When you do not yet have product job experience, a portfolio is your proof. It shows employers how you think: how you find a problem, gather evidence, decide and learn. Many adverts for product and analyst roles ask for experience you may not have; a strong portfolio is the best substitute you can build with free tools.
What a product portfolio contains
Two or three case studies are enough. Quality beats quantity. Good sources from this roadmap:
- Your manual MVP test.
- A process map and improvement for a real organisation.
- A spec with user stories and acceptance criteria.
- A feedback analysis or spreadsheet investigation of a real product.
- A usability test with findings.
Real projects with real people, even small ones, are far more convincing than imagined apps.
A simple case study structure
Each case study can follow this shape, in about one or two pages:
- Context. Who, where, and your role. "A chop bar in Tamale; I volunteered as the product person."
- Problem. What was wrong, with evidence from interviews or data.
- What you did. Research, options considered, what you chose and why.
- What happened. Results, honestly reported, including numbers if you have them.