Create Your UX Research Portfolio Using RB Co-Pilot
Is a portfolio for a UX Researcher necessary?
As a UX researcher, your portfolio is not just a collection of work; it's your professional narrative, showcasing your skills, methodologies, and the impact of your research. Let's delve into why having a portfolio is a good thing and cover a step-by-step approach to creating a compelling UX research portfolio to guide you on this journey.
Create your portfolio using the RB Co-pilot
A Well-Crafted UX research portfolio:
Showcases Your Skills: It demonstrates your proficiency in various research methodologies, data analysis, and presentation skills.
Highlights Your Process: It provides insight into your research process, helping potential employers or clients understand how you approach and solve problems.
Illustrates Impact: Your portfolio is an opportunity to showcase the tangible impact of your research on product development, user experience, or business outcomes.
A Step-by-Step Guide to creating a UX research portfolio:
Step 1: Introduction and Overview
Begin with a concise introduction, informing people who you are, sharing your passion for UX research and a brief overview of your expertise. For instance, "As a dedicated E-Commerce UX researcher, I blend qualitative and quantitative methodologies to uncover user insights and drive impactful design decisions on e-commerce products."
Step 2: Choose Your Projects
Select your strongest and most relevant projects to include in your portfolio. Focus on projects that demonstrate your skills in all aspects of UX research, from planning and conducting research to analyzing data and communicating findings.
Step 3: Tell the story of your research.
For each project in your portfolio, write a case study that tells the story of your research process and findings. Be sure to include the following information:
Clearly define your role and contribution in the projects
The problem or challenge you were trying to solve.
The research methods you used e.g. usability testing, user interviews, card sorting etc.
The key findings from your research. Here you can also showcase tangible deliverables that you created as a result of the project.
The impact of your research on the product or service. e.g. removing the free trial resulted in increasing the conversion rate of paying users by 20%.
Step 4: Reflect on Challenges and Learnings
Briefly discuss challenges faced and how you overcame them and your biggest takeaways from carrying out the projects.
Is a Portfolio Necessary for UX Researchers?
With the current status of the job market, I’d say it’s better to have something to showcase than having nothing at all.
The truth is, very few understand what a UX researcher does and finding a way to demonstrate the work you’ve done is better than trying to convince people why you don’t need a portfolio.
Your portfolio doesn’t have to be a website. There are many other way to showcase your work and skills.
A presentation deck for instance, is a great way to the story of your research process and findings in a visually appealing way.
Publicly shareable documentation tools like Notion can enable you put up a number of projects in a quick way and be able to share them across your network.
Blog or social media - You can publish a case study as an article on platforms like medium or create a social media account where you document your journey working on a project.
The key is to ensure you put together your work in a way that’s sharable so it is easy to link it on your LinkedIn profile or CV.
To learn more tips on building an irresistible portfolio, watch this 👇….
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Additional Resources on Crafting UX Portfolios
Crafting an Irresistible UX Portfolio: Master the Art of Showcasing Your work Workshop by Research Bookmark
What exactly is a UX Research Portfolio by Aona Yang
Handpicked Articles on creating and showcasing your UX research portfolio in your interview
UX Portfolio Workbook: A step-by-step guide to designing a winning UX Portfolio by Ian Fenn
Create Your Portfolio with our RB Co-Pilot!
The RB Co-pilot has been trained with vast datasets encompassing User Experience research, drawing from millions of proprietary sources.
Happy crafting!
The RB Team