3 tips to make your design portfolio stand out

Creating a design portfolio that stands out is important for any designer looking to land new work opportunities. A memorable portfolio can make it much easier for hiring managers to identify your style, strengths, and abilities as a designer, giving you that extra edge in the hiring pool.

To help you improve your design portfolio, Product Designer, Founder, & Career Coach Helen Tran shares her top 3 portfolio tips to help you stand out as an applicant.

Dribbble – CPC Tips – 16×9 – 3 Ways to Make Your Portfolio Stand Out.mp4

1. Write something about yourself

A strong product design portfolio allows hiring managers to understand who you are inside and out as a designer. Writing something about yourself offers further insight that goes beyond showing off your hard skills. Your written story gives hiring managers a first-hand look into the values, principles, and defining attributes that make you an ideal fit for product design positions. In today’s hiring landscape, soft skills are just as important – if not more important – than hard skills.

2. Add non-design work

Adding a variety of non-design related projects to your portfolio can be of immense benefit when applying for product design jobs. Demonstrating skills in problem-solving and analysis, as well as project management and other presentations of creativity can leave a positive impression on a hiring manager. These skills are invaluable to the product design process, no matter what stage you’re at — from concepting ideas to assessing user feedback and refining solutions.

3. Quality projects over quantity

In reality, hiring managers and recruiters typically take just a few seconds to review your portfolio, so it’s essential to grab their attention quickly. By including fewer projects with better details, you can highlight specific examples and achievements while also showing off your creativity. Quality projects also demonstrate an understanding of how specific solutions solve problems and how they impacted the users or organization. This is especially true if these solutions had a positive effect on key performance metrics like conversion or revenue growth!

“One excellent example is better than three okay ones.” — Helen Tran

Create a portfolio that lands work

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