Crafting a compelling story for your on-site design portfolio presentation

Create a gripping narrative that gets your interviewers excited to work with you

You’ve made it to the on-site design interview! Now’s your chance to show the great work you’ve done and get that role.

The in-person portfolio is different from your online portfolio which the interviewers have already seen. This is an opportunity to feature your best work showing how you’ve exceeded objectives given the constraints.

Compelling presentations start with stories first. Photo by Pixabay

How your portfolio will be evaluated

Your portfolio will be evaluated from multiple angles. The criteria is broader than the design exercise since you’ll be showing work you’ve done as part of a team. Your interviewers will be interested in seeing the following:

Problem scope — how complex were the problems you were addressing? This in part determines your seniority—did you lead multiple projects in parallel, with ambiguous goals, across various channels?

— how complex were the problems you were addressing? This in part determines your seniority—did you lead multiple projects in parallel, with ambiguous goals, across various channels? Collaboration — how did you work with your team? What conflict did you encounter and how was it resolved? Were you able to inspire and bring out the best in your teammates?

— how did you work with your team? What conflict did you encounter and how was it resolved? Were you able to inspire and bring out the best in your teammates? Adaptability — what approaches have you tried? What failed and how did you iterate on the process to keep things moving?

— what approaches have you tried? What failed and how did you iterate on the process to keep things moving? Quality — what is the quality bar for your work? How fast and to what degree of quality did you work? Were you able to explore many options, prioritize low effort solutions, while leading towards a north star design?

— what is the quality bar for your work? How fast and to what degree of quality did you work? Were you able to explore many options, prioritize low effort solutions, while leading towards a north star design? Outcome — what was the result? What did the customers say? What was the impact to engineering? What metrics shifted?

Aside from the work you’ll be evaluated on your delivery. Are you able to communicate clearly, present an intriguing story and keep folks engaged during your hour (this is your time)? In the next article we’ll cover techniques to make your speech sparkle.

Presentation audience

There’ll be a variety of folks who’ll see your presentation:

UX manager — craft skills, quality, process, and style

— craft skills, quality, process, and style Product manager — prioritization, business outcomes, impact

— prioritization, business outcomes, impact Engineering — productive collaboration with engineering

— productive collaboration with engineering UX research — methods you’ve used, how you’ve partnered with research

methods you’ve used, how you’ve partnered with research Data science — formulating initial questions and area of inquiry

Keep this audience in mind when you’re practicing.

Building your deck

The number one person you’re building this deck for is yourself. You’ll want to create a modular portfolio that you can remix at a moment’s notice if you’re called in for another interview. To help you get there I recommend starting by taking an assessment of your recent work.

Stacking your projects

What were your recent projects that you consider to be your best work that show a variety of skills? Highlight projects that played to your unique identity as a designer — your combination of skills, point of view and process that led to a result no other designer could have achieved.

One way to put a project stack is to evaluate each project individually on your craft skills such as: user research, interaction design, visual design, and affected platforms.

Project with a heavy interaction and research component

As an example you might have a project where you were heavily involved with customer interviews, solving a complex interaction problem for a desktop app but you were operating within an existing design system so there wasn’t much visual design work.

Project with a visual design focus

For another project you were heavily involved in visual design, e.g. you were doing illustration, color, and iconography for a design system that spanned both mobile and desktop platforms.

Combining different projects to show your breadth and depth of skills

Combining these projects in your portfolio demonstrates that you have strong skills in many areas. These graphs are inspired by Irene Au’s article, Writing a Job Description for UX People.

You might also consider other project dimensions such as:

Project complexity — some simpler projects can span a few weeks, others might take up months or years

— some simpler projects can span a few weeks, others might take up months or years Visionary projects — ones that were in a completely brand new space without a precedent, going from 0 to 1

— ones that were in a completely brand new space without a precedent, going from 0 to 1 Optimization projects — mature platforms that you were optimizing, going from 1 to 10

— mature platforms that you were optimizing, going from 1 to 10 Operational projects — you worked on initiatives to improve a team’s impact, e.g. design systems or design process

When you’re interviewing for multiple roles, I recommend building a deck composed of about 6 projects. You’ll present 2 to 3 projects during your portfolio review and have the other few in your back pocket in case interviewers have additional questions during one on ones.

Tailoring your projects for the role

After evaluation it’s time to tailor the portfolio to the role. You’ll get a good sense of what to include (or exclude), show first, and what to put in the appendix based on the job description. Ideally you get a sense of their underlying needs from the phone interview.

Not sure what to show? The recruiter (or a dedicated contact at the company) is your best ally in this process. Don’t guess, reach out and ask them to describe their ideal candidate and what work they’d like to see.

Storytelling for success

To make an impactful presentation, turn it into a story. You’re the hero of your own script. What trials were on your way that gave way to triumphs? Let’s break this down into 3 outlines: presentation, project, and process.