Hello, it’s Aneta here 👋 This is issue #07 of UX Design Express and today we’re talking about

Selecting projects for your UX portfolio

1. It's tricky if you just graduated from a UX bootcamp with only one project in your portfolio. There's nothing to choose from.

2. You’re transitioning from another design field to UX, trying to impress with projects from architecture, graphic design and UX.

3. If you worked for companies with legacy products or a low design culture, your projects might not reflect your skills.

4. You only have B2B projects but want to explore B2C.

5. Your projects are under NDA, so you have nothing to show.

6. Or maybe your projects were a mess, and you don't want to show them.

Whatever your case is, this email is for you.

In this newsletter, I’m diving into that exact problem that many of us designers have when selecting projects for our UX portfolios

I’ll share with you my practical methods for picking projects for your UX portfolio even if your situation is not ideal.

Let’s dive in 🐬

01. Focus on problems, not projects

Have you ever heard about customizing your portfolio for every job application? Me too, but I still haven't done it. Yet, my portfolio always seems to fit the jobs I apply for. What's my secret to making it work without spending hours on customisation? Let me share it with you.

1.1 - Define your designer profile

• Who are you as a designer (e.g. generalist, design systems specialist)?

• What are your experiences (e.g. startups, fintech, B2B)?

• What are your unique skills (e.g. prototyping in hours, not weeks)?

• Which part of design do you enjoy most (e.g., exploration)?

• Do you love working in a specific area (e.g. fintech, B2B)?

• Or do you prefer tackling specific problems (e.g. data visualization)?

• What are your values (e.g. autonomy, responsibility, having fun)?

• How would you describe your personality?

Know who you are, what you can do, and what you want.

→ Stay tuned. I'll dive into this topic more in the next issue ❤️

1.2 - Analyse your UX Design experience

Self-reflection is the first step in building a successful UX portfolio. You might ask, why?

1. Knowing where you've worked in your career can help you leverage all your experiences in your next role.

2. Understanding the industries, products, platforms, technologies, and problem areas you've worked on will help you identify patterns in your experience and better craft your story.

3. Reminding yourself of the types of artefacts and results you produced in each project will help you identify which projects seem to be the most interesting and impactful.

Ultimately, self-reflection will help you identify the missing gaps in your experience, skills, and projects, and help you with prioritizing your next steps in your UX career.

1.3 - Focus on problems, not projects

The key mistake I’ve been seeing designers make when they approach project selection for their portfolios is a wrong focus. UX projects can be small with clear goals or large and ambiguous with many problems. Describing all these problems in one case study usually prevents us from going deep into our story. This often results in long, generic, and overwhelming case studies.

You can build a few case studies just from one project. If you solved 4 problems, you can probably have 4 case studies from this. To make it easier for you to communicate your story, focus on selecting problems from projects you worked on.

But it’s also not a rule.

1.4 - Analyse the problems you solved

Begin by evaluating your experience working on problems in your projects. The goal is to check your projects (professional, conceptual, voluntary) and evaluate artefacts, content and all materials you have from these 2 things:

1. User and business problems you solved
   → Helped business create a new revenue stream
   → By helping employees contribute more to workplace safety
   

2. Solution you created
   → Through a mobile incident reporting solution

What information should you look for?

• Specific problem you solved (e.g. for business and users)

• Specific product you worked on (e.g. checkout solution etc.)

• Product stage (e.g. product-market fit, scaling, maintenance)

• Goal and metrics for the project (e.g. retention etc.)

• Your role (e.g. leading designer, supporting etc.)

• Scope of work (e.g. minor change, large problem space etc.)

• Your impact (e.g. on the product, process, people etc.)

  → Check this post for inspiration

• What you did (e.g. responsible for the full process etc.)

• Screenshots of artefacts - review what you have in your archive

Additionally, look for this information to have some data for crafting the case study context:

• Company name

• Brand reputation (e.g. globally recognized, particularly in Norway, in Fintech, etc.)

• Industry (e.g. Fintech, Mobility, Education, E-commerce, etc.)

• Target markets (e.g. global, US, Norway, etc.)

• Sector (e.g. B2B, B2C, internal, etc.)

• Business size/type (e.g. SMB, Enterprise, Agency, Consultancy, Startup, Corporate, etc.)

And anything else that seems important for your problem and the solution you created.

Tip for the future 🔮

Start documenting your projects in a brag document. Read more about this method here.

1.5 - Identify interesting problems

Identifying problems you find interesting is crucial. Working on something you don't enjoy or believe in is the worst.

Look for:

• Problems you would like to solve again

• Problems with interesting stories

• Solutions you created and you’re proud of

• Solutions you created with impact

1.6 - Find jobs you want to apply for

Consider 1-3 roles you want to apply for and the market you will work in. Be realistic but don't limit yourself. Don’t look for jobs in the US if you’re going to look for opportunities in India. Match your expectations with the market but also don’t expect a perfect match.

Where to look for job offers?

• Local communities (e.g. Slack groups for UX designers in this market)

• Linkedin job market

• Companies career pages

• Remote opportunities (e.g. WeWorkRemotely, Otta etc.)

• Internship programs (e.g. Erasmus, AIESEC etc.)

• Volunteer opportunities (e.g. Catchafire etc.)

  and more

1.7 - Compare and contrast to find the match

Check your project experiences (problems and solutions) for relevance. Compare them with the job offer and what you know about the company. Do the same for your designer profile. Look for overlaps.

Use these helpful questions to assist you with this exercise:

• Does this project experience match your designer profile?

• Does this project experience highlight your key design skills?

• Does this project experience match the job you want to apply for?

• Is the complexity of this project experience aligned with your level of seniority?

• Does this project experience match the industry/product/problem you want to work on?

• Do you have relevant outcomes and outputs from this project experience?

• Did you solve a user/business problem with this project experience?

• Are you proud and happy to have worked on this project experience?

1.8 - Find the missing gaps

When assessing your experience and profile against the market, seek both matches and gaps. Whether you're starting out or changing fields, this leads to better decisions. Identify missing skills, experiences and evidence.

• Worked on impactful fintech but you’re missing relevant artefacts?

• Have 0 years of UX for a role requiring 2?

• Targeting a specific problem area but you have never worked on a similar problem?

Think about every edge case. Look at the analysis both holistically and in detail.

1.9 - Define Your Strategy

Once you're aware of your experiences and the market, strategize your project selection.

Consider:

• Your projects (e.g. checkout redesign etc.)

• Specific project aspects (e.g. enhancing form design etc.)

• Experiences linked to these projects (e.g. managing numerous stakeholders etc.)

Based on previous exercises, try to answer these questions:

1. Which part doesn't fit and shouldn't be in your portfolio? (eliminate)

This question is about excluding irrelevant projects or parts from your portfolio. For example, if you previously worked on a logo redesign but now aim for a UX role in Fintech, a case study for a branding project might not be necessary.

2. Which critical requirement is absent and needs attention? (create)

For instance, if you've just worked on B2B products but aim to transition to B2C projects, and your portfolio lacks B2C examples, investing time and resources into such projects might be worth it.

3. Which part seems relevant but shouldn't be the main focus? (reduce)

For example, if you've shaped design processes in a low-maturity organisation but you’re going to look for an individual contributor role focused on designing products, consider showcasing this separately. Primarily focus on showcasing your product work as this will be your main JTBD in the next role.

4. What's a perfect match that needs highlighting in your portfolio? (raise)

This part should be a priority. If, for example, your next role as an individual contributor UX Designer focuses on designing fintech checkout solutions, showcase projects, areas, or experiences that demonstrate your ability to do that.

The goal is to make your portfolio focused on proving you can do the job you want to get.

But there are also more benefits from this exercise:

• You won't need to show everything

• You'll save time and energy

• You'll tell a better story

• You'll finish your portfolio faster

02. Pick projects when dealing with constraints

Every designer faces constraints, no one has a perfect situation. So, how do you choose projects when dealing with constraints? Here are some tips for specific situations.

2.1 - I have just 1 UX project from a bootcamp

In this competitive market, this might not cut. To increase your chances, you need to think about having more than one project. You can divide your one project into a few case studies using an approach from a previous point (focusing on a problem) or work on a passion project.

• Finding a real project might be tough, but if you want to work on real cases, try looking for opportunities in your network and local area. Maybe you could create an ordering page for a local bakery?

• Alternatively, you can work on another project, but this time it should be something you really want to do. For example, a designer in one of my mentoring sessions created a case study about cooking a perfect dinner for her friends, using design methods. If you're applying to design a food app, this could be a cool idea!

How to talk about passion projects? Take a look at the example below where you’ll find an amazing example on how to use storytelling and proactive activities to make your case study more interesting.

2.2 - My projects are under NDA

I think this became an industry standard. The majority of my projects were under NDA so you need to learn how to deal with it. The password protection is probably the most common method but it creates a barrier for a hiring manager. Check my post here to explore other methods

2.3 - The products I worked on look ugly

If you worked on legacy products, this can be a case, a real one so you shouldn’t hide it. Instead, you should showcase it effectively. Here's how:

• Don't redesign your product mockups but design how you present them in your portfolio. Choose what to show and how. Find inspiration here.

• Show sneak peeks for a future vision for this product. How would you improve the visual experience?

• Focus on the story. Challenges with legacy products can be huge, discuss how you tackled them.

• Consider working on a side project based on the previous tips.

2.4 - I haven’t done any user research in my projects

But you still made design decisions. Discuss this. What were the reasons behind your design decisions if not user research?

• Using common product patterns that work

• Getting inspiration from industry patterns

• Following common UX principles

• Ensuring accessibility compliance

2.5 - I don’t like my projects

You don’t have to love them, but consider if you'd want to tackle similar projects again. The projects in your portfolio often lead to similar challenges in future roles. If you don’t want to work on this type of project, work on a new project following the tips from the first point.

2.6 - I only have B2B projects but want to work in B2C

Check again your B2B projects for matching details and gaps. If the gap isn't large, consider applying for B2C roles with these projects. Meanwhile, look for side B2C projects to work on.

Check more B2C project examples here

That's it for today!

Get portfolio support from me ⭐️

There are 3 ways I can support you individually with your portfolio.

1. Let’s do it long-term! The biggest results come from this

2. Hop on a one-time call with me

3. Get the async portfolio review

Don’t have any UX projects yet? No worries, we can go through it together.

4. Work on a UX project with me

I’m back in two Fridays with another edition of UX Design Express 👋

Keep designing ✨
Aneta Kmiecik