Looking backwards to move forwards

I ran a webinar today about Portfolio careers. The aims were to see what the attendees already had in the portfolio that is useful for their career and to make informed decisions for the next roles/projects to build up capability.

The activity was to look at previous roles and identify the portfolio pieces from each role or project. Combining that with last week’s activity of what skills do you have, love to do, or want to build – is a great way of working out your career direction.

For many of us who’ve worked for years in digital, there are some projects we remember fondly and others that are best chalked up to experience. But in all of them, there will be a lesson learn - a thing you did well or not, that will build capability. 

When I think of my first role in digital at Yellow Pages Australia, my portfolio pieces were focused on the design of search and navigation; skills I continue to use on a daily basis in my career.

But there was also the project where the object-orientated database migration failed because it couldn’t cope with the search load, and how that made me realise I needed to know more about technology, load testing and migration.

Looking backwards, it was my first realisation that I was interested in more than design – I want to see projects to completion, ensuring they go as smoothly as possible.

Looking forwards – my experiences in UX and IA help the senior practitioners I mentor become better practitioners; my product management, implementation and technical know-how help the senior design leaders be more effective in their organisations.

So even the failures (and boy that was a bad one – roll back and trash a database anyone!) helped me offer more depth in my coaching services.

When moving forward, we need to look backwards and see what we can use or discard to take the next informed step.