A personal value proposition or statement is a brief summary of the strengths you have to offer a prospective employer. Morgane Peng, Design Director at Societe Generale CIB, introduces the topic in this video:
As Morgane mentions, value propositions in general are intended to answer why people should be interested in your product or service. In the case of a personal value proposition (PVP), the question is more specifically why an employer should be interested in spending time on your CV or portfolio.
1. Understand the context. This includes several factors such as who the prospective employers might be, the nature of the positions that most interest you and what skills or motivations those positions require. Part of this process is to understand your target audience and their immediate interests. If you are tailoring your CV or portfolio to a specific opportunity, it is important to consider the context in detail. While some of the required information will be found in the vacancy description itself, additional research may be needed to establish the bigger picture. Consider looking at industry overviews of the companies in question, their own news blogs and social media postings.
2. Identify your strengths. What have you enjoyed doing and felt that you were effective doing it? Don’t confine yourself to employment roles alone. You may be a great organizer in a community group or really enjoy promoting an important cause in your spare time.
3. Relate your strengths to the context. Your PVP needs to be concise, so don’t include everything you’ve identified. You can mention secondary strengths and beyond in the details of your CV or portfolio. Focus on those strengths that are clearly related to the context. Try to steer a middle path between exaggeration and modesty!
4. Elaborate your value proposition. Explain and support your strengths and the value you can add through success stories. Don’t make these too long or elaborate but give adequate and convincing details that prove your abilities.
Cat O’Shaughnessy Coffrin at Fast Company suggests that you prototype your PVP like this:
For [target audience description]
Who needs [pain points/challenges you help address]
I provide [your value and how you do it]
Because it helps [the benefit for your audience and others who may benefit as well]
This is the “full form” of your PVP. It needs to sound coherent and convincing, but you don’t always need to write it out in such detail. One important use for an abbreviated version would be as “hooks” in your CV or portfolio.
In our course Build a Standout UX/UI Portfolio: Land Your Dream Job, Morgane Peng explains the importance of hooks:
“Hooks are the attention-grabbing elements of any content, usually found at the beginning. Their purpose is to pique the audience's interest and compel them to continue reading or engage further. In essence, hooks serve as the initial "grabber" that draws readers in and makes them want to know more.”
Here are some guidelines from the course to achieve just that:
1. Include key skills or specializations: Incorporate essential skills or specializations directly into your headline to quickly convey what sets you apart as a designer. This allows hiring managers to identify whether your expertise aligns with their needs immediately.
“Expert Web Designer Specializing in E-commerce Solutions”
2. Highlight achievements or awards: If you have received notable achievements or awards in your design career, showcase them in your headline to provide instant credibility and make your portfolio stand out.
“D&AD-Award-Winning Graphic Designer with a Passion for Branding”
3. Specify industry experience: If you have extensive experience working within specific industries, mention them in your headline to signal to hiring managers that you have relevant expertise in their field.
“Specialist UX/UI Designer in the Tech and SaaS Industries”
4. Quantify results or impact: If possible, quantify the results or impact of your design work in your headline to demonstrate your effectiveness as a designer. This helps hiring managers quickly understand the value you can bring to their team.
“Increased Conversion Rates by 30% Through Strategic Design Solutions”
5. Use keywords relevant to the job: Tailor your headline to include keywords relevant to the job description or the specific role you're applying for. This can help your portfolio appear more prominently in search results and catch the eye of hiring managers.
“Versatile Designer Skilled in Responsive Web Design and SEO Optimization”
6. Keep it brief and scannable: While it's important to include relevant information in your headline, keep it brief and scannable so hiring managers can quickly grasp the essence of your portfolio. Avoid long sentences or unnecessary details.
“Creative Designer | UX Expert | Branding Enthusiast”
7. Be authentic: Let your personality shine through in your hook to establish a genuine connection with your audience.
“Passionate about designs that not only look good but also make a meaningful impact on users' lives.”
Take our course Build a Standout UX/UI Portfolio: Land Your Dream Job with Morgane Peng, Design Director at Societe Generale CIB
You can read and learn more about Personal Value Propositions in the following articles
A personal value proposition or statement is a summary of the strengths you have to offer a prospective employer.
Create a personal value proposition by considering the context (the organization, the opportunity and connected issues like the business and economic environments), your strengths, and then relate the two. Elaborate the result into a full statement of what you can offer, but trim it for use as a hook in your CV or portfolio.
Use a short version of your personal value proposition as a hook early on in your CV or portfolio. Use a longer version in the more detailed section of your career story.
A personal value proposition directly addresses whether the recruiter should spend time evaluating your CV or portfolio in detail.
For the long form of your personal value proposition, you need to address each of these phrases:
For [target audience description]
Who needs [pain points/challenges you help address]
I provide [your value and how you do it]
Because it helps [the benefit for your audience and others who may benefit as well]
A “long form” proposition might be:
For [web site and mobile app developers]
Who need [customer-focused user experience design]
I provide [expert user research and UX design]
Because it helps [developers to build the right solution and to captivate customers]
A personal value proposition is a quick and powerful to demonstrate your suitability for a job or project. Recruiters and managers often have large numbers of applicants to review. Your ability to show your specific worth concisely will be a powerful incentive for reviewers to pass your CV or portolio on to the next stage of evaluation.
Remember, the more you learn about design, the more you make yourself valuable.
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Here's the entire UX literature on Personal Value Propositions by the Interaction Design Foundation, collated in one place:
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