#Reducing design process in portfolio walkthroughs

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patent glen
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so iā€™ve been interviewing lately and a few weeks ago i interviewed at company A and they told me i needed to speak more about my end-to-end process in my portfolio walkthrough so i did that for my future interviews.

but now this feedback from company B says i shouldnā€™t talk too much about my design process. how can i reduce that? i think thatā€™s a common mistake UX designers do in portfolio walkthroughs. i honestly believe i spent enough time explaining my design decisions tho, but if i need to cut that down, how could i do that without possibly eliminating important info?

snow pumice
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Each step needs to lead to a cool insight that made a huge difference in your design

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It's definitely a hard balance. My first interview I did was removed too much process and jump straight into the final. But after a few interviews and adjusting based off of people's comments and if they seem bored or not, should be good

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Important info doesn't matter if it's not interesting or impactful, I guess.

woeful hazel
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Honestly, it's also going to be different depending on company or hiring manager. Some might care more about your personal convictions as a designers vs another.

I would say prior to the presentation stage, try your best to ask questions that'll help feel out the things that particular HM deems to be important. Sometimes their questions to you can reveal a lot too.

patent glen
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good point and iā€™ll ask that moving forward. i find ā€œdesign being subjectiveā€ both a blessing and a curse because thereā€™s no right or wrong answer in things such as a design process or approaching a solution. but at the same time (like what you said), different hiring managers prefer a particular thing that holds more importance to them

boreal stump
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OOPS.

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shh

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brian shh

patent glen
boreal stump
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i pasted an image in here on accident, and brian caught it

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and then deleted his message.

woeful hazel
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I was shh'ing

snow pumice
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Nadia has power to see deleted messages

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So youā€™re pooped

patent glen
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okay real talk - can i flip that question back since most people here were former hiring managers

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even tho as brian said it depends on the company/HM, what did everyone here personally look for when it comes to design process

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out of curiosity

woeful hazel
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I just need to know high level that you get how design gets done as a junior

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I prefer to focus on the details of what you did. Did she highlight important moments that led to a change in the work? Did something she uncovered lead to an unexpected path? Did she take it upon herself to get to the logical end of that pathway?

Things like that.

All of this of course should be relevant to the final output in some way.

snow pumice
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hard to answer I guess because it's just whatever made a difference in the design that makes someone go "oh that's a cool" or "oh that's interesting, didn't think about it this way"

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But Brian did bring up a good point. The one I had too little process on, I did because I got feedback to just basically pull up the final design and walk through decisions and how you arrived at the final. But there should be kind of a story of well what changes did I make, what exactly influenced it etc.

And it also is the person. While the company was pushing for "no process" (screenshot from recruiter), this particular person thought "process was the most important part." LOL cause I made a mention that I'm gonna skip much process to focus on the final deliverables and he muttered that.

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shut hollow
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LOL i have this note too

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snow pumice
woeful hazel
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Did the hiring manager provide any details about the portfolio walkthrough leading up to it?

hidden oriole
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Ok, so what I think is happening is that people are using the word ā€œprocessā€ā€”which is inclusive of many, many thingsā€”in different ways.

If ā€œprocessā€ is ā€œI followed a double diamond process and did competitive research in my Discover phaseā€ then you can do less of that.

If ā€œprocessā€ is the story of ā€œhow this project came about and why, my role and involvement, what challenges I faced along the way, things I learned and how it impacted the specific decisions I made (and ultimately the results)ā€ then that should be a good chunk of your presentation.

Too often with more junior candidates I hear a lot of ā€œprocessā€ that they think they need to follow vs. what actually happened, what they did, and why.

patent glen
woeful hazel
# patent glen nope - although now moving forward in all future job interviews i get invited in...

This is when you really want to glean as much as you can from the HM regarding their expectations. Framing your questions in ways that demonstrate curiosity while also giving you important details.

Be as literal as you like.

I have asked questions ranging from, ā€œWhat kinds of details are important to your team that youā€™d like me to focus on?ā€ to ā€œGot any tips for doing well for those in the room?ā€

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This goes for any situation that youā€™re walking into with any degree of uncertainty folks.

A big part of what we do by default is mitigate uncertainty for others so why wouldnā€™t we do that for ourselves too?

woeful hazel
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Okay last pro tip Iā€™ll mention is to ask your HM if itā€™d be cool to schedule a 20min prep call after you get the green light to present. This is where you should come prepared to ask your questions and is ideal for demonstrating just how much success means to you and by extension them.

Worse they can say is no. If so, follow up with email instead.

patent glen
woeful hazel
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Yes, the ideal would be before you start tailoring your presentation to whatā€™s important to them. I tailor 10-20% of my presentation to address any specific details the audience cares about.

As for the 20min prep call, Iā€™ve experienced it in previous interviews Iā€™ve gone through where it was offered by the HMs themselves. Iā€™ve since adopted it wherever I go even if it isnā€™t offered.