The portfolio presentation that got me hired as a design manager

[@PedroMarques]

This is awesome! Presenting yourself as a leader gets harder the more you develop into the craft, this is something I talk to people a lot about... Managers, Directors, VPs... everyone struggles at this

[@starogre]

yeah it's hard to balance between craft, strategy, leadership/people skills. you can lead by example and having amazing craft. or lead by enabling teams to upgrade and perform better, etc etc

[@nikeadesanoye6702]

You’re amazing…. the last 3 slides is something new that I learnt here and I love it. Thank you so much FemKe for all that you do for the design space

[@femkedesign]

Thanks for watching Nike!

[@damiojetunji]

Congratulations on this role, Femke! Thank you for sharing such insightful tips 👏🏾👏🏾

[@femkedesign]

Thank you so much!!

[@yashshinde-6625]

Hey there!!! Thanks alot for the vdo! It's brings the clarity on what needs to be presented in what way!!

[@AntoniaMarcella]

Thanks so much for sharing this Femke! You’ve literally reinforced everything I have been considering when applying for this level and showing it can work even without multiple years of management experience. Congratulations on your new design manager role, so well deserved!

[@femkedesign]

Thanks so much!!

[@justmehhl]

This is awesome Femke!! Been following you and seeing your growth into a Manager Level role really inspires me. Great Job and congratulations!

[@rimpybhatia1395]

Hi. Thanks a lot for sharing your presentation work. While creating a portfolio as a design manager, I was wondering how that would that differ from a designer portfolio. You answered all my questions. Your work & presentation is awesome by the way !

[@secession77]

THANK YOU so much for sharing this. This helps me with my mental breakdown as I struggle with getting the job despite having 6 years of experience 😢

[@femkedesign]

Aw no! That sounds rough. Sorry to hear that but glad this video helps!

[@spiritofsissi]

Dear Femke! I have been watching your videos for quite some time now and declared you secretly my personal design mentor Now it's the time to say Thank You for helping me land my new role as a UX/UI Designer and build more confidence as a designer. Thank you from here to Canada and back!

[@femkedesign]

Aw thank you so much!!!! That's so awesome to hear, congrats on your new role :)

[@underscoreroa]

Great work on delivering a great breakdown of your presentation! One q - when submitting the initial application, most posts ask for a link to your portfolio. Do you send the deck you share here as well as links to the Figma file? TIA and congratulations on the new role!!!

[@שירשיר-ש3ק]

Femke you are amazing. Thank you 🎊

[@mytrung]

Thanks as always for sharing your work with us!

[@femkedesign]

yay you're welcome!!

[@RajivNarayanan]

Awesome video. Really helpful to create my own presentation. Thank you!❤❤❤❤😊😊

[@femkedesign]

You are so welcome!

[@hollympriest]

Literally amazing as always. So inspiring how you approach things differently and creatively!

[@femkedesign]

Thank you so much!

[@Camimorales97]

The feedback slide is such a good idea! Thanks a lot!

[@femkedesign]

You're welcome!

[@vintage21]

Congrats on your new gig! Ive been on the hunt myself and your videos have been helping me get through the many rounds of interviews 🥵

[@femkedesign]

Good luck!

[@АртемКукишев-у8ю]

Please tell us about the process of creating personas, what they are for and how to use them in general)))

[@femkedesign]

I will in my upcoming course! Join the waitlist here: airtable.com/shromw20hDOiouHyB

[@MANJEETCHAURASIA]

Very helpful, learnt lot from here! Thanks for creating

[@uxtshili]

Great video! I will definitely be putting these tips into practice. Thank you

[@femkedesign]

Glad it was helpful!

[@alexandrabohmer1268]

How did you get around NDAs for showing your work (assuming you were under NDA at your previous roles)? Especially showing things like Figma files etc.?

[@femkedesign]

I am able to share anything that is publicly shipped work. I recommend you focus on this type of work, as unshipped work isn't as impactful in the context of an interview. That said if you do want to show something that isn't public or shipped, I do so in confidence - meaning that the interviews themselves are private and confidential anyway, so there's no risk of information leaking. You can always add a slide at the start to state that this is private work.

[@fitspotv4401]

@@femkedesign This is absolutely bogus... you are violating IP rights and disclosing internal information by showing the files, you are totally violating NDA if you signed one. It is one thing to show work that is public via the product, but showing internal Figma files is as if the devs would show the code. You are irresponsible and could get into legal trouble and sadly you are even telling others to do so.

[@MrConway007]

Great video Femke,excellent quality content - as always! Honest question though, does it matter if I personally never want to become a manager and always want to remain a senior UX/UI designer even in my 40s and 50s? and beyond

[@thehearingaid]

Nope. Personally, i think manager roles should be adjacent in hierarchical terms. It often requires a different skillset and there is nothing wrong with that. This is an issue I find in a lot of companies where a promotion = manager, but you're usually promoted because you are good at the core role but not necessarily good as a manager.

[@elazaryoo7521]

wow...thank you for sharing your brilliant job! and I was wondering what is the font in your portfolio??

[@psh.pamela]

How do you incorporate all the additional sides about yourself when you are in a limited amount of time? I rarely am given the time to do an "about me" or "this is why you should hire me" slide.

[@LiaMarlundeen]

Hi, this was so insightful! I was wondering what you used to design this presentation and where you got all the fun icons?

[@femkedesign]

Figma! psxid.figma.com/31b1ifcmx6eb

[@lexvalishvili]

Brilliant work and well deserve position 👏

[@femkedesign]

Thanks so much Lex!

[@SamanehShirzad]

Hiii was learning so much from you Femke! When you show high-level overview of all your projects - do you think of changing step 2 with step 3? I think before setting a persona we can't know about the principle. or in the other way could you more explain the principle?

[@romanlanda]

Thank you for sharing Femke! This is very helpful!

[@femkedesign]

Glad it was helpful!

[@jenny-bounmivilay]

Congratulations Femke! Thank you for documenting your journey and sharing your experience. And of course, good luck in your new role!! P.S. you inspired me to create my youtube channel

[@femkedesign]

Thanks! Congrats on the launch of your channel!!!

[@chiv7002]

Congrats on your new role as a Manager! This video is super insightful, especially the last 3 slides. Wondering how you share the work initially with companies. Do you share the work via an online portfolio, a different variant of the presentation deck or a PDF version of it?

[@raphaelworotikan]

This is so helpful! Thanks Femke.

[@starogre]

Thanks a bunch for this, very helpful! I organized a few of my slides the same as yours - in terms of columns with text under each element. I got some feedback saying it's too much text on the single slide to digest. Have you gotten similar feedback before? Are you presenting yours by summarizing quickly, or reading the exact text on the slide to help the viewer?

[@femkedesign]

I haven't had that feedback - I never read the slides word for word. I tell the story in my own way, not by reading out the slides.

[@xxxaslhrmln]

super useful! Thanks a lot for the great content😊

[@femkedesign]

You're welcome!

[@AbdulWahab-pk4jx]

This is great thanks for making it 😊

[@femkedesign]

Thank youuuu

[@SPOONKRUST]

Total gold. Thank you!

[@mikeparkerf3]

Thank you so much, im a SR really hoping to grow into a management role so this is super valuable! Are you ever available on something like ADPlist or any mentoring sessions? Id pay

[@femkedesign]

Yes! Here: superpeer.com/femke

[@rishikumar3144]

This was really helpful 🙏 Thanks for sharing

[@sachin.animusical]

Hi Femke, v informative video :). Few questions... Where did you design your entire presentation? If it was Figma, in which format did you share your portfolio with the recruiters? Was it a PDF or a ppt?

[@leonardopanhan]

This is awesome! Great content, Femke! Question, would you use this file also to send on your application or only use it on the portfolio review phase?

[@carovillah]

Thank you for this video! I really like how you managed to design this experience for your interviewers. It is practical, clear and represents your personal touch of warm and joy. I have a question: What role would let a designer keep creating designs and also stay closer to the development process of it in the frontend dev area? Does that exists? I am curious.

[@mingchenye]

Thank you so much for sharing this! What font do you use for your presentation? It looks super nice and clean!

[@femkedesign]

Sofia pro!

[@secession77]

In many cases the companies require a link to portfolio within the application. And there are hundreds of candidates. Do you think this slide deck would work to get invited for an interview? What would you recommend?

[@femkedesign]

You can totally link to a slide deck - I've seen many folks do that. I think it can work :)

[@Bwanangugi]

This is fire thanks for sharing🔥

[@mahshidzamani8579]

Thank you for the thorough walkthrough! quick question. What is the typography name for your presentation?

[@femkedesign]

Do you mean the font I'm using? It's Sofia Pro.

[@mahshidzamani8579]

@@femkedesign Yes exactly! thanks 🌿

[@walterchidike6394]

Thank you so much for this❤️

[@femkedesign]

You're welcome!!!

[@m1y912]

Hey Femke, thanks for sharing such a great video!! Can you share if you applied for the job with a website portfolio/resume or is this the only design slide deck you shared with the recruiter? Thank you!

[@masha3365]

Learning so much from you Femke¡ When you show high level overview of all your projects - what if they ask you to tell them about other project that is not the case study you were going to show. How would you respond¿?

[@femkedesign]

That's an odd request - do you mean in the interview they ask to see something else? I've never heard of that happening.

[@joyusagi]

Hello femke, may I ask how you'd share projects that weren't published yet to public or when you signed a nda?

[@femkedesign]

I don't share work publicly unless the project is live and launched.

[@agadil_08]

Huuge thanks! 🙏🏾 Very helpful

[@femkedesign]

Glad it helped!

[@shimingxiao8811]

Hi Femke, thanks for sharing!! Your UX videos are always helpful!! When you send google forms for feedback, do you have any suggestion about how to ask for feedback effiently? Or could you please share your structure of asking for feedback? Thanks so much!

[@spanish2succeed445]

Great content and your videos are so engaging. What tools do you use to create your videos? ( 5:58, 8:12 and 9:35) I am starting a course to become a Instructional Design and I would love to create a demo for my portfolio. Thank a lot :)

[@TotallyHonestReviews]

Hi Femke, I really like this video. Were you ever asked to send some of your case studies to the company before the interview with them? If so, do you usually send them in the same format as in this portfolio presentations you show to us or do you send something different? 🙂

[@paritejdan]

Congrats 🍾

[@femkedesign]

Thanks Pari!

[@TheShrestha01]

Hey, would you say this would be the file or the format in which you'd be sharing your portfolio in, when you initially apply? Or is this another version you created after bagging the interview?

[@unezakbar]

Great to see how designers present their work for interviews. I do a lot of portfolio reviews my self and have done fair share of hiring . Also wondering you say you were hired as a design manager but Linked in says other wise. So are you a design manager or a lead designer?

[@nikeadesanoye6702]

Maybe she is yet to fix that on LinkedIn

[@femkedesign]

I made this video before my first day at Gusto. When I started I learned the title they use is 'design lead', however the responsibilities are the same of that of a manager. Semantics really.

[@unezakbar]

Thanks and keep up the good work and keep inspiring 🙌

[@indrestrazdaite261]

Hi Femke! Love your content! 🤩🤩 I am myself in this UX Research field and been looking to see what you could recommend in terms of the laptop. As a Designer I wonder if you would recommend to have a 14inch or 16inch laptop to work on when doing a daily tasks, such as conducting or analysing the research? 🌻

[@mariarogers1267]

Throwing my two cents in here as Senior Product Designer who does research work: 16 inch can be super helpful if you are deep in the pixel work of designing, creating wireframes, very detailed work, etc. and you are on the go a lot so it's the only screen you have. If you're getting this to mostly use alongside a monitor and/or for mostly Zoom calls/writing docs or presentations/communicating with others, etc. you will be fine with a 14 inch. Hope that helps a little!

[@indrestrazdaite261]

@@mariarogers1267 thanks a lot!!!

[@daviktran4742]

Thanks for sharing your perfect experience ^^

[@femkedesign]

Of course :)

[@aloysiofranca]

I logo your vídeos. I learn a lot!

[@egbeyemiridwan7389]

Awesome!

[@mdwahid8625]

Hi! Would you like to share your presentation files? It will help us for creating a great presentation. Thanks

[@femkedesign]

I will do in future :)

[@mdwahid8625]

@@femkedesign Thanks

[@jaloliddinesonboyev]

Great Femke!

[@justindeblois115]

Hopefully this will see someone's eyes 👁👁 Is it common for folks to get asked to send a link to their portfolio presentation? What are our thoughts on that? Is it a red flag? I was asked to send it over after giving my presentation and I did but was wondering if that was common for people here. I know interview processes are all over the place right now for some reason, so it might just be that as well.

[@femkedesign]

I think it's fairly common! What would your concerns be?

[@edwardamaral6819]

I find it crazy that designer like Femke think they are Senior after only 5 years. You're not even a good designer until you hit 7 or 8 years and senior at 10. 5 years is mid level at best.

[@femkedesign]

I don't "think" I am - my job title literally is Senior. Growth and levels can differ hugely across industries, companies etc so everyone has a different journey! Thanks for sharing your opinion on the topic :)

[@njengathegeek]

I have never seen this anywhere else, how lucky am I

[@femkedesign]

yay!