to ensure we start capturing it?

• If we succeed in changing user behaviour, what business metric/KPI will that impact?

• What is the current state of that metric? Where can I view that data, or who can I talk to about it?

Safeguard your achievements ------------ Keep a project diary that you won’t lose access to if your role is terminated, with a template that includes:

• Success metrics. • Before and after screens. • Key research insights and activities. • Takeaways/lessons/things that went wrong. • Notes about your role and who you collaborated with.

Set aside time in your calendar to update it regularly. Eventually, this will go on your website or in a case study PDF. I’ve found one big Figma file to be the easiest for me because I like it to be very visual.

Ps. Happy New Year! 🎉 Is 2024 going to be the year you start keeping a project diary?