What makes a great UX Portfolio? Learning points from the Portfolio review

Didn't get time to watch the video? Here's the key takeaways.

• The first page of your portfolio needs a picture of you to draw me in.
• It also needs contact details: email, phone, Linkedin, Twitter.
• If you aspire to be a UX heavyweight, you should also include your blog/Medium posts so I can see you as a thought leader.
• Page 2 should be your bio: don't make the mistake of putting this as the last page of the portfolio.
• I like to see your philosophical approach to design in the bio. Just one or two sentences, but it shows me what you aspire to in the best of all possible worlds.
• Try to keep the portfolio to about 10 pages or so. More than 20 pages is definitely too long.
• If you feel the need to include a table of contents, your portfolio is too long.
• If you can't get to under 20 pages, stop creating a 'generic' portfolio. Instead, try customising the case studies for the job you're applying for.
• Try to keep the case studies to a single page. Multi-page case studies are confusing (it's not clear where one case study ends and the next begins).
• If you must have multi-page case studies, think very carefully how you will distinguish one from the other (e.g. by use of colour).
• Don't just use the brand/client/product name as the only header for the case study. Also include a one-sentence sub-header that contextualises it.
• The best case studies have four sections: The brief; What you did; Key tools and deliverables; the results / business impact.
• Outstanding case studies include descriptions of what went wrong / what you would do differently next time (because this demonstrates you are a reflective practitioner).
• The 'business impact' section of the case study is critical: show how you moved the needle on important business metrics or at least how you improved effectiveness, efficiency and/or satisfaction.
• Design case studies for skim reading: headings, bulleted lists, bold text for key points. Don't assume people will read the whole page, even if it's short. Imagine you have 10 seconds of attention per page.
• Don't have a page that shows ONLY a key deliverable (like a persona). Try to keep photos of deliverables to no more than 25% of the page. Instead, describe what you did and the impact it had.
• Consider ordering your case studies to show your expertise in all parts of the user centred design process: for example, a case study on communicating the user experience vision; then a case study on creating personas; then one on developing a user journey map; then one on setting usability metrics; then an IA study; then an interaction design / prototyping study; then something on usability testing; finish off with analytics (e.g. multivariate testing). It may take a few years to get it that complete but it gives you a road map.
• At the end, it's nice to see a list of the training courses / conferences you've attended / presented at.
• That's a good place to put some testimonials too.