Vol. 002 - The Best Platform for Portfolio?

Hi designers,

Welcome to Vol. 002 of the UX Jetpack Newsletter, where I share job searching tips weekly. This week we are talking about:

1. The Best Platform for Portfolio?
2. How to prepare your portfolio presentation?
3. What questions to ask during job interviews?
4. How to add impact to your resume?

If you enjoy those tips, please consider sharing them with your friends. They can sign up at https://uxjetpack.com/newsletter

The best platform for portfolio?

Looking to build a portfolio? Avoid Wix, it's probably the worst platform for it. I've seen many designers try and give up because making it responsive is too hard. Don't worry, I've got some easier options for you.

🎨 Figma Chances are you're already designing your portfolio in Figma. Just send the link, and you're done. Be careful though, Figma designs aren't responsive and can be slow to load. But it's a quick and easy way to get your portfolio out there.

📓 Notion Notion is also really easy to build and share. You can even get your own domain with services like super.so or popsy.co. Just keep in mind that Notion has limitations when it comes to layout, and the typography isn't the best for skimming through.

🛠️ Webflow/Framer Here's my favourite option, and what I recommend. Buy a nice template and customize it to your liking. If you're feeling creative, Webflow and Framer make it easy to add your personality. If you find HTML/CSS hard to understand, then go with Framer instead of Webflow.

👋 Follow me for more tips on job searching as designers

How to prepare your portfolio presentation?

One of the common mistakes people make on their portfolio presentations is they try to squeeze too much content into one slide.

You want to have people focus on your talking, not reading the slide. If they try to read the essay you put on the slide, they could easily lose track and not get your point.

Keep only one point per slide.

Plus, let’s be real, not all hiring managers gonna be 100% during interviews, especially during remote interviews, they might be very well replying Slack messages while you present.

So focus on telling a good story and let your speech grab people’s attention, and keep only one point per slide.

What questions to ask during job interviews?

An interview is not only for employers to assess your abilities for the job; it's also an opportunity for you to evaluate if it's a good fit for you. Asking important questions can help you make an informed decision about pursuing the opportunity.

Here are 7 questions to ask during product designer interviews:

1. "What's the typical working relationship between designers and PMs at your company?"
2. "How will this team grow in the next 3 years? How can the person in this position contribute to achieving the team's goals?"
3. "What is the biggest challenge currently facing the company/design team?"
4. "What's the relationship like between the design team and the company's leadership?"
5. "Can you share examples of features the team shipped last year? What were the designers' contributions to those features?"
6. "Why is this position open or created?"
7. "What are the learning and mentoring opportunities available within the company?"

Are there any other questions you ask during product design interviews?

How to add impact to your resume?

How can you add impact to your design resume when you don’t have metrics?

1. Ask yourself, “So what?” and then explain why your work matters. Instead of “Created functional prototypes for an iPad checkout product with various web components.”, say, “Created functional prototypes to significantly reduce the back and forth between engineer and product, while setting the right expectations for clients.”
2. Share your qualitative results if you don’t have the numbers. Instead of “Conducted workshops and interviews to gather insights from clients”, say, “Conducted workshops and interviews to gather insights from clients, resulting in high engagement from clients and high satisfaction with the final design.”
3. Share numbers to help people understand the context and scope. Instead of “Designed two 0-1 products in different industries”, say, “Led the design of two 0-1 products in two different industries within the span of 6 months as the sole designer.”

Hope you enjoyed this week's issue. Don't forget to share it with your friends.

See you next week,

Ryan Yao