Work projects on portfolio that don't necessarily have a process

[kokona]

Hello all,

I am a UX designer who worked for a company for almost one year after graduation. Currently, I am thinking about changing my job because of the low UX maturity of the company. I’ve worked on one or two projects and they all launched, but they didn’t necessarily have a process which is one of the reasons I want to change my job (if there is step 1-5 in a design process, the team jumped to 4 and 5, with no research and no access to users). I am building my portfolio right now, but I am struggling to write about those projects because there are many problems in terms of the process and communication between teams, and I don’t think they are strong enough to put on my portfolio.

My design team also realized this problem, and I am currently working on developing a good process to implement and propose a plan to better collaborate between teams. I could write that, but it’s not necessarily a good design project. Since I already worked for a year, it’s also not appropriate to put my school projects. Any advice or suggestions? Thanks in advance!

[nikonick47]

Hi kokona!
I’m also a designer working with the same case as you did in my company. because of the company’s large scale but premature concept about UX process. so the management often prioritize about the end result for the product rather than conducting the whole process right

And what I can suggest is maybe to work on redesign project of well-established site. It can shows your creativity and thought process in UI/UX design.

[mnicholdesign]

That’s the real world and hiring managers will understand, you just have to highlight your UX thinking in a different way.
I recommend walking them through the “process” that was followed to get to the launched product(s), but then in your summary talk about what you would have done differently if you’d been able to employ more UX methodologies, and how you think that might have changed the outcome. Also talk about future iterations of the existing product. What UX methodologies would you use to improve the product as it exists now… etc.

[Kaveri_Rangappa]

There is a difference between the step-by-step process that is presented in the portfolio and the real world. There is no step-by-step process in the real world and we happen to revisit the previous steps frequently something called as iterations. Working and colloborating with so many teams in a multi-disciplinary enviornment one cannot actually have a process in place. Even if it is there it is not followed to the word. If I were to be your place I would focus on the Research thinking process and the design thinking and your approach to solving the problems and the end results of the approach. Were you able to make any impact on the stakeholders? Were you able to convince them if revisions are necessary and bolster your findings with evidence. That is how I will tackle the situation.