New Case Study, Same Old Mistake

A UX designer once shared their perspective with me during a portfolio review: “My bootcamp emphasized how crucial displaying the process is.” This highlights an issue and opens the door to a discussion on how it can be rectified:

🚨 The Issue:

* Placing excessive focus on the process can result in a case study that mirrors countless others, potentially leading to hiring manager fatigue. Think about sifting through approximately 200 case studies, all following the same format, covering identical process steps. It becomes monotonous, and engagement drops.

* While it’s beneficial to highlight elements like research, discovery, and user testing, the essential focus should be on how these efforts influenced the outcome and your subsequent learnings, not as a catalog of accomplishments.

* At times, the process component is filled with unused resources, such as personas, which can be indicative of process theatre – a definite warning sign. It’s usually best to exclude these elements.

🎉 The Solution:

* Highlight the effects of your design work from the outset. Use before-and-after screenshots, changes in user behavior, and enhanced business metrics to attract the hiring manager’s attention.

* Make your case study stand out by emphasizing unique content, including collaboration partners, learnings, and the mistakes you made.

* Condense your research learnings and their impact on your designs. Rather than making the hiring manager wade through materials like personas, journey maps, and interview results, offer a summary of the insights gained and how they were applied. While it’s acceptable to include the entire process, ensure the key takeaways are readily accessible without unnecessary scrolling.

Here is a structure that you may wanna try.

👩‍💼 Risk Management in Hiring:

Hiring managers, while reviewing hundreds of portfolios, typically conduct a risk evaluation, striving to identify low-risk candidates and avoid high-risk ones. A candidate who convincingly demonstrates their ability to influence user behavior through design, thereby creating business value, is considered a low-risk—endeavor to weave this narrative.

💥 In Conclusion:

* Prioritize showing impact over process.

* Emphasize what sets you and your project apart.

* Demonstrate how your design work influenced user behavior and advanced business objectives through storytelling.