# Portfolio Inventory & Triage — 5 points **Due: Week 2 — Friday, September 4, at the start of your appointment hour** **Submit: one PDF or spreadsheet in Canvas + bring it to your conference** --- ## Why this comes first Nothing new gets made in this course until everything old has been judged. Students who skip this step spend three weeks polishing a piece that should have been retired, and arrive in December with a portfolio built by accident. You are going to look at every single thing you have ever made, decide what it's worth, and only then decide what to build. This is the hardest assignment of the semester and it takes about two hours. ## What to do **1. Inventory everything.** Every piece from every course, every personal project, every abandoned thing on an old drive. Include work you're embarrassed by — you can't triage a pile you haven't looked at. **2. Sort each piece into exactly one bucket.** No piece gets two buckets. No piece gets "maybe." | Bucket | Definition | What happens next | |---|---|---| | **SHIP** | Represents your target role at or above entry standard. Finished. | Goes on your platform this month. | | **FIX** | Right idea, right role, fixable in 20 hours or less. Usually a presentation problem, not a craft problem. | Scheduled, with the hours capped. | | **RETIRE** | Off-target, dated, or not salvageable this semester. | Killed. Don't argue with it. | | **GAP** | A skill your target role requires that nothing here demonstrates. | Becomes a new piece with a deadline. | **3. Write one sentence of justification per piece.** Not a paragraph. One sentence that a stranger would accept. **4. Estimate hours** for every FIX and GAP item. Be honest; you'll be held to the total in Week 3. ## Format One row per piece: | Piece | Year | Course / personal | Bucket | Why (one sentence) | Est. hours | |---|---|---|---|---|---| At the bottom: total FIX hours, total GAP hours, and your count of SHIP pieces. ## Three mistakes that cost points **Defending a RETIRE piece with sunk cost.** The tell is "but I spent so long on it." Hours you spent are invisible to a viewer. A portfolio is judged closer to its weakest included piece than its strongest — a weak piece doesn't just fail to help, it actively costs you. **Mistaking a presentation problem for a craft problem.** A large share of FIX work is lighting, camera, turntables, breakdown images, and a written role statement — not remodeling. Look hard before you decide something needs to be rebuilt. **Declaring you have zero GAPs.** Almost nobody has zero. Before I'll accept it, show me three real job postings for your target title and point at the requirements your existing work covers. Bring them printed and marked up. ## Rubric | Standard | Points | | --------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------ | | Complete inventory — nothing conveniently omitted | 1 | | Every piece bucketed, one bucket each, no hedging | 1 | | Justifications are specific and defensible | 1 | | Hour estimates present and realistic for FIX/GAP | 1 | | At least one GAP identified and tied to an actual posting requirement | 1 | ## Related - Week 1 page — the triage method in full - **Portfolio Plan & Production Schedule** (due Week 3) — builds directly on this - Glossary: *triage, target role, entry standard, breakdown*