10 components of a world class portfolio maker

Everybody said I need to have a portfolio to get a design job. That's what my senior said. That's what my junior also said. That's what my faculties also said. That's what industry people also said. Is it really required or have you ever asked yourself, am I good in portfolio making? Is it really required when you have that kind of a clarity? If you wanted to go ahead in making the portfolio, yes, I'm going to be breaking down 10 different components of a world class portfolio. Again, if you're questioning still, I don't think this podcast is right now not useful. You have to first make it sure you are clarified. You need to build your portfolio. Then this piece of information and the 10 elements and components which I'm going to give you is going to add value. Okay, so now let's dive deep into the 10 components of a world class portfolio maker. Welcome guys, welcome. This is Jagdish. Thank you for staying tuned with me in Design for Change podcast. Thank you for subscribing me and we are going to see how to get crack a design job in less than two months. Hey Jagdish, is it even possible? It's definitely possible if you definitely know how you can implement a 10 component which I'm going to be discussing with you to create excellent portfolio with you. Okay, so guys, see this is not just to hear and just enjoy it or maybe if you don't like it, that's okay, fine. But if you think in a mindset that I'm going to be implementing these 10 things to create an excellent portfolio, then taking action will be easier for you guys. Okay, so with this context, I'm starting this. Okay, see guys, when you wanted to become a great designer in the world, if you wanted to become a great designer in your company at least first, okay, the first thing, what you need to really do is have a very good showcase of your portfolio. You have to show your skills, right? You need to have some kind of a platform to showcase. If you are a largely a big designer, sometimes portfolio is not needed because your products and services will be already in the market. You can say like hey, open this website, it's having 10 lakh views. Hey, look at this app. This has 5,000 people has reviewed it. So that is a portfolio for you. If you're not that stage, yeah, definitely building portfolio is important initially for you. Okay, this is going to break down the clarity of this elements of how you can attract your audience with a greater clarity. Okay, so the first component is clear introduction. See, you need to first show in your portfolio, who are you? What are you really made up of that particular context? Setting and clarification in your introduction is very important. Like when we go and meet up people, like we make a handshake, right? See, I've written a blog about this 10 components. But this podcast is very different from that. Even though if I'm explaining you, but this is more from my personal level which I've gone through. I've talked to more than 12,500 students, guys. Imagine how much amount of inputs I have taken from the students, what mistakes, what do's and what don'ts. That is why this podcast is going to give you a clear navigation in my personal sense also. Okay, so a lot of people miss this. They directly jump into projects, have a clear introduction, highlight your USPs, highlight your skill sets. Having that kind of a two lines for why you do design is going to largely impact more than any of the project work which you're going to show. Okay, so you can watch a lot of good TED talks to just how people introduce themselves, how people really create the 30 second impact. Learn that and try to bring in your portfolio. That would be action step, I would say for clarification of your introduction. Okay, this is the first element. Second element is building your case study. Have your own way of storytelling, guys. A picture is more than thousand words. So you can have a very good case study built. You don't have to put a lot of text and icons and elements. You can just put good visuals, two to three good visuals. That is like most impactful, right? And also people don't have a lot of time to see lot of your project. Guys. Average recruiters takes less than two minutes to review your portfolio. Average recruiters takes less than 40 seconds to review your resume. So if you're not creating that impact, then there's no point, right? So the actionable points would be to choose which elements you wanted to do it and put it. What are the high impact projects you have? Choose it and put it. So that would be a great chance for you to to build your importance of choosing the elements. Okay. Because we need to attract a lot of customers, lot of job recruiters or even pitcher business owners or whatever. This is an important thing. The third is visual storytelling. See guys, you need to learn how to tell your stories. Have you looked at the films? In every film there'll be a villain, there'll be a hero, and there'll be huddles when a hero is going to cross that to beat the villain. And finally he will transform into a different person, right? Same like every project. You will have adults, you will have final destination and you will have a path and the journey to show when you're able to clearly narrate that story. No, people will get attracted for a movie. Why people don't forget movie. Why people stick for three hours to watch that movie. Do you think people will stick for three hours in your portfolio unless until you create that kind of a story narrative? Yeah, I've seen portfolios which makes you stick for hours. That kind of a storytelling has been shown by them. Why don't you try that? See, there are Hollywood movies like Star Wars. There are Hollywood movies like Jurassic park. Like Steven Spielsberger created a story narrative for this, right? So people have learned the storytelling master of storytelling. You don't have to go for filming to do it, but you can read some articles and blogs and podcast how storytelling is done. I've read a book called I forgot the name, but there is an author who told about this storytelling. You need to have a villain. You need to. You need to be the hero. You need to find that hurdles to cross that and find you how and finally how you achieved it. Have you seen the cars? Finally hero will transform into a different guy, even though he will lose the story, but he will transform into a different guy. Right? So when you are able to create that kind of interesting storytelling in your case studies or projects or visuals, you literally go and get hired anywhere. This is the third important component being a visual storyteller. I'll suggest you one book. Guys Present Visual Stories that transform Audiences by Nancy Durade. I've not read this book, but I heard it's really a good book. You can go and watch this out. Okay. Yes. The fourth important element is user centered approach. See, design is not just about aesthetics. It's about creating a functionality, gathering inputs of your feedback of your user and making sure it is following all the laws, making sure it is following all the user centric principles, making sure it is following the guidelines, making sure it is in the usable format. Then it becomes a clear, simple functional design. Okay, you can read a book called Design of Everyday Things by Don Norman. That's one of the elementary book which I even suggest for my student. You can read don't make me Think by Steve Crew. That's also a great what you call materials to start off with. Don't worry, I'll be pasting you this materials at the end of this podcast description. You can take out from there. Okay, so user Centered approach. If you are implementing in your portfolio, it's going to have a great impact in the projects. Even though if you put one project. That's enough, guys. Okay, the next fifth component is design thinking process. Guys. If you are taking notes, definitely you will be able to comprehend with all the points. If you're just listening as a story, I'm sure nothing is going to add value for this. Okay? So don't feel bad. It's really true. Okay, so design thinking process. What are the process which you're having? Show some flowcharts, show some frameworks, show some kind of a simple mind maps which you are doing it. You don't have to create a flowchart in mock up. Mock flow. Mock flow is a great software to create flowchart. You don't have to do that. That's fine. You can just create a simple visual hierarchy and show some flowchart in sketches. Scan that in your camera, in your smartphone and import it in your portfolio. That's enough. So that thinking process is important, outcome is not important, Process is important. When you're making a portfolio, you need to show that journey. I told you, right? Storytelling is important. If you show the process, only the story will be interesting. Don't show the climax directly. Will anybody like the climax? Even though your climax may be great, even even though your film might be great, if you're not knowing the process to get to know there, I'll tell you an example. Okay? Game of Thrones, have you seen the climax? Okay, there is a lot of disputes in that, but let's take seventh episode. Okay. Till seventh episode. I personally like Game of Thrones is really an amazing what you call TV shows to watch. Okay? It's a. It's a very good, impactful what you call serials I've ever seen. If you've seen directly the climax of the seventh episode, I don't think you're going to enjoy anything in that unless until you see that process of season one, season two, how the entire revenge is being taken and everything and how that finally builds up and finally the villain is getting killed or maybe whatever. Okay? I don't want to leak you the. What you call some spoilers and all. But if you watch that process, if you watch that entire flow, then and only it's going to be fruitful. You need to create that design thinking process and show the people also. Then and only they'll be able to connect with your project. Even if you're building a shopping application, even if you're building any kind of application for navigation or that's what people do, right? Nobody does something very different. Some of the designers do it definitely. I'm not telling about them, but if you're creating that story only, even though the normal projects will become interesting, go and apply this guys. This is going to really change the way in which you're thinking about it. You can watch a video on YouTube called Stanford Schools Design Thinking. You will know how the process and journey. And when you are even working in the projects, make sure you take a picture of you. Make sure you ask somebody to record a video of you working. When you show that in your journey, when you show that pictures and videos in your blog or your website or you can even in your show in your behance, the GIF images of that people tend to connect with your work. Oh my God, this guy is really hard working. And then you don't need so much of projects to impress or even get hired or even get pitched for your projects and even to get good freelancing project. So that is the fifth component process. Sixth element is results and impact. See guys, you need to show a measurable impact. You need to show how much improvement has happened compared to earlier click rate. Now it is improved by 30% because of the beautiful visuals. More than 1 million people have downloaded this. So that is an impact which you are showing through your portfolio, right? A clear metrics when you are explaining for your projects that impacts a lot in selecting. You can go and watch a video for Hans Rosling. Okay, see guys, this guy is like amazing. He presents some of the complex data of the global population or where do people live or how much income they make. He gives you like a chocolates. Go and type Hans Rosling. H A N S R Y S L I N G. If you search him, you will see he will explain concepts of like let's say like sustainable development goals and how we are going to reach that through Bill Gates in a very simple way. You can watch that video. It's a lot more interesting. So clear metrication is the sixth important element. Seventh is team collaboration. You need to show something like you collaborated with somebody. Even if you did a project on your own. You can show some of the people like let's say if you are design, if you're interacting with a shopkeeper for your project, if you're interacting with some friends or you may be colleagues, like let's say if you are in a particular learning platform, show that team and collaboration and how you interconnected with them to get the information and data. Because this is very important. When you show the dynamism and when you show that cohesion in your project, people largely expect teamwork. Guys, no company is going to operate with you only individually, right? Every team will have. Every company will have a team. Even though you might be only designer, but you will be integrating with marketing, sales, product research, everything, right? Good developers, testers. There is a book called Collaborative design for Agile Teams by Brian. I've not read this book, but you can definitely watch it out. Okay? It will give you a lot of understanding in that the eighth component is sketches and frameworks. You can show some explorations of your work, you can show some raw nature of your sketches, you can show some wireframes. You can create that product flow. Okay, earlier we talked about process flow, now we are talking about a product flow. So that what you are trying to tell how your product is going to solve the problem, how you're going. How your product is really going to show that clear navigation for the user. So creating wireframes could be using Figma, using Adobe xt. You can do it in PPT also guys, that's not a problem in many job description in many design interview tasks even recruiters ask create a wireframes even in PPT for them. Whatever tool you're going to do is not the point. What you're going to bring out is the point. You don't need lot of visuals here. Think about it. Lot of people. I told you, right? 12,500 people. 80% of the people think by using Figma and Adobe XT only I'm going to be getting job by using some cool renders and 3D models only I'm going to be getting product design job. Absolutely bs. Okay, if you're resonating with me, just say inside you. Yes Jagdish, I resonate with you. Now on I'll change. I cannot hear you in this podcast but I can internally what you call connect with you. Okay, and the ninth important element is make sure your port your. Your portfolio is interactive. Your prototypes is also very much interactive. There are some interactive elements which you can give if you're doing a website. If you're designing some what you call behance element, you can try to create some small interaction for the users and they can also mention like how they are feeling when you're going through your portfolio. You can have a guided tour, you can have a testing insights how you covered in your port in your prototypes and how you incorporated it. So that kind of an interactive elements and feedbacks would be a Greater chance for you. You. Okay, so that might be a ninth important element in your portfolio. The tenth and the last important element is feedback and iteration. You need to really talk to people to get some good feedback and make sure you implemented that and show that you implemented. Don't feel like somebody has improved me, then I have did that, then I will not show to others. I will show only the final thing. No, feel free to tell. You are interactive with others, you got feedback from others, you're more open for changes and then you're more open to improve. This is a soft skill which people expect from you when they take job. And this soft skill, if you're demonstrating in portfolio, you create excellent portfolio impact. You create a world class portfolio which nobody can even touch. This is what is the 10 components, guys. Let me repeat it quickly for you. Okay, so if you've taken a note, definitely you would have had a lot of clarity. The first section, the first component is clear introduction. The second component is building a very good case study. The third component is visually telling story. The fourth component is user centric approach and usability and functionality. Fifth is design thinking process. Sixth is results and the metrication of your impact. How you are going to create an impact for your customer, for your audience, for your designers, for your team, for your client. 7th is collaborating on soft skill nature. 8th is showcasing your sketches and wireframes and creating a flow. Ninth is interactive activeness in your portfolio, in your prototypes. And 10th is feedback and iteration. Okay, this podcast has gone a little longer guys, but I hope you could have understood because if I'm making it very short, then there is no point in delivering on this point. Okay? So thank you so much guys for staying tuned in this particular podcast. I hope if you have taken action by just 10 elements, you're going to make a world class portfolio and you're going to become a world class portfolio maker as well. Okay, so thank you so much guys. Don't just listen, take action, take action. My mentor always says if your life wants to really change, you need to take action and take action now, not later. Taking action later is equal to not taking action at all. Taking action now will make changes for you. Okay, with that being said, I'm going to be closing this podcast and if you feel like connecting with me, you can drop an email to me, subscribe to my podcast channel for further episodes and click notified. And if you feel like this has added value, give me your best time. Okay? Thank you so much for staying tuned in. Thank you so much guys. Take care Bye. That boy look mad as I know that he not come back to the.