Tips from Marc Fonteijn
In the video below, Marc, the host of the Service Design Show, shares with you his approach on how you can build a design portfolio that gets you hired when you apply to Service Design positions.
If you are up to a longer form video, you can watch this conference by the Service Design Network Dallas chapter about "Service Design Education: Portfolio & Career Choices" still with our lovely Marc:
Marc also wrote a well documented blog post about that specific topic. In summary he says:
First of all, show me clearly how you approach a challenge.
Show you can learn quickly and adapt to new environments.
Know what it means to balance the different interests of different stakeholders.
Demonstrate your ability for critical thinking and reflection.
Make sure your portfolio shows how your personality has influenced the project.
Tips from people who recruit Service Designers
These tips come from a long 30-minute read article where 20 thought-leaders of the Service Design world shared their tips about how to get hired as a service designer.
What I always want to see when I am about to hire a service designer is a portfolio with a project. I don’t care if it is something fictional from school; what I like to see is how the person thinks and if he/she is able to apply the methodologies with a critical thinking.
— Priscila Williams, Service Design & UX Design Manager at Citibanamex
I like to see how they apply the service design methodologies, but more than focusing on how well executed are they, rather explore why did they choose to use one versus another.
— Priscila Williams, Service Design & UX Design Manager at Citibanamex
My biggest tip for anyone is to have a portfolio of 1-3 projects that focuses less on visuals/outputs/artefacts and more on process.
— Patrick Bach, Director, Service Design at CIBC
By all means demonstrate that you understand service design as a method – show journeys and personas in a portfolio.
— Joel Bailey, Director at EY Seren
Additional reading
Here a list of articles written by others with their own tips about how to make a good Service Design portfolio:
"How to make a winning strategic /service design portfolio" written by Diego Mazo
"How to create a portfolio to apply for a design role in government" written by Charlotte Downs – Designer, GDS and Martin Jordan – former Head of Service Design
"Thoughts on Design Portfolios" by Jon Kolko a key figure of the Service Design education world.
"What Makes A Good Service Design Portfolio?" written by the Service Design Lab of the Aalborg University
"How to make a Service Designer’s Portfolio" written by Raija Kaljunen, Master’s Degree student in Service Design at Laurea
"How can I build a service design portfolio?" a conversation on Quora
"What does a service design portfolio look like?" another conversation on Quora
Clay Wiedemann, a Design Leader and ex-frog design guy did 92 portfolio reviews and shared on Linkedin a reflexion about all these portfolio reviews.