Lately, I’ve had some free time during my job transition and have been reviewing a few of my friends’ design portfolios. Gradually, I found some common themes around the feedback I’ve given. And it occurred to me that others might find some of my recommendations useful so I wrote them down.

最近，我在工作过渡期间有一些空闲时间，并且正在审查我的一些朋友的设计作品集。 渐渐地，我发现了一些关于反馈的共同主题。 在我看来，其他人可能会发现我的一些建议很有用，所以我将其写下来。

1：保持简单。 您无需在投资组合中透露所有有关您的信息。 (1: Keep it simple. You don’t need to tell everything about you in your portfolio.)

You might be a talented designer who is able to design end-to-end, has 20 awesome projects to showcase and 5 side-gigs you can’t wait to tell interviewers about. But keep in mind that interviewers’ time is always limited. When I was a hiring manager, I truly had only 20 minutes to review each portfolio. This is what I usually did: I opened the portfolio, navigated to the “About” page to see if there was anything interesting beyond a generic “A designer trying to improve people’s lives” tagline there. Then I jumped to checking out the first project, assuming that would be the latest and greatest. If I was impressed with that one, I would quickly scan some of the other work to get a sense of the breadth of problems that candidate was solving. But in general, reviewing the first two projects would provide adequate signals for making a decision.

您可能是一位才华横溢的设计师，能够端到端设计，有20个很棒的项目可以展示，还有5个旁观者，您迫不及待要告诉采访者。 但是请记住，访问员的时间总是有限的。 当我是一名招聘经理时，我确实只有20分钟的时间来审核每个投资组合。 这通常是我做的事情：打开投资组合，导航到“关于”页面，查看那里是否有通用的“试图改善人们生活的设计师”标语之外是否还有有趣的事情。 然后我跳到签出第一个项目，假设那将是最新的也是最大的。 如果让我印象深刻，我将快速浏览其他一些工作，以了解候选人正在解决的问题的广度。 但是总的来说，审查前两个项目将为决策提供足够的信号。

So, I would recommend keeping your projects as few as possible. 2–4 is truly enough.

因此，我建议您的项目尽可能少。 2–4确实足够。

One masterpiece is more powerful than a hundred mediocre works.

一件杰作比一百件平庸的作品更强大。

Of course, whatever you show should be really, really polished. That means you have to be very thoughtful about which projects to show. You can treat your portfolio as a product you are trying to sell, think about what your selling points are and how you want to position yourself. Here are some questions you can ask yourself:

当然，无论您显示什么，都应该非常，非常精美。 这意味着您必须非常考虑要显示的项目。 您可以将投资组合视为您要销售的产品，考虑您的卖点是什么以及如何定位自己。 您可以问自己一些问题：

1. What is the ideal designer role for me?

   对我来说理想的设计师角色是什么？

2. What traits do I need to demonstrate to succeed in that role?

   我需要证明什么才能成功担任该职位？

3. Does my story on project A demonstrate all these traits?

   我在项目A上的故事是否显示了所有这些特征？

4. If not, does project B complement it?

   如果没有，项目B是否对其进行补充？

With thinking practice like this, you should be able to land on the best projects to showcase your diverse skills, and with unique stories as well.

通过这样的思维练习，您应该能够从事最好的项目，以展示您的各种技能以及独特的故事。

2： 并非总是需要强大的视觉设计技巧； 但是，要注意细节。 (2: Strong visual design skill is not always required; however, attention to detail is.)

Product Design is a job that requires a wide range of knowledge, from business strategy and user research to interaction, visual and motion design. Product Designers come from diverse backgrounds, such as Graphic Design, Computer Science or Psychology. Thus, one designer’s skill profile can vary drastically from another. It’s totally fine if you want to develop a “T-shaped” career by focusing on, let’s say, design strategy; but it doesn’t mean you can be sloppy with details in your portfolio. I’m always surprised when I see some mistakes over and over again, even from senior designers:

产品设计是一项需要广泛知识的工作 ，从业务策略和用户研究到交互，视觉和动作设计。 产品设计师来自不同的背景，例如平面设计，计算机科学或心理学。 因此，一个设计师的技能概况可能会与另一个设计师大不相同。 如果您想通过专注于设计策略来发展“ T形”职业，那完全没问题。 但这并不意味着您可以对投资组合中的细节草率行事。 当我一遍又一遍地看到一些错误时，我总是感到惊讶，即使是高级设计师也是如此：

• Use one pane layout with full width on the body copy

  在主体副本上使用全宽度的一个窗格布局

On large screens, this leads to excessive line lengths which cause readability issues. The ideal length for body copy on a large screen is 40–60 characters per line. Consider setting a maximum width on your body copy and reserving the full width pane for displaying your high fidelity mocks only.

在大屏幕上，这会导致行长过大，从而导致可读性问题。 在大屏幕上进行正文复制的理想长度是每行40–60个字符。 考虑在您的正文副本上设置最大宽度，并保留全宽窗格以仅显示高保真模拟。

You could also refer to some online blogs or content-sharing platforms to see how they handle layout to make a long article easy to read. Medium is a good example.

您还可以参考一些在线博客或内容共享平台，以了解它们如何处理布局以使长篇文章易于阅读。 中等就是一个很好的例子。

• Use too many typography styles in one layout

  在一种布局中使用太多的排版样式

Each font you introduce adds a new tone to your design. Each variant you introduce adds a new factor of complexity. Using too many fonts in different styles without a system can make a page look unstructured and unprofessional. Well, if you are not a total typeface guru (I myself am still catching up!), you could just keep it simple by using two compatible fonts (one for headings, one for body copy) with minimum variants on one page. And, ALL CAPS should never be used in a long sentence.

您介绍的每种字体都会为您的设计增添新的色彩。 您介绍的每个变体都会增加新的复杂性。 在没有系统的情况下使用太多不同风格的字体可能会使页面显得结构混乱且不专业。 好吧，如果您不是一个完整的字型大师(我自己仍在追赶！)，则可以通过使用两种兼容的字体(一种用于标题，一种用于正文)来保持其简单性，并在一页上使用最少的变体。 而且，所有CAPS都不应使用太长的句子。

• Typos and grammar issues

  错别字和语法问题

This is very common in the portfolios of international speakers of English. Since your portfolio is something that will represent you throughout your career, it’s a good idea to invest in a communication coach to help you proofread before sending out it to hiring managers.

这在国际英语讲者中非常普遍。 由于您的投资组合将在您的整个职业生涯中代表您，因此，最好在交流教练之前进行投资，以帮助您进行校对，然后再发送给招聘经理。

You might think these are small nits. But designers who can’t demonstrate a basic understanding of visuals and attention to detail in their portfolio might leave hiring managers in doubt if you have the ability to drive or execute on high-quality output end-to-end. Visual design doesn’t have to be your strongest point, but you don’t want poor quality to diminish your work.

您可能会认为这些都是小巧的尼特。 但是，如果您没有能力端到端地驱动或执行高质量的输出，则无法展示出对视觉效果和对细节的关注的设计师可能会招用招聘经理。 视觉设计不一定是您的强项，但您不希望质量低劣会削弱您的工作。

3：讲一个好故事。 (3: Tell a good story.)

This is the most important element. A good story can ensure 80% of the success of your portfolio. You have taken your projects all the way from concept to final launch. So much effort and thought has been put into it all. You have grown and learned a lot. Fantastic! The portfolio story, however, is its own thing. It’s not just simply listing what you’ve done, but a thoughtfully curated narrative that can help you pull interviewers in and “checking all the boxes” in their mind.

这是最重要的元素。 一个好的故事可以确保您的投资组合成功80％。 从概念到最终启动，您已经完成了所有项目。 付出了很多努力和思想。 您已经成长并学到了很多东西。 太棒了！ 然而，投资组合的故事是它自己的事情。 这不仅是列出您所做的事情，而且是精心策划的叙述，可以帮助您吸引面试官，并在他们的脑海中“检查所有框子”。

You can write down those moments that best highlight your approach, strong suits and learnings. Then, take your time to craft a cohesive storyline to link those moments. Practice telling the story with your friends for feedback. Lastly, do what a designer usually spends 90% of their time on: iterate. My tips below apply not only to portfolios, but also portfolio presentations.

您可以写下那些最能突出您的方法，强项和经验的时刻。 然后，花一些时间来制作连贯的故事情节以链接这些时刻。 练习与朋友讲故事以征求反馈。 最后，执行设计师通常花费其90％的时间的工作： 迭代 。 我在下面的提示不仅适用于投资组合，而且还适用于投资组合演示。

提示1：专注于您的过程。 不是您的解决方案。 (Tip 1: Focus on your process. not your solution.)

Nobody expects to just see a bunch of Dribbble shots from a Product Designer. So, save your high fidelity mockups for the last part. Focus your story on walking the audience through your process. Answer these key questions:

没有人期望看到产品设计师提供的一堆Dribbble镜头。 因此，在最后一部分中保存您的高保真模型。 将您的故事重点放在引导观众完成整个过程上。 回答以下关键问题：

• What was the problem?

  怎么了

• How did you know it was a real problem and worth solving?

  您怎么知道这是一个真正的问题，值得解决？

• How did you solve the problem?

  您是如何解决这个问题的？

• Which directions did you try?

  您尝试了哪些方向？

• What was your ultimate solution?

  您的最终解决方案是什么？

• What was the impact?

  有什么影响？

Be ready to show your iterations, tradeoffs and how you landed on your solutions. Having a structure can help your audience follow the sequence. If you need a visual representation, here is the one I use:

准备展示迭代，权衡以及如何着手解决方案。 具有结构可以帮助您的听众遵循顺序。 如果您需要一种视觉表现形式，这是我使用的一种：

A common mistake is enumerating what was done without any explanation on why it was done in that way. For example, many designers liked to show “personas” in their portfolio. However, why did you use personas here? How did this approach inform your design choices? It’s not always clearly explained, so left the audience feeling that the designer might not profoundly understand the methodology.

一个常见的错误是枚举所做的事情，而没有任何解释为什么这样做的原因。 例如，许多设计师喜欢在其作品集中显示“角色”。 但是，为什么在这里使用角色？ 这种方法如何告知您的设计选择？ 它的解释并不总是很清楚，所以让听众感到设计师可能无法深刻理解方法论。

Emphasize on “why” and “how”, not “what”.

强调“为什么”和“如何”，而不是“什么”。

As long as you are applying for a Product Designer role, the story should heavily stress on “how” and “why”, instead of “what”. It’s critical to explain the reasoning behind your decisions at each step of your process. Why is the primary button green? Why did you choose tabs versus a hamburger menu? You don’t need to put everything in your portfolio, but definitely keep the answers in your mind since they might be surfaced during interviews.

只要您申请产品设计师职位，故事就应该重点强调“如何”和“为什么”，而不是“什么”。 在流程的每个步骤中解释决策背后的原因至关重要。 为什么主按钮为绿色？ 为什么选择标签而不是汉堡菜单？ 您不需要将所有内容都放在投资组合中，但一定要牢记在心，因为答案可能会在面试中浮出水面。

提示2：将业务背景融入您的故事 (Tip 2: Weave business context into your story)

Many designers start their story with users’ problems then jump right into the design process without mentioning any business background. Why does the company want to invest in this area? What’s the opportunity size of this initiative? How did you measure success? When asked these questions, some designers start scratching their heads. This might leave interviewers with the impression that you lack the ability to influence strategy, that you can only execute on design for defined problems handed off by your PM. Remember:

许多设计师从用户的问题开始他们的故事，然后直接进入设计过程而没有提及任何业务背景。 公司为什么要在这方面投资？ 该计划的机会规模是多少？ 您如何衡量成功？ 当被问到这些问题时，一些设计师开始挠头。 这可能会使面试官感到您缺乏影响策略的能力，只能针对PM交出的已定义问题执行设计。 记得：

Every design problem connects with business objectives.

每个设计问题都与业务目标相关。

You can easily cover this by weaving business context throughout your story, from beginning to end. For example:

通过从头到尾编织整个故事中的业务上下文，您可以轻松解决这一问题。 例如：

1. Start with the business background, explaining the unique business challenge, why the problem was essential to solve for the business, what the opportunity size and business goals were, etc.
   从业务背景开始，解释独特的业务挑战，为什么问题对于解决业务必不可少，机会规模和业务目标是什么，等等。
2. In the middle, highlight your considerations on business relevance when you weighed different design options, and how you balanced user’s and business needs to land on a satisfactory solution.
   在中间，当您权衡不同的设计选项时，突出显示您对业务相关性的考虑，以及如何平衡用户和业务需求以找到令人满意的解决方案。
3. End with the business outcome if your design was launched; for example, metrics impacted and takeaways.
   如果启动了设计，则以业务成果结尾； 例如，影响指标和收益。

Showcasing your understanding of business objectives can help you impress PM interviewers for sure. But most importantly, designers should view business as a fundamental part of their work and constantly think about how design can bring business value in the day-to-day. Being business savvy is virtually a must for senior designers these days. If you haven’t done it yet, I highly recommend you start building a solid foundation of business acumen. To begin, your PM friends might be the best people to learn from.

展示您对业务目标的理解可以肯定地帮助您吸引PM面试官。 但是最重​​要的是，设计师应将业务视为工作的基本组成部分，并不断思考设计如何在日常中带来业务价值。 如今，精通业务实际上是高级设计师的必需品。 如果您还没有这样做，我强烈建议您开始建立扎实的商业头脑。 首先，您的PM朋友可能是最好的人。

提示3：使用“我们”，而不是“我”。 (Tip 3: Use “we”, not “I”.)

Early days in my career, I liked to brag about how I single-handedly solved a problem by doing everything. But nowadays, I try to avoid using too many “I” in my story. Of course, you need to make your contribution clear, but that doesn’t mean your story should be all about “you”. Product Design, by its nature, requires a strong ability to collaborate. In a real workplace, how to work with other functions, synthesize different opinions and output with a balanced solution is way more relevant than visualizing just your own idea.

在我职业生涯的早期，我喜欢吹嘘自己如何通过一切来解决问题。 但是如今，我尽量避免在故事中使用过多的“我”。 当然，您需要明确说明自己的观点，但这并不意味着您的故事应该全部与“您”有关。 产品设计本质上要求具有强大的协作能力。 在实际的工作场所中，如何与其他功能一起工作，综合不同的意见并通过平衡的解决方案进行输出，比仅可视化您自己的想法更重要。

So, you probably have seen cross-functional partners in your interview panel to gauge your collaboration skills. How about peppering your story with how you collaborate with your cross-functional partners? For example, bringing the team along in your process by running a co-design workshop, or working with Engineers together so that you can design a scalable solution to avoid technical debt. These elements could easily resonate with cross-functional partners and set the right tone for the following 1-on-1 conversations.

因此，您可能在面试面板中看到了跨职能合作伙伴来评估您的协作技能。 与跨职能合作伙伴的合作如何充实您的故事？ 例如，通过举办合作设计研讨会来使团队参与进来，或者与工程师一起工作，以便您可以设计可扩展的解决方案以避免技术负担。 这些元素可以轻松地与跨职能合作伙伴产生共鸣，并为随后的一对一对话设定正确的语调。

Above are some suggestions I’ve given to my friends. I hope these tips can also help you avoid some mistakes and build a stronger portfolio. Any feedback? Please leave it here.

以上是我给我的朋友的一些建议。 我希望这些技巧还可以帮助您避免一些错误并建立更强大的产品组合。 任何反馈？ 请留在这里。