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Building a Portfolio

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Fail Cheaply and Early

2:07 with Devin O'Bryan

Getting your content in front of those you trust is important. Knowing the right way to do this is just as important.

New Terms:

  • Critique -- a method of disciplined, systematic study of a written or oral discourse.

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    When I was in college, I first heard the phrase fail early, fail fast, 0:00
    and fail often, where the moral of the story was about 0:05
    learning quickly from mistakes and recovering. 0:09
    Then when I became a working professional, I started hearing a similar but 0:12
    more business-driven iteration, fail early and fail cheaply. 0:16
    I found out that cheap didn't necessarily mean the monetary cost. 0:21
    It turns out, there's a ton of ways you can be thrifty in failure. 0:26
    For instance, time or effort can be associated with the cost in question. 0:30
    Smartest way to do this when building a portfolio would be to enlist the help of 0:36
    others to weigh in on your presentation's message through power of critique. 0:41
    Critique is a method of disciplined, 0:47
    systematic study of a written or oral discourse. 0:50
    Basically, it's allowing others to see your work and comment on it. 0:55
    Those commenting could be friends, colleagues, 1:00
    those with similar backgrounds to your potential future employers. 1:03
    And yes, even family members. 1:07
    You should ask them questions like is it really coming across as something that 1:10
    represents me? 1:14
    Or is my message clear? 1:15
    Keep in mind, the point of you showing your work isn't for 1:18
    validation as much as it is to make sure you're being effectively represented. 1:23
    The moment your grandma tells you she dislikes the color blue 1:29
    you chose on your mobile portfolio, it's the moment 1:33
    you need to steer the conversation back to whether your narrative makes sense. 1:37
    After all, the reason you're asking them is because you know they're going to be 1:42
    honest with you about the clarity of your message and if it aligns with who you are. 1:48
    You'll wanna do this early and fairly often in the process, 1:53
    all while you're prototyping using cheap tools like pen and paper, or 1:58
    frameworks that allow you to make rapid changes effortlessly. 2:02

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