UX designers are positively gushing when they talk about their skills and responsibilities, but when it comes to concrete accomplishments, the reservoir of words seems to dry up. The problem, I believe, is that many of us haven’t taken the time to think about what we’ve actually achieved on the job and what kinds of results we’re getting. We’re not good at recognizing our own accomplishments.
An accomplishment in its simplest form is: what you did and how well you did it. Where “how well” ideally means how it benefited the company.
In this post, I’m going to focus on what you did. A second post focuses on how well you did it.
» Deadlines and deliverables
The first place to look for accomplishments is in your deadlines and deliverables. Did you deliver what you promised on schedule? Did you exceed the client’s expectations by delivering more than you promised? If so, you might write about it like this:
- Exceeded client expectations by delivering five screen designs instead of two.
Were you asked to do an impossible amount of work, so you busted your butt to get it done on time? Were you well organized and able to get the project done early?
- Worked weekends and evenings to meet a challenging 6-week development schedule.
Notice how short these accomplishments are? I’m not describing which screens were delivered, or why there was a 6-week development schedule. You don’t have to get into a lot of detail—you just have to write enough to pique the interest of the hiring manager. Believe me, I’ll call you if I want to learn more. Which is exactly what you want.
» Launches and releases
Have you launched a new website or released a new version of the software? These are major milestones and if your work contributed to a successful launch or release, that’s something every hiring manager wants to know. For example:
- Designed a new membership portal for AARP that launched on schedule without a hitch.
Of course, the launch of a new portal is the work of a team, not an individual. But it’s perfectly within your rights to claim a piece of that success. Just be prepared for the hiring manager to ask what you did specifically to help make it a successful and trouble-free launch.
» Targets and goals
Maybe your team has targets they need to reach, or your manager has given you individual performance goals. Reaching goals and targets is something every company wants to see from employees. Your accomplishment might looks like this:
- Met our spending reduction target by doing more work in-house and adopting a lean UX process.
- Conducted onsite and remote interviews with at least 4 customers per month, exceeding my performance goal to reach 30 customers in the year.
» Feedback and performance reviews
Have you received positive feedback or praise for your work? Positive feedback is a great result, especially if it’s feedback from your leadership, customers, or clients.
- Led a workshop for Dept. of Homeland Security employees that received an A+ satisfaction rating.
Your performance review is another great resource to mine for accomplishments. After all, it’s where the company tell you what it values (or doesn’t value) about your contribution:
- Created a new workflow for product returns that management praised as “smart, friendly, and fast.”
