Julie Zhuo Profile picture
May 14, 2019 7 tweets 1 min read Read on X
How to describe your design work in a portfolio or presentation (thread below)
Describe the problem you set out to solve.
Explain the things that made this problem interesting or challenging—what was the space of options? What were the constraints you were forced to balance?
(If you want to go more in-depth), show other variants you tried along the way, and why they didn’t quite work for you.
Explain why you went with the final solution you chose.
(If possible to share), show the the measurable outcomes of your solution on the problem, whether quantitative or qualitative.
(If you want to be comprehensive), explain the limitations of your final solution and what you'd do if you had infinite time or resources.

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
 

Keep Current with Julie Zhuo

Julie Zhuo Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @joulee

May 4, 2023
7 Questions to Impress your Boss
(if you respect them)

1. What do you think are the 3 biggest issues for our team right now?

⇒ Shows big-picture thinking and caring about the team’s success
2. My top 3 priorities are X, Y and Z — do you feel they’re the most impactful way for me to spend my time?

⇒ Shows desire to have impact and work on the most important things
3. I noticed X happened and I’m worried it might impact our team’s goal for Z — am I looking at this the right way?

⇒ Shows proactivity and transparency in identifying blockers
Read 7 tweets
Mar 21, 2023
The only way I know of to develop better product intuition for your own product is to:

1) constantly use your product as a real user would
2) constantly research your target customer

12 ways to make this practical in your week-to-week 👇
1. Use the product daily as a real user would [15 minutes / day]

2. Watch one or two user research or replay sessions [10 minutes / day]

3. Check your key usage metrics dashboard [5 minutes / day]
4. Interview a prospective client and ask them to describe a specific workflow related to your product [30 min / week]

5. Email or slack 1-3 existing clients with a specific feedback question [30 min / week]
Read 8 tweets
Mar 19, 2023
THE MAKING OF A MANAGER is 4 years old today!

As someone who works in data, I always joke to my friends that I have incredibly poor data visibility on how my book is doing. I don't know how many copies have sold, for example. I don't know how many people have read it.
Most importantly, I don't know how many people found it *useful* and what is the ratio of readers who found it useful versus not, which are the metrics I most care about!

(And if not useful, I'd like to know why, so I can learn something in the process.)
What I have to go on are anecdotes. I'm grateful for each person who has reached out about my book over the years. It floods me with warmth whenever someone tells me they picked it up after a promotion, or when their whole team read it, or when they recommended it to a friend.
Read 6 tweets
Mar 15, 2023
The loudest way to lead is by example.

If you care about putting forth a quality product, then you should be the biggest dogfooder.

If you expect members of your team to be on call on weekends, then you too should be available and responsive at that time.
If want your team to focus on their top priorities, then you shouldn’t schedule a wall of recurring meetings.

If you expect others to care about excellence, then you need to be the first to call out sloppy work.
If you wish for your team to invest in growth, then you should be the first to share what you’ve learned.
Read 4 tweets
Feb 16, 2023
They say prioritize until it hurts.

That's what great product people do.

But how does it hurt?

A thread 👇
You need to pick favorites between your users.

Are you going to care more about Abbey who runs the mom-and-pop shop, or Dwight the CMO of a large enterprise?

You can't solve for everyone right away. Be extremely specific about the type of person and their problem to target.
You need to dissolve the dream.

Wouldn’t the product be amazing if we could do X, and Y and Z, and then we’ll deliver it on a silver platter?

Yes it would be. But reason and past experiences says you can’t, at least not within the time frame you want. The dream is an illusion.
Read 7 tweets
Jan 3, 2023
In 2023 I want to aim for more honesty and transparency.

It starts with me first: honesty towards myself. We all have self-deceptions. These defense mechanisms provide us comfort.

It struck me that true self-acceptance can't come without true self-honesty.
Examples where I am not fully honest with myself:

1. Brushing aside, judging or justifying my feelings
2. Self-censoring opinions
3. Not proactively asking for feedback
4. Externalizing problems rather than seeing my role in them
5. Avoiding watching myself talk
Of course I have been on the other extreme too--too much self-judgement of the above, feeling guilty for feeling this or doing that.

But judgement is not honesty.

Honesty is curiosity and then awareness, acknowledgement, and accountability. Not 'good' / 'bad' labels.
Read 4 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Don't want to be a Premium member but still want to support us?

Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal

Or Donate anonymously using crypto!

Ethereum

0xfe58350B80634f60Fa6Dc149a72b4DFbc17D341E copy

Bitcoin

3ATGMxNzCUFzxpMCHL5sWSt4DVtS8UqXpi copy

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us!

:(