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Ask HN: What makes a great freelance portfolio?

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Re: Ask HN: What makes a great freelance portfolio?

#31

Post by mttsn »

tptacek wrote: post #27
mttsn wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We agree that freelancer matchmaking sites are generally not in the best interests of freelancers. We've taken the position of freelancer discovery over matchmaking. Our goal is to give freelancers a great way to be discovered by filtered clients, based on specific skills and experience qualifications. We want make it possible for freelancers and clients to find each other more efficiently, and we're not going to be…

The philosophical problem with all freelancer sites is that they position consultants as substitutable offerings that can be selected off a shelf. There are some fields (graphic design, for instance) where this is apparently not too damaging. But I think it's (in practice) very bad positioning for software consultants, and, not coincidentally, an unhelpful mental model for buyers to adopt.

The PG review is not real! This is a demo of what we think an awesome freelancer portfolio should look like. Sorry if that was at all misleading.

I hear you on the "commoditization" of freelance software work, and we're actually trying to fight that. We're trying to build the freelancer site that actually built for the freelancer, and gives them a way to be found by the types of clients they're looking for. VS. what exists today where freelancers bid against each other, have to deal with shitty job descriptions, and less than awesome clients.

Would love to talk more offline if you're open to it. matt@theworkmob.com

Re: Ask HN: What makes a great freelance portfolio?

#32

Post by [deleted] »

mttsn wrote: post #31
tptacek wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The philosophical problem with all freelancer sites is that they position consultants as substitutable offerings that can be selected off a shelf. There are some fields (graphic design, for instance) where this is apparently not too damaging. But I think it's (in practice) very bad positioning for software consultants, and, not coincidentally, an unhelpful mental model for buyers to adopt.

The PG review is not real! This is a demo of what we think an awesome freelancer portfolio should look like. Sorry if that was at all misleading. I hear you on the "commoditization" of freelance software work, and we're actually trying to fight that. We're trying to build the freelancer site that actually built for the freelancer, and gives them a way to be found by the types of clients they're looking for. VS. what…

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: What makes a great freelance portfolio?

#33

Post by mttsn »

patio11 wrote: post #24
tptacek wrote: post #20

As someone hip-deep in professional services: consider whether the answer to "freelancing sites are terrible for software developers" is "we need better freelancer sites", or whether instead the answer is "freelancer matchmaking sites are generally not in the best interests of freelancers". In this rare instance I think I'll try speaking for Patrick McKenzie, a fellow consultant, along with myself: we think the answe…

Thomas wrote substantially what I wanted to write. Edit to expand: So some of the features of WorkMob were easy for you to write, but are not in the best interests of many people who could potentially work for you. If your design showcases to clients that "Number of OSS projects" or "Number of Github followers" are how you rate developers, your clients might actually develop the impression that those two numbers a) m…

Thanks for the detailed response Patrick,

I see your point. We're finding that we want to focus in on real validated feedback from past clients and simple case studies of the work.

We're still thinking through the actual metrics that make sense to profile, and I can definitely see that Github scores might not be very important.

I'd love to go deeper in how we can create a framework for case studies if you're free to connect offline. matt@theworkmob.com

Re: Ask HN: What makes a great freelance portfolio?

#34

Post by sjs382 »

mttsn wrote: post #33
patio11 wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thomas wrote substantially what I wanted to write. Edit to expand: So some of the features of WorkMob were easy for you to write, but are not in the best interests of many people who could potentially work for you. If your design showcases to clients that "Number of OSS projects" or "Number of Github followers" are how you rate developers, your clients might actually develop the impression that those two numbers a) m…

Thanks for the detailed response Patrick, I see your point. We're finding that we want to focus in on real validated feedback from past clients and simple case studies of the work. We're still thinking through the actual metrics that make sense to profile, and I can definitely see that Github scores might not be very important. I'd love to go deeper in how we can create a framework for case studies if you're free to…

I hope this conversation can continue online. There's a lot to be learned from it.

Re: Ask HN: What makes a great freelance portfolio?

#35

Post by mttsn »

[deleted] wrote: post #32
mttsn wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The PG review is not real! This is a demo of what we think an awesome freelancer portfolio should look like. Sorry if that was at all misleading. I hear you on the "commoditization" of freelance software work, and we're actually trying to fight that. We're trying to build the freelancer site that actually built for the freelancer, and gives them a way to be found by the types of clients they're looking for. VS. what…

[deleted]

So scrubbed. Good call

Re: Ask HN: What makes a great freelance portfolio?

#36

Post by tst »

notastartup wrote: post #16

Great looking design. However, instead of outsourcing my portfolio I just got a domain and added my own stuff. check out http://appsonify.com , curious to know some actionable steps I can take to improve it. The whole thing is hosted on Amazon S3 bucket and it cost me like 50 cents in traffic so far. No need to run a static http server, just point your domain through route 53 and point it to amazon bucket.

I can give you some feedback if you want. In the past I have searched freelancers in the web, app and design space. For each position I maybe look at ~200 freelancers. That means a freelancer is out on average in maybe 10 - 20 seconds.

What I like:

* You have a website

* Design is very easy and clean

* You show your references

* There's an e-mail address

What could be better:

* Your picture. If you don't want to show your face just leave it out. Otherwise take a nice picture and put it up without any effects / filters

* I don't know what you did on each of your projects. Normally, I assume that you either did the whole site or a minimal part.

Stuff that depends (if you mainly sell to technical or non-technical people):

* Your services part doesn't really describe technologies / frameworks. However, if I look for a freelancer I look for somebody knowing Django, Magento or whatever.

* Same goes for the projects

Re: Ask HN: What makes a great freelance portfolio?

#37

Post by svictoroff »

notastartup wrote: post #16

Great looking design. However, instead of outsourcing my portfolio I just got a domain and added my own stuff. check out http://appsonify.com , curious to know some actionable steps I can take to improve it. The whole thing is hosted on Amazon S3 bucket and it cost me like 50 cents in traffic so far. No need to run a static http server, just point your domain through route 53 and point it to amazon bucket.

Actually, you don't even need to run route 53, you can just make the bucket public and do a standard dns lookup from whoever you got the domain from. That said, I think there's a huge value in having a central repository and a standard way to display a developer profile.

Re: Ask HN: What makes a great freelance portfolio?

#39

Post by svictoroff »

jmrobancho wrote: post #14

As someone with little technical skills when it comes to software development, I like that I can see a person's past work and read reviews from people he/she has worked with in the past.

As a freelance developer, I am very reticent to work with someone that doesn't know enough about what I do to actually review my work. However, I think people skills are important enough that I totally agree on the reviews point.

Re: Ask HN: What makes a great freelance portfolio?

#40

Post by invictrvs »

dang wrote: post #38

We've buried this thread for two reasons: the use of (to put it charitably) misleading material [1], and the sockpuppets posting in this thread. I hope it's obvious that such tactics are not ok here. 1. https://theworkmob.com/demo/#/projects/hackernews-stability

Felt it right to respond to the bury. The Hacker News Stability project on the linked demo was not meant to mislead, only to be a sample and show planned product features. No harm or false representation was intended.

Respectfully - Travis

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