Aastha Gaur’s Post

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Sr. Director, UX Google Maps | Ariana what are you doing here

My top 3 project selection tips for design leaders doing portfolio presentations: 1. Pick projects that have a good mix of what you did directly plus what the team did. Very rarely is anyone looking for a pure people manager while hiring a design leader. Your personal contributions need to stand out in your work. It doesn’t have to be IC work (but if you do that, show it). It could be a doc you wrote, an insight you uncovered, a strategy you formulated etc. Differentiate between what you did yourself, what you directed the team to do, and things the team might have driven independently. Make this distinction clear as you present your portfolio. People want to see you can do smart stuff yourself, can direct a team well, but will also build a high functioning team that does good work. Also, if you would like I can do a separate post in these 3 modes of operation for any design leader. 2. Pick projects based on the role you’re applying for. It doesn’t have to be and most certainly won’t be a 100% match. But for example, if what the team needs is scaling a successful product, pick examples where you enabled scale. This needs to be deeper than “I’m applying for fintech so here’s another fintech project”. Your project selection should show you understand the challenges for the company and have transferrable skills. 3. Pick projects where you can show both macro and micro user insights. Scale the macro according to your seniority and level. For example, if you’re applying for a Director role, you better have projects that show you driving user insights at Director scale (for instance something that drove resourcing decisions). At the same time, the project should also show micro insights appropriate to role. For example, key interaction design flows redone by your team for the goal. Or even things like font/color selection and how that drove impact. Use these guidelines and apply the filter for what fits with your past experience and this new role. If you have the same portfolio presentation for completely different roles, something is off somewhere. You only need to present 2-3 projects in a presentation, pick the most appropriate ones. If this sounds complicated and like a lot of work, it is. Project selection is THE foundation for how your presentation will play out.

Sahil Pandita

UX Manager @Google ✼ Building AI/ML Platforms | Ex-Gojek

1mo

I'm loving these insights Astha ❤️ please keep sharing 🙌🏼 What do you think are some rubrics or signals to keep in mind or ask while evaluating roles in different orgs? What are some of your top questions to uncover insights on the role?

Aniruddha Kadam

Product/UX Design Leadership (x-Google, x-LinkedIn, x-Shopify)

1mo

This is such great & golden advice. Yes to a separate post for 3 modes of operation for a design leader please.

Taiyu Liu

Principal Product Designer @ Whiz Tech | Specialized in AI, SaaS, B2B/B2C | Ex-@Apple @Lime

1mo

Thanks for sharing these useful insights, Aastha! I found myself constantly failing in this stage when interviewing for a new job, got bunch of feedbacks such as "you don't feel senior enough" or "we don't see your background fitting into this role"; currently I do feel a little bit stuck about what to do next, so I was wondering what are your thoughts regarding these two types of critique?

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Wayne Robins

Software exec • xGoogle & BCG

1mo

Yes! You're the best. Thanks for sharing the wisdom. I'd love to see a separate post in the 3 modes if it isn't too much trouble?

Robb Beal

Digital Product and Experience Leader | Startups: $75M Total Investment and 3 Exits

1mo

Nice, Aastha! More like this. I'm of the mind that design leadership is about establishing /principles/ that allow teams to execute with autonomy. Would be great to see future discussion of that or clarification if your use of "insight" is equivalent. Also, my experience has been that most leaders have periods of intense participation in strategic projects, with early-project participation being common. The art of this is to know when to eject. Would be interesting to hear then your thoughts of principles for ejecting.

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Dhyan Suman

Senior UX Designer | 10+ Years Experience | IITB IDC & NID | Humanising Technology

1mo

Great advice Astha! Thanks for sharing this knowledge.

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Asmita Misra

Designing cloud observability at Microsoft Azure

1mo

Great post! I’d love to learn more about the modes of operations too !

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