Today: Rhea Mittal

Rhea Mittal’s portfolio is a bit different from some of the portfolios I’ve shown recently.

Rhea is a recent graduate from Indiana University with an MS in HCI, and her profile leans more toward enterprise software, complex B2B problems, and product work that has less obvious surface glamour than consumer-facing mobile apps.

That’s exactly why I wanted to feature it.

A lot of design students and junior designers still gravitate toward flashy, interaction-heavy, consumer-facing work. And I get it. That’s often what made many of us excited about design in the first place. But a huge share of product design jobs sit in B2B, SaaS, and enterprise software, where the problems are messy, the systems are complex, and the need for strong design is still enormous.

Rhea’s portfolio shows that this kind of work can still be presented with clarity, polish, and confidence.

It doesn’t try to become an interaction playground. It doesn’t need to. It knows what kind of designer it is presenting.

The Good

Case studies that make traditional structure feel sharp again

Rhea’s case studies follow a fairly traditional structure.

Context, brief, process, research, ideation, solution, reflection. None of that reinvents the format.

But what makes it work is how well she handles the basics.

A lot of traditional case studies fail because they become too heavy. Too much text, too many process artifacts, too many low-fidelity screens, too many diagrams that no one wants to read. The story disappears under the documentation.

Rhea avoids that.

Her Salesforce capstone is a strong example. The case study is concise, visually paced, and easy to scan. It uses headings, highlighted text, and visuals to create rhythm rather than relying on long paragraphs to explain everything.

That matters because no hiring manager is reading a case study like an academic paper.

They scroll. They scan. They pause when something catches their eye.

Rhea’s case study is built around that reality.

The heading “Research across three continents” does much more than a generic “User Research” label would. It immediately tells you that the problem had a global, multi-market dimension. It gives the work scale before you even read the paragraph.

Could some headings carry even more of the outcome or insight? Yes. But she is already very close.

What also works well is how quickly she moves into the solution. She doesn’t bury the reader under every artifact from the process. There are some whiteboard images, but she doesn’t spend forever in low-fidelity work, mid-fidelity work, and process-for-process-sake documentation.

She uses enough process to show that the work was grounded, then gets to what changed.

The solution sections are especially strong. She breaks out the UI, uses callouts, and explains how the design addresses the problem. That last part is often missing in junior portfolios. A lot of people show a solution and expect the viewer to infer why it works.

Rhea connects the dots.

For someone targeting B2B, SaaS, or enterprise product roles, this is the right kind of case study. Clean, structured, restrained, and still engaging.

Positioning that understands where the market is moving

The second thing I really like is Rhea’s positioning.

On the surface, her work speaks to enterprise and B2B SaaS teams. The Salesforce capstone, the complex product problems, the way she frames systems and workflows, all of that already signals a certain direction.

But then she puts a different word front and center:

Shipping.

That word is used a lot right now. Sometimes too much. It’s getting close to the same territory as “taste” and “craft,” where everyone says it until it starts to lose meaning.

But in Rhea’s case, it works because she has proof.

She doesn’t only say she designs and ships. She shows a Chrome extension that she built and published. That changes the whole claim.

A few years ago, a project like that would probably have been a concept. A designer might have noticed a LinkedIn UX problem, mocked up a better version, and written a speculative case study about it.

Rhea went further.

She built it, shipped it to the Chrome Web Store, and made it usable.

That matters a lot in 2026.

Startups, especially lean teams, increasingly value designers who can carry an idea further than a static handoff. Not every designer needs to code. Not every designer needs to ship tools. But if you can do it, it is a strong signal.

It reduces friction.

It gives you more autonomy.

It shows that you can identify a problem, design a solution, and push it into the world.

That is especially powerful for early-career designers because it makes experience less dependent on permission. You don’t need a company to assign you the perfect project. You can find a problem, build the solution, and show it.

Rhea makes a smart move by putting that energy into her positioning. The B2B and SaaS angle is already visible in the work. The “I design and ship” message adds another layer that makes her profile feel more current and more valuable.

The Potential

Last-mile interaction polish would make the portfolio feel more crafted

The first opportunity is about polish.

This is not about turning Rhea’s portfolio into a highly animated consumer-product showcase. That would probably be the wrong direction. Her portfolio doesn’t need to become an interaction playground.

But even in B2B and enterprise product design, interaction quality matters more than it used to.

Look at products like Linear or Vercel. These are B2B products, but they look and feel extremely refined. The bar has moved. Companies working on complex software still want designers who can make that software feel good.

Rhea’s portfolio already has some motion and interaction, but there are moments where the last bit of polish is missing.

The marquee is one example. It scrolls, reaches the end, and then starts again abruptly. Small thing, yes. But once you notice it, it feels unfinished.

The project card hover states are another example. The cards move smoothly, but the shadow appears and disappears too abruptly. It also feels a bit too heavy. The motion and the shadow don’t fully belong to the same physical behavior.

There are also places where scroll-in animations could feel more elegant with staggered timing. When multiple images enter at the same time, it works. But if they came in with a tiny delay between them, the whole thing would feel more considered.

None of these issues break the portfolio.

But they are the kind of details that the right people notice.

And because Rhea already positions herself around shipping and building, this final layer of craft becomes more relevant. If you ship the thing, you also own how it feels.

A little more attention to those details would make the portfolio feel more refined without changing its core direction.

The extra pages could be curated more tightly

The second opportunity is about structure and curation.

Rhea currently has several supporting pages: work, play, about, and the main homepage. None of these are bad on their own. The about page is generally solid. The play page shows some range. The work page includes additional projects and older explorations.

But I’m not convinced all of this needs to be separated out.

The play section, for example, has a few pieces that are worth showing, including another built project that connects nicely to the “I ship” positioning. That one probably deserves more attention, not less.

At the same time, some of the other pieces feel like a mixed bag. Game design, typography, crochet, industrial design, illustration. They show range, but they don’t all strengthen the core story equally.

That’s the risk with playgrounds.

They can make a designer feel more expansive, but they can also dilute the signal if the work doesn’t ladder back to the role they want.

The same goes for the additional work page. Some pieces are cool, especially the industrial design work, but unless Rhea is targeting roles at the intersection of physical and digital product design, I’m not sure they add enough to justify their own space.

If I were restructuring this, I’d probably simplify.

Keep the homepage as the main surface. Add a tighter “play” or “experiments” section underneath the selected work. Pick the three or four strongest extra pieces. Remove the rest or keep them private for now.

That would make the portfolio more efficient.

It would also make sure that more people see the strongest supporting work without needing to click into separate pages.

More work is not always more signal. Often, it creates more room for doubt.

Rhea already has a strong core. The surrounding material should protect that core and sharpen it, not compete with it.

The Verdict

Rhea Mittal’s portfolio is a strong example of how to present B2B and enterprise product work without making it feel dry.

The case studies are structured, scannable, and clear. The Salesforce capstone especially shows how a traditional format can still work when the storytelling is concise and the visual rhythm is strong.

Her positioning is also smart. By foregrounding shipping, and backing that up with a real Chrome extension, she gives her profile a more current edge. She shows that she can work through complex product problems, but also build and release something herself.

The main opportunities are refinement and curation.

The portfolio would benefit from a bit more last-mile interaction polish, especially because she already signals that she can ship. And the supporting pages could be tightened so the strongest extra work gets more attention while the less relevant pieces fade back.

But the foundation is strong.

Rhea’s portfolio shows a designer who can operate in complex product spaces and still care about clarity, craft, and execution. That combination is exactly what a lot of B2B teams need more of.

If you’d like to craft a similarly impressive portfolio Framer is likely your best choice.

Still struggling to get your portfolio off the ground?

Don’t want to spend weeks learning yet another tool? Framer is my top recommendation for building your portfolio — fast, clean, and without the usual headaches.

If you’re just starting out (or even if you’re not), I think Framer is a perfect fit. Here’s why:

• Flat learning curve: The interface feels familiar if you’ve used Figma — plus, there’s a plugin to bring your designs straight in.

• Plenty of learning support: Framer Academy is packed with free tutorials, videos, and guides to help you go from zero to published.

• A huge template library: Tons of high-quality (often free) templates in the marketplace to help you launch quickly without starting from scratch.

• Free if you are a student: Although Framer already offers a generous free plan for everyone, if you are an enrolled student you can get Framer Pro completely for free!

And that’s just scratching the surface. I wrote more about why I recommend Framer here—but honestly, the best way is to try it for yourself.

Affiliate disclaimer: I only recommend tools I personally believe in. Some links in this post are affiliate links, which means I may earn a small commission if you choose to purchase — at no extra cost to you.

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