How to conduct an end-of-internship UX portfolio review
Mentoring your intern through the portfolio process
As the summer draws to a close, many UX interns will return to their educational programs excited to share with their peers and prospective employers what they learned over the course of their internship.
What story will they tell? This is a pivotal moment to consider, as you (the mentor) and your company stand a lot to gain through this word-of-mouth publicity:
- Is the company good to work for?
- Is the work meaningful and inspiring?
- Is this team supportive of new members?
A portfolio project is a tangible way for an intern to demonstrate the impact of their work. He or she will almost certainly produce a portfolio piece about the work they contributed — with or without your input. In the field of UX, portfolios get you a foot in the door; if you don’t have one, you’re not going to get an interview. They need this portfolio project to get them their next gig.
This is where you, as a mentor, come in: How might they most effectively share their story? What shouldn’t they share? A good review session can help the intern improve their storytelling, increase goodwill (even if you part ways), and protect your company from proprietary information leaks.
Portfolio rules to follow
Everyone has their own house rules about what you can and can’t talk about in a portfolio. You and the intern should discuss what is, and what is not, appropriate to include in their work.
I typically use the following:
You can show images of the product once it is live
This almost goes without saying, but it is the most important: you can only share work that has gone live. Don’t expose pre-release work.
If your work was influenced by research, consider annotating the final version with callouts as to why you made the decisions. This way you can adeptly protect the research findings, while still sharing how research shaped the final designs.
If the work is still incognito, be mindful of the scheduled launch date and follow up with the intern to tell them when the project they worked on goes live. Squarespace and Wix both offer ways to password protect individual pages, which is an easy way to keep work under wraps in the meantime.
Process pictures are allowed
Process pictures focus on the person doing the work — for example, arranging sticky notes from a brainstorming session, sketching in a notebook, or working at a computer. Pictures like these show that the intern is involved in the process.
You can talk about the tools and methods you used
Tools and methods are an important way to demonstrate the types of skills you have. Think Axure, Sketch, OmniGraffle, UserTesting.com, card sorts, and surveys… the list goes on! Unless how you are building your products is your company’s secret sauce (hint: unlikely), this is a great thing to include.
Proprietary findings may NOT be shared
This may err on the UX research side, but it’s important to note that insights produced for the company take may give them a competitive advantage in the industry must remain private.
Discussing what is propriety information and what is shareable with a wider audience will be an important topic for your portfolio review.
Gray area: the numbers
I typically say that percentage increases or decreases may be shared, but not raw numbers. For example, you might say that the redesigned webpage increased conversion by 18%, but not an exact number of customers because you might extrapolate total sales.
Similar to proprietary findings, you should discuss what is appropriate to disclose.
How to implement the portfolio review
In the first week of an intern starting at your company, clearly define the project(s) they will be working on. Tell the intern that they are allowed, even encouraged, to produce a portfolio piece about their work.
Bonus: do you have multiple UX interns? Do the portfolio review sessions together so that they can see how each person represents the work and learn from one another.
Pick portfolio review dates
- Select a draft portfolio review date with your intern about 4–5 weeks before their internship will end. Send a meeting invitation with clear action items.
- Schedule a final portfolio review date about 2 weeks before the end of the internship.
Take photos and screenshots during the course of the summer
It’s important each portfolio piece to have images. The intern is responsible for selecting their own (vetted) screenshots. You can support them by taking photos during the internship and scheduling a posed photoshoot for any missing images the project may need (presentations, working at a desk, etc).
Review the draft portfolio
There are three important topics to discuss to the draft portfolio review:
- Is the story compelling? Recommend changes to improve the quality of the narrative.
- Are the images appropriate? Help them obtain any missing images.
- Is the content share-able? Require proprietary information be removed.
Be clear on the difference between required changes (e.g. removing proprietary information which can’t be shared) and recommended changes (e.g how might you better communicate how you worked with stakeholders?).
Take notes during this meeting so everyone is clear with the next steps and what should be delivered in the final portfolio review.
Review the final portfolio
This is the magic moment! Ensure that the intern is satisfied with the story they will be able to share and make sure all required changes have been implemented to your satisfaction. Assuming you have another week or so before the conclusion of their internship, you still have a grace period to recommend any final changes.
With a modest amount of time and effort, the portfolio review results in a win-win-win situation: for the company’s reputation, for you as their mentor, and — most importantly — for the intern and their future career.
Supporting new members of the UX community is a passion I hope we share. If you enjoyed this article, feel free to clap 👏👏👏 to help others find it.
