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There was a popular 80s TV series where one of the main protagonists

consistently said I love it when a plan comes together!

And my guess is that you love seeing your hard work pay off, as well.

Just like our 1980s protagonist, you need a plan for your portfolio.

But to know that your plan has paid off, you need to establish some metrics.

What is a metric?

A metric is a system or standard of measurement, or in the context of your

portfolio, it's your goal, the thing that you're trying to accomplish.

Without it, you won't know if you've been successful at completing your task.

For instance, you might wanna see X number of

social media impressions about your work on your favorite design blogs.

Or, perhaps, you want to see employment as a direct result of your efforts.

These are both examples of success metrics.

Whatever the case, you first want to start with that end result in mind and

work your way backwards to now, in order to plan your steps.

Failure to set metrics could easily mean a body of work that lacks

an overall message, which could certainly confuse your audience.

Let's break down the two success metrics I mentioned before,

social media impressions and employment.

If getting noticed on design blogs is your goal, then consider media outlets that

those authors frequent, and how they recognize their favorite content.

Is that content innovative in processes used, like design thinking,

or even newer co-creation methods?

Is it timely in its content, like blockchain or quantum computing?

Or is it chocked full of personality,

like it's copywritten from a very honest, human perspective?

An early metric for your social media impressions plan could be having your

work showcased on a local blog with the intention of moving up to regional,

national, or international blogs.

Either way, think about how you can start small and then move up.

Let's talk employment now.

You will immediately need to research the companies you admire and

would hope to work for.

What do they do that makes them stand out to you?

Remember that they won't be looking for

an exact copy of the folks who are already working there.

But they will care about whether you can handle processes or

methods they employ on a regular basis.

For instance, larger companies will likely wanna know how you work with a remote team

or whether you can use methods like Agile Scrum or Kanban boards.

All of that is definitely process that can be included in your portfolio.

An early success metric for future employment could be moving forward into

the first round of portfolio screenings with a local company.

With the long-term metric of making it through your

dream job's portfolio screening process.

In the end, if you want your plan to come together,

you need to have made a plan in the first place.

I'll see you in the next video.