Turning student work into visible proof of skills
I helped lead the UX design of LVL UP’s public-facing MVP, a guided experience that enables emerging professionals to build portfolios, showcase projects, and understand engagement.
Timeline
October 2025- March 2026
My Role
Lead UX Designer
02 — THE PRODUCT
A portfolio builder designed to make professional visibility easier
LVL UP is a career-readiness platform designed to help students and emerging professionals turn their experiences, projects, and skills into a stronger professional presence.
As part of the MVP, I helped design the Portfolio Builder, a guided experience that helps users create, organize, and showcase their work in one place.
03 — THE CHALLENGE
Students have skills and experiences, but struggle to make them visible
THE CONTEXT
LVL UP set out to help students and emerging professionals gain visibility, confidence, and opportunity in a competitive job market.
THE PROBLEM
Students often feel invisible and unprepared because they don't know how to present their skills, understand what employers expect, or measure whether their work is getting noticed.
04 — RESEARCH & INSIGHTS
Research helped us understand what was keeping students from turning their experience into a stronger professional presence.
I used a combination of user interviews, competitive analysis, and surveys to understand students' pain points, expectations, and behaviors around career readiness and professional portfolios.
PROCESS LINE
4-week research sprint
User interviews
Understand frustrations, needs, and expectations.
Competitive analysis
Identify how existing platforms support career readiness and professional visibility.
User survey
Validate patterns and better understand user preferences.
What We Heard
Visibility
Lack of responses from employers
Feeling overlooked
Difficulty translating school experience into “real-world” experience
Confidence
Difficulty communicating experience
Need for clearer guidance
Wanting to feel prepared and confident
Connection
Opportunities to connect with mentors and recruiters
I synthesized the research into recurring themes
By grouping recurring observations across interviews and survey responses, I identified patterns around portfolio creation, experience gaps, career confidence, and access to professional guidance.
The Personas
While their backgrounds and goals differed, the users shared a common need: a clearer way to communicate their experience and demonstrate their potential.
RESEARCH DETAILS
83% struggled with creating strong portfolios
KEY INSIGHTS
Students don't just need more experience, they need a better way to communicate the experience they already have.
Students needed more than a place to store projects. They needed support in turning their work into a professional story they could confidently share.
THE DESIGN CHALLENGE
How might we
Help emerging professionals turn their experiences into a portfolio that clearly communicates their skills and increases their professional visibility?
05 — FROM REASHCH MVP
Turning insight into MVP
Research and competitive analysis helped identify where LVL UP could create meaningful value for students while staying within the constraints of the MVP.
MVP Prioritization
The initial product scope included seven potential features. As the MVP scope narrowed, two core features were prioritized based on user value, available resources, technical feasibility, and time constraints.
01 Directly addresses a validated need
83% of surveyed participants reported struggling with creating strong portfolios.
02 Creates immediate user value
It gives students a tangible way to turn projects and experiences into something they can share.
03 Creates a foundation for visibility
The portfolio becomes a place where users can showcase their work and understand how that work is being engaged with.
Why Portfolio Builder?
Portfolio Builder became a natural starting point for turning the research insight into a tangible product experience.
07 — TESTING & ITERATIONS
Testing helped simplify the path from choosing a template to starting a portfolio
I tested early concepts with the team and users to identify friction, validate the experience, and refine the Portfolio Builder before handoff.
08 — OUTCOME & REFLECTION
From research to a launched MVP
01 Shipped
Portfolio Builder became part of the publicly launched LVL UP experience.
02 Collaborated
I worked across UX, product, and engineering to move the experience from concept through handoff and implementation.
03 Learned
Designing for emerging professionals reinforced the importance of guidance, progressive disclosure, and giving users a clear starting point rather than expecting them to know how to build a portfolio from scratch.
The Portfolio Builder moved from research and early concepts through iteration, validation, and development as part of LVL UP's public-facing MVP.
What I took away
This project strengthened my ability to connect research with product decisions, work within MVP constraints, and carry a feature from early discovery through implementation.