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.
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Someone on your team says: “Our goal should be to move Metric X up Y% this half.” Your inclination is to nod, say “Cool” and get on with the actual building.
But pause!
The goals you agree to determine what you build. So consider them carefully and ask the following:
1) If we were wildly successful this half, what’s the ideal outcome for customers using our product?
The point of target metrics is to keep ourselves accountable to doing our best for customers, and in turn, the business.
Any metric will be a proxy; THIS is the real goal.
2: In what scenarios would we get closer to our ideal outcome but not make progress on our goal metric(s)?
If you can come up with tons of examples, you need to pick better proxy metrics.
A few metrics typically work better than a single metric as a proxy for success.
1. For whatever action scares you (and isn’t life-threatening), remember this surefire way to eliminate the fear: do it 100 times.
2. Taking advantage of youthful invulnerability is like taking out a loan. Over decades, your body eventually comes to call the debt.
3. The dimension of time explains why you are not your thoughts, your emotions, or your capabilities. None of these persist against the ticking of the clock.
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.