Making a UX Research Portfolio: A How-To Guide

Creating a UX Research (UXR) portfolio can feel intimidating.

It feels like it will require many anxious nights, struggling to come up with the perfect descriptions. 

Writing and re-writing. Some hair-pulling, if you’re especially stuck.

However, with the right approach, creating a portfolio you’re proud of will be methodical.  Here’s a step-by-step guide to help you build a standout UXR / research portfolio that lands you your dream role.

UX Researchers are some of the most important people on a product team.

And in most companies, we’re some of the highest ROI teammates. They support many initiatives and a single UXR can keep dozens of product managers, designers, and engineers busy. Which means their impact can quickly rise to multiple millions of revenue lift.

So keep your chin up, get ready to show how you can contribute to the team, and let’s dig in.

Key Components of a UXR Portfolio

Your portfolio should be concise, visually appealing, and focused on quality over quantity. Here are the essential elements:

A Biography (1 Slide)

First, share your path into UX and UX Research. How did you wind up in UX research? Or, if you’re just breaking into the field, wanting to do more of it? So many of us in the insights and research space Then, go beyond listing your background, any courses or academic credentials. Share your perspective on the world and what drives your passion for user research. Explain who you are, what you value, and why you do what you do. 

I think a fun exercise for your biography is to take a stand on some issue that resonates with you and your work. Here are some that could be a part of great bios:

- People are weirder than we often think

- People sometimes DO need to be protected from a big tech company. The algorithmic ‘For You’ pages are like the junk food of social life online.

- People lie on surveys (unintentionally and intentionally)

- Mobile interaction design will be here for quite a while (if you're a VR, XR, and AR naysayer).

Case Studies (2-3 Projects)

These are the heart of your portfolio. 

Two case studies is likely enough. 

Three is perfect. Four is pushing it. 

Five is (almost always) too many. Avoid overwhelming reviewers with too many projects. 

How to structure your case studies.

‍Each case study should tell a clear story about your research journey. Employers care about how you think as much as the final outcome. Focus on demonstrating your research process and decision-making. Each case study should be 2-5 slides long, depending on the project’s complexity. Focus on showcasing your research process, problem-solving skills, and impact.

Use this structure.

1. Context / ‘The Assignment’

• Who needed answers? Identify who initiated the project (e.g., CEO, design leader) 
• What problem were they trying to solve? Clearly state what they wanted to know.
• Note constraints you had - You should focus on timeline, budget, creative cycles, existing understandings, data (its presence or lack).

The constraints can turn your case study from a poorly-formatted story, one that goes “First we did X, second, we did Y, then we did some Z,” to something much more powerful. 

In good stories, characters (YOU!) have challenges or even enemies. In your story, the timeline or the lack of focus or some other fact can be the enemy to vanquish! And the story of the case study is the tale of how a character solves the puzzle, fights the enemy and/or saves the world.

2. Methods

Describe the methods you used without textbook definitions—focus on why you chose them.

Highlight any nuances in your approach. For example, maybe you used customer service data or fresh surveys to identify dissatisfied users before conducting interviews comparing satisfied and less-satisfied customers.

3. Results

Share key findings.

Findings are highlighted through visuals like charts, personas, or journey maps.

If there was a usability component to your project, you may have annotated screenshots, or “before and after” screens or flows. Or data from user paths (from tools like Maze, Mixpanel, Pendo, etc), which are also very inviting visuals for readers to scan.

4. Business Implications

Connect your research to business outcomes (e.g., improved user retention or reduced churn).

What value did your research deliver? 

Not all UX research will have dollar outcomes.

Only when you get to research existing products or existing journeys will you even conceivably be able to come up with a dollars-and-cents calculation of how much the research saved time/money or earned. It’s the holy grail of a lot of product research — and when you have the right situations and right data, the numbers can be eye-popping. If your case study covers a platform with tens of thousands or hundreds of thousand of users, saving a few minutes or increasing a click through rate by a tiny percentage or increasing an average order value by a few pennies will quickly deliver business value in the millions. 

So if can calculate the value, do so! Even a estimate or redacted directional number can be impressive.

If you don’t have dollars, show the value of research in other ways.  Using research insights to finally get an MVP into production, tightening the company’s circle around its ideal customer, or creating a better customer segmentation all have powerful impact to a business or non-profit.

And most of all, show that you can “understand the assignment” and translate insights into actionable recommendations.

Lastly, be prepared to answer a key interviewer question about each case study — “What would you do differently?” Interviewers and teams often want to see a potential new colleague think on her feet. And have handy your conclusions about the pros and cons of what methods you selected and what you learned from the experience. 

You did learn something about yourself, the company, or the method itself during the assignment, right?

Need an example portfolio? Send me an email and I’ll send you a portfolio example.