How do I decide whether an incomplete project belongs in my work samples?

Judge the sample by the evidence it offers, not by whether the overall project reached the finish line. Ask three questions:

1. Is the project relevant to the kind of work I want to show?
2. Can a reader see a specific contribution I made, rather than just the team’s general effort?
3. Is there enough completed material to understand that contribution without guessing what the missing pieces would have been?

If you can answer yes to all three, it may be a useful sample. For example, an unfinished website redesign might still show your completed content structure or visual concepts. It would be less useful if you only attended planning meetings and cannot point to an artifact or decision you owned. Also leave out material you are not permitted to share; if appropriate, describe the work at a high level instead.

Separate the work into what you made, what others made, and what was still pending. Choose an excerpt or artifact that makes your part clear without presenting the whole team’s work as yours. If a document includes collaborators’ names, comments, customer details, or internal information, do not assume you can publish it just because you contributed. Check the relevant permission or sharing expectations first. If you cannot share the original, consider a clearly labeled reconstruction or summary, but do not present it as the delivered project. State when you have simplified or recreated something.

Use a short, neutral status note. Name the project’s stage, your role, what you completed, and what remained unfinished. Give the reason only if you know it and it helps the reader understand the status; do not guess or blame someone. For example:

“Status: This project was paused during development and was not launched. My role: I drafted the onboarding flow and prepared a clickable concept for review. The sample shows that concept; later implementation and outcome measurement were not completed.”

Adjust the wording to match the facts. If you do not know why work stopped, say only that it was paused or remained incomplete. Avoid phrases such as “successful launch” or “improved results” unless those outcomes actually happened and you can support the claim.

Suppose you are applying for content design work. You helped create a draft help-center section: you wrote four articles and organized them into a proposed navigation structure, but the section was not published. This may be a reasonable sample if you can share it appropriately and the articles show relevant writing and organization skills. Frame it as drafts and a proposed structure—not a live help center or proof of user outcomes. If the material is confidential, use an appropriate excerpt or a non-identifying summary instead.

Before adding any incomplete project, check that it:

1. Matches a skill or role you want to demonstrate.
2. Includes a concrete piece of work you personally completed.
3. Makes your contribution distinct from collaborators’ work.
4. Is appropriate to share, or can be represented with an appropriate excerpt or summary.
5. Clearly states the actual status and what remained pending.
6. Makes no unsupported claims about launch, impact, or results.

If it fails the relevance or evidence checks, leave it out. A smaller, clearly explained piece of work is more useful than a sample that makes readers infer what you did.