Remember that online portfolio? Now it’s time to turn it into a slide deck and present it in person. Beyond the Recruiter Screening, the Portfolio Review it is the most common format and, in my opinion, provides the best signal across all skills (maybe with the exception of the Take-Home Exercise).
Table of Contents
The Portfolio Review is what it sounds like: a review of your portfolio. While the audience size can vary, generally the format is that you present your portfolio of work as a slide deck to a group of product designers. Commonly you will have 30 to 60 minutes with part of that time being used for a Q&A at the end.
It all starts with building out your portfolio presentation. Select two to three projects that showcase you as a well-rounded product designer. Maybe one project is heavy on product thinking and strategy, while another exhibits your visual and motion design skills.
Let's assume you have 30 minutes. Here's how I recommend structuring your presentation:
Project 1
(~15 min)
This should be your flagship project that demonstrates your capabilities as a well-rounded product designer. During this project, you worked closely with the product manager to define and refine the strategy, conducting extensive user research to validate assumptions and identify pain points. You developed comprehensive frameworks and mental models to help the team think through complex problems systematically. You led multiple collaborative design workshops, incorporating feedback from stakeholders across engineering, product, and business teams. Throughout the project lifecycle, you maintained a user-centered approach while balancing business requirements and technical constraints. You owned the entire design process from initial concept sketches through high-fidelity prototypes, user testing, and final implementation. The project culminated in the successful launch of a significant feature or product that demonstrated measurable impact on key business metrics. This project should showcase not just your design skills, but also your ability to think strategically, collaborate effectively, and drive outcomes.
Project 2
(~7 min)
This should be a more focused project that either showcases a smaller, impactful initiative or zooms in on a specific component of a larger endeavor. Rather than providing an exhaustive overview of the entire project scope or detailing every contribution you made, use this opportunity to spotlight one particularly compelling aspect of your work. You might choose to demonstrate your creative process through a series of visual design iterations, showing how you explored different directions before arriving at the final solution. Alternatively, you could showcase innovative interaction patterns you developed, including any sophisticated motion design prototypes that pushed the boundaries of the user experience. The key is to use this segment to deeply examine one area where your specialized skills and creative problem-solving abilities truly shined.
Project 3
(~2 min)
This is a single slide showcasing a high-impact prototype - your chance to deliver an impressive finale that leaves a lasting impression. Think of it as your metaphorical mic drop moment, where you briefly but powerfully demonstrate your ability to execute quickly and drive meaningful results. For example: "Oh, and I should mention that in the final few weeks before our project deadline, our team took the initiative to design and develop a companion Apple Watch application. This extension of our core product not only demonstrated our technical versatility and rapid execution capabilities, but also proved highly successful in the market - garnering 30,000 downloads and directly contributing to a 3% increase in our primary business metric. This exemplifies our ability to identify opportunities, move quickly, and deliver measurable business impact even under tight time constraints."
Between starting 2 minutes late (because it always happens), and leaving 4 minutes for questions, you will just barely fit this all into your 30 minute window.