Are you an aspiring designer eager to break into the field but unsure how to showcase your talent effectively? Your portfolio is your gateway to opportunities, serving as a reflection of your skills, creativity, and unique design perspective. As a principal product designer with years of experience in the tech industry, I understand the challenges that aspiring designers face when it comes to crafting a compelling portfolio. That's why I'm excited to share with you a comprehensive portfolio design outline that has proven successful in my own projects.

Portfolio Piece Outline:

Use this guide below to format your portfolio piece:

Title: What is the title of your portfolio piece?
Your Role: What was your role in the project?
Duration of Project: How long did the project last from start to finish?
Roles of Collaborators: What were the roles of the people you worked with?

1. What problem were you trying to solve?

How did you determine it was a problem?
How did you know it was a problem?
Who is the problem impacting?
What was the problem statement? Here’s an example: "I am a [user persona], I am trying to [achieve a goal], but [encounter an obstacle], which makes me feel [emotion].”

2. Why was the problem interesting to you?

Why did the problem interest you considering your role, team, personal interest, or design perspective?

3. How did you solve the problem?

What process or framework did you use?
Why did you choose this framework?
What specific actions did you take to solve the problem?

4. What was the outcome?

What happened after the project ended?
What changes resulted from your efforts?

5. What did you learn?

What aspects went well?
What lessons did you learn?
What would you like to experiment with next?

tips:

Demonstrate a breadth of your design skillset, including cross-discipline collaboration, research, UX and UI design, product design thinking, content design, data analytics, and prototyping skills.
Feature an end product shot at the top of the page so that recruiters can see how you reached the end of the project process.

Printout takeaway

Feel free to download this free resource below to create your portfolio.

Crafting Your Design Identity: A Portfolio Design Guide