You should keep a brag document

A few jobs ago I was up for a raise. As part of the performance review process, my manager asked me to do a self-review of the past year where I rate myself in several categories and add relevant notes.

Essentially my manager was asking:

I felt like I had a great year.

I had shipped a bunch of projects and learned a bunch. However while I remembered the last 6 months fairly well, the 6 months before that were a little hazy. I had trouble remembering everything I’d done and the impact I had. I struggled to craft what I did remember into a compelling story for why I deserved a handsome raise that year. And I only had a few days to do it.

I ended up taking several hours over two weeks to write down what I could remember, submitted my self-review to my manager, and hoped for the best. I knew I didn’t remember everything, but given the time pressure, I did my best with the time I had.

Looking back, I really wish I had a brag document.

What is a brag document?

A brag (or hype) document is a personal record where we detail our career accomplishments, skills, and milestones. It’s a living document that we (hopefully) update regularly, capturing career updates as they happen when the details are still fresh.

I first learned about brag documents, also known as hype documents, from Julie Evans. Andy Budd, Jessica Ivins, David Hoang have also written great posts about them.

Over time, it’s easy to forget many of the small but significant contributions we’ve made. A brag document ensures that no achievement is forgotten. Whether it’s a successful project, a skill we’ve mastered, a problem we’ve solved, or a nice thing someone said about us, having it documented makes it easier to recall when needed.

Like, say, during a performance review!

How is it useful?

Performance Reviews

When it comes to performance reviews, we usually have to show proof of what we've done and the impact we've made. Having an update-to-date brag document makes it super easy to gather all the info we need, taking a lot of the stress out of the process. It lets us give solid examples of your achievements, making it easier for our boss to see our worth and back us up for promotions or raises.

Job interviews

When applying for new jobs, a brag document a goldmine for our resume and cover letters. We never know exactly what questions the hiring manager will ask, so having a brag document gives us a stable of answers at our fingertips.

It also gets us ready for interviews by giving us a bunch of stories and examples that show off our skills and accomplishments. Being able to clearly talk about what we've done gives us a leg up on other candidates.

Career discussions

Brag documents can be helpful anytime we’re having a conversation about your career. Talking with a recruiter? Yep. Meeting with a mentor? Absolutely. Chatting with someone we just met at a conference? You bet.

Heck, I’ve even used my brag document to solve tech’s hardest challenge: Explaining what I do for a living to my parents 😂

Anytime someone might ask “What do you want to do with your career?” or “Why do you deserve this job / promotion / raise?”, having a brag document means you always have a solid answer at our fingertips.

How to make one

If you’ve read this far, hopefully you’re starting to see the benefits of a brag document and are wondering how to create your own.

Here’s what I’d suggest:

Start with a template

Begin with a basic structure that includes sections for projects, skills, milestones, feedback, and lessons learned. Julie’s article has a bunch of examples. I used her article to create my templates for Product Designer and Design Manager. Adapt as you see fit.

Update it regularly

Make it a habit to update your brag document regularly. Set reminders to review and add new accomplishments regularly while it’s still fresh and you can remember the details.

I block out 30min every two weeks to update my brag document, though honestly I usually only need 5-10min. It’s the “once every two weeks” part is most important for me. If I didn’t have a regular reminder, I’d usually forget.

Be specific

Include detailed descriptions of your achievements, quantifying your impact whenever possible. Use feedback like metrics from analytics, link to files, and positive feedback from colleagues, clients, and supervisors. It all adds proof and credibility to your accomplishments.

Don’t forget about goals!

While a brag document helps you get that next raise or promotion, it’s also helpful to reflect on where you want to be in a few years and consider how your recent accomplishments are helping you get there.

My next performance review

Shortly after my performance review, I discovered Julie’s article and started my own brag document.

At my first my updates we pretty sporadic: several times a week followed by two months of nothing. Still, I was writing down stuff I knew I’d forget. A short but impactful project, a presentation I nailed, a nice thing someone said about me in chat.

I didn’t know if this stuff would ever be useful, but I knew I’d forget about it in a week if I didn’t write it down.

Suffice to say my next performance review went much smoother. Before, it took me two weeks to piecemeal together what I could remember. This time it took me two days to complete a self review, including with accomplishments from the first half of the year and data supporting my impact.

These days I have a recurring calendar reminder to update my brag document every two weeks on Monday morning, before I get going for the day (else the day will get away from me and I’ll forget). Even as my job changed from IC designer to manager, I’ve kept maintaining my brag document. I can’t imagine going through my performance reviews without it.

Now that I’m a manager, I advise everyone on my team to create their own brag document. In all honestly, when I read each self-review, it’s clear who’s prepared and who isn’t.

The more data I have as a manager, the easier it is for me to create a case to my boss that someone deserves a bigger raise or promotion.

🧶 Stray Links

To get promoted to staff designer, Kathy Zheng explains how you must be able to create your own ideas and rally people around them, and not just execute the projects that come your way.

Getting data visualization right is hard, and this flow chart is helpful quite helpful when deciding how to visualize a data set. Because if we’re not thinking hard about chart types, color, and ___, then our dashboard design is just a vanity project.

Language matters. The Micropedia highlights microaggressions that are based on stereotypes, assumptions and lack of empathy across age, disabilities, class, ethnicity, gender, indigenous people, race, religion and 2SLGBTQ+.

Andy at Email Love recently created a Figma to Email HTML plugin. Andy is an email OG and I’m excited to try this out!

Sustainable UX evaluated several newsletter platforms on climate impact, price, and stance on Nazi’s. It’s the first of two evaluations, so no winner yet!

My friend Matthew started Wimp Decaf Coffee Company. I signed up since I mostly drink decaf these days, because too much caffeine ain't good for anyone!

🏛️ From the Archives
A favorite article I periodically re-read.

Principles of Engineering Culture at Wealthfront is a recent favorite because of how it’s written. I’ve done countless team exercises where a poster of catchy one-liners that summarize our values is created… and no one ever looks at it again because it’s fluff. Wealthfront’s values stuck with me because the article goes into more detail and gives examples, leaving less to the imagination.

Thanks for reading ✌️
- Ted (@tedgoas)