The Fountain Institute is an independent online school that teaches advanced UX & product skills.
Get your work recognized with this Notion template
Dear Reader,
Today, I want to start with this beautiful quote from Maya Angelou.
I want to help make this brilliant advice into something actionable.
Last week in our monthly meetup, Maureen Herben mentioned something that made this quote jump back to my mind.
She mentioned a document she used to get to senior and beyond in her career.
It's a document that can help you build confidence, especially if you find yourself undervaluing your work, as I often do.
So today's advice column is dedicated to a little thing known as the "brag document."
What is a brag document?
A brag document helps you track the tiny wins in your career, so you have a record of your accomplishments.
Nobody likes a bragger, but secretly keeping track of your accomplishments? Now that’s a great idea.
Here's an example from Janahan Sivaraman:
Here’s a brag doc example from my Apple Notes, frozen in time to when I was a mid-career designer:
As you can see it doesn't have to be complicated.
Why you need a brag doc
I’m pretty ambitious, but I wasn’t always that way. In my first product design job, I didn’t have a clear direction for my career. After watching several designers get promoted to senior over me, I decided it was time to take my career seriously.
I heard about the brag doc at work and decided to try it. It’s probably one of the top five things I’ve ever done for my career.
I kept a brag doc for around four years until I was promoted to Head of Design.
It was my secret mental weapon to build confidence as a junior.
Designers tend to undervalue their skills, and I’ve struggled with that. I have difficulty asking for raises because I don’t value my work or myself enough.
Knowing I had this secret career data helped me develop the confidence to ask for more money and a senior title.
Start your own brag doc
Want to start tracking your career accomplishments?
I wrote a very detailed guide with lots of examples and even a Notion template that you can download for free.
| Get the FREE brag doc template |
Good lucking tracking your accomplishments! Until next week...
Jeff Humble
Designer & Co-Founder
The Fountain Institute
P.S. We only have 1 essential seat left for Continuous UX Research from Feb. 6-27. Grab it before it sells out!
The Fountain Institute
The Fountain Institute is an independent online school that teaches advanced UX & product skills.
Figma AI & Your New Design Title by Jeff Humble Dear Reader, Last week, Figma made some big AI announcements that caused quite a controversy. Welcome to the dystopian world of design called: Figma's Big Announcement This year, AI was all over the Config conference with much-needed updates like background removal, AI-generated layer naming, and automated prototyping. However, the real game-changer was the 'Make Design' feature. Imagine being able to generate interfaces from text prompts. Sure,...
Real-Life Lessons in Co-Creation for Designers By Hannah Baker Dear Reader, Have you ever faced the challenge of aligning a diverse team to create a unified vision? It's a common struggle for designers who aim to create products that resonate deeply with their users and business goals. Recently, I embarked on such a journey with the Guild of Working Designers to refresh our community approach. Today, I will provide an in-depth look at our process, challenges, and insights, showcasing how...
What is product discovery? by Jeff Humble Dear Reader, So, there's this secret term that product leadership uses to describe your work behind your back. And today, I want you to be crystal clear on what it is. It's a word they use to describe it when you do extra research to ensure you're designing the best possible idea. It's a phase of work that you might call UX, but they call it something else. They call it "product discovery." What is Product Discovery? The term comes from consultant and...