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Your Portfolio Is a Product—Start Iterating on It Like One 🔁

How to apply product thinking and analytics to make your portfolio work harder

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Florian Bölter
April 02, 2025

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Hey and welcome back to a new week! 👋 

In last weeks issue I announced a raffle for the chance to one of three in-person ticket to UXDX 2025 in Berlin and this week I’m announcing the lucky winners who by now should have been notified! Congratulations to:

  • Maya A.

  • Lenika N.

  • Ptaheri

On a related note: I did use a referral program to enter the raffle and since a lot of your participated I will look into how I can bring more benefits to you in connection with you sharing my newsletter with the world. Stay tuned.

In this issue:

  • Your Portfolio Is a Product: How you can level up your portfolio by taking a different look at it and being strategic with it.

  • Nick’s Portfolio: Take a look at a portfolio that excels in visual storytelling and engaging the reader.

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Your Portfolio Is a Product—Start Iterating on It Like One 🔁

One of the biggest unlocks you can make as a junior designer is to stop treating your portfolio like a static website and start treating it like what it actually is: a product. This mindset shift won’t just help you design a better-looking portfolio—it will guide you to build something that actually works for the people who matter most: recruiters and hiring managers.

In this guide, we’ll go beyond just what to include in your portfolio and dive into how to approach building it with the same process you’d use when designing any good product: research, iteration, testing, and measurement.

Why Think of Your Portfolio as a Product?

When you treat your portfolio like a product, you start asking better questions: Who is this for? What problem does it solve? How can I make it easier to use and more valuable?

Your users are recruiters and hiring managers. Their job-to-be-done (JTBD) is simple:

"When I open a designer’s portfolio, I want to quickly understand their skills, experience, and how they think, so I can assess whether they might be a fit."

Every recruiter & hiring manager ever

Approaching your portfolio this way forces you to think more critically about what you’re showing and how. It also encourages you to test and improve it over time—just like you would a real product.

Step 1: Get the Foundation Right (Structure Matters)

While everyone’s portfolio will look a bit different, there are a few structural pieces that every solid portfolio includes. This obviously differs from how you might approach a more complex product where the structure is not always clear. For portfolios you should usually have the following:

1. Introduction

Your intro sets the stage. Think of it as the homepage headline for your personal brand. In 1-2 lines, it should answer: Who are you as a designer? What’s your focus? What’s your strength?

Make it specific, not generic. Avoid fluff like "passionate designer" and opt for real positioning. Include your role (Product Designer, UX Researcher, etc.), 2-3 core strengths, and any relevant focus area or background. If you have a short intro on your resume, consider syncing it here.

2. Case Studies

The heart of your portfolio. Pick 3-4 projects max that:

  • Represent your range and depth

  • Showcase your process and the outcome

  • Align with the type of work you want to be hired for and try to connect to your intro with your work

Use strong visuals, short but informative titles (ideally impact-driven), and keep your storytelling tight.

3. Navigation

Make sure your site is easy to explore. Include obvious links to your homepage, individual case studies, and (if you have them) pages like About Me, Playground, or Writing.

Avoid dead ends. If someone finishes reading a case study, where do they go next?

Optional: About Me / Other Work

If your story or personality plays a big part in your pitch (which it often does), link to a short About page. This is especially valuable to hiring managers. If you do visual or design-adjacent work, consider a separate page for that—but don’t let it clutter your homepage. Put it on a separate page or underneath your main UX/UI / product design work.

Step 2: Apply a Real Design Process

Treat your portfolio like a design project. That means:

Research

Start by reviewing job descriptions and talking to people in your target roles. What do recruiters scan for? What do hiring managers wish candidates would show?

You can even go a step further and test your assumptions. Tools like Lyssna let you run lightweight user tests. Spend a few bucks and get 3-5 recruiters or designers to look at your homepage. Ask them: "What stands out? What do you remember after 30 seconds? What’s missing?"

Analytics

Install a free tool like Microsoft Clarity, Hotjar, or Smartlook. These tools help you:

  • See how far people scroll on your case studies

  • Spot areas where users drop off or get stuck

  • Track if people are clicking through to your resume or LinkedIn

Some tools (like Clarity) even let you watch anonymized session replays to see how people navigate your site.

If you are using Framer there are built-in analytics that aren’t nearly as rich as the ones mentioned above but might give you a first insight. I’d still consider using any of the above just for the heat maps though.

Iterate

Based on your insights, tweak and test. Is your case study preview not getting clicks? Try a stronger visual or title. Are people skipping your intro always? Reconsider its hook or typography.

Measure Impact

Just like with any product, your portfolio’s job is to convert. If you're linking to your case studies from your resume, track who clicks. If you're getting interviews, ask what led them to reach out. Your portfolio should pull its weight.

Summary

When you build your portfolio like a product, you:

  • Focus on your users (recruiters + hiring managers)

  • Prioritize clear, outcome-driven content

  • Use research, testing, and analytics to improve over time

This approach does more than make your portfolio look good. It makes it work better. And when it works better, it opens doors.

So next time you sit down to tweak your portfolio, ask yourself: "What would I do if this was a real product launch?" Then do that.

Because it is.

Sooner or later that first interview is going to fly in.

💼 More Jobs

👀 Portfolio Showcase

Today we have Nick’s portfolio on the showcase, and I was genuinely excited reviewing it. There are some standout elements here that not only feel polished but also make it super engaging from the first scroll.

Let’s take a look at what Nick got right!

The Good:

  • Engaging Case Study Previews: Nick did something here that I don’t see often—and when I do, I get excited. He animated his case study previews. But not in a loud or over-the-top way. They’re subtle, tasteful, and incredibly effective in making his work feel dynamic and inviting. This kind of motion draws attention without overwhelming the viewer, and it instantly sets the tone for the rest of the portfolio. One small point: the titles for each case study could still be a bit more compelling. But honestly, the visuals already do a lot of the heavy lifting here, and they’re doing it well.

  • Visual Storytelling & Scannability: Nick’s case studies are visually rich and thoughtfully structured. He uses a bento-style grid format, and throughout his work, he consistently applies color-coded cards to surface results or call out findings. This approach adds clarity and makes it easy to scan through the case studies while picking up key points quickly—exactly what recruiters need. These touches not only make the case studies more digestible, but they also look great. One note: a lot of these elements are currently images, which makes them less accessible and harder to scale or maintain. I’d suggest rebuilding them as real components using divs in his builder of choice—but that’s a small, fixable thing in an otherwise very thoughtful visual system.

You know this section and you also know that no (!) portfolio is perfect. So let’s take a look at what I think Nick can do to improve his portfolio further.

The Potential:

  • Trim the Case Studies a Bit: Nick clearly put a lot of work into his case studies—and that shows. But I do think he’s giving us a bit too much. At times, the amount of detail becomes overwhelming, and some content (like a very large spreadsheet screenshot) might not be worth the space it takes up. Yes, it illustrates that he was solving for information overload—but we don’t need to zoom in that far to get the point. I’d recommend doing a pass through each case study to cut anything that doesn’t directly serve the narrative or add real value. Even beautiful UI slideshows, if they show things already covered, might be worth trimming. Think of it like flying over a landscape and zooming in only on the most important landmarks.

  • Typography & Readability: This one surprised me a little because Nick clearly has strong visual skills—but the typography in the case study body text feels off. The font weight is a bit too light, making longer sections of text harder to read. On top of that, the line height could use a boost for better readability. The visual storytelling blocks with type look great, but the actual body copy—the stuff people will turn to when they’re really reading—deserves more attention. Fixing this would go a long way in polishing the overall reading experience and would elevate the professional feel of the site even more.

Nick’s portfolio is a great example of how to make your work feel alive. From the subtle motion to the way he breaks down complex projects visually, there’s a lot to love here—and a lot to learn from. I highly recommend checking it out for inspiration on how to create a more dynamic and engaging portfolio experience.

That’s it for this week—thanks so much for the support! ♥️

If you need more tailored help on your journey into design here is how I can help you further:

Keep kicking doors open and see you next week!
- Florian