What makes a successful portfolio

Meet the foundational elements first
- Three projects, showing end to end process ( if you have more projects feel free to add, but don't overwhelm the reader ).
- Express your personality.
- Maintain consistency and present information clearly
Show and quantify your impact.
Don't follow the process steps for the sake of it, show how you solved the problem through design thinking
Hook Factor: If you have particular expertise, highlight that in the portfolio. Ex: Product designer focused on , UX Research, UI or Design Systems or UX Engineering.
Communicate who you are, let the other person understand your personality.

( Disclaimer: This is not a source of truth, rather insights gathered from the discussion)

A good story is the heart of a good case study.
Hook factor is an integral part of positioning ourselves and define the differentiating factor.
- It's a good idea to have 2 or 3 hook factors and represent that in the portfolio.
It's always a battle between what UX is and the reality of the industry. It's a good idea to have 50% personal, university, online course-based projects and 50% industry-based projects.
Leverage your past experience and highlight that in your portfolio.
- Even consider your childhood experience.
The project we worked on could be small or big, there is always a narrative associated with it, don't feel hesitant to communicate that process and impact.
Unless you want to demonstrate your coding skill, stay far from hard-coding the portfolio to avoid future maintenance issues.
As we move up in our careers and work for large organizations, we might not be able to write a case study. Our experience and recommendations will act as our portfolio.
How might we build a system for a portfolio to reduce updating and maintenance time?

Next session topic ideas.