Portfolio tips for product designer
What Top Design Recruiters Want in 2025
We at Design Originals Club, have reviewed over 400+ portfolios till now.
More recently, we set out to do individual reviews for dozens of designers, but we quickly realized it wasn’t possible to address every single submission in detail.
That’s when Paras and I decided to make a dedicated video series, focusing on best practices and lessons learned. Sharing below a distilled version of those conversations
I have embedded the video at the end of this newsletter. I hope you find this valuable. Feel free to reply to this email if you need any feedback or help with your design portfolio :)
Let’s dive deeper 💪🏽
Don’t rely on Dribble/Behance
When we first started reviewing designer links, we noticed some were just Behance profiles. That’s totally fine as a starting point, but we are a big believer in having your own domain.
Common folks, it’s not 2014, get your own website 😅. It fosters a distinct brand presence and gives you more control over the experience.
Setting up with Notion or Framer is quick and (mostly) painless. You don’t need to code. Pick a template and personalize it to showcase your style. Grabbing a custom domain name is a small step with a big payoff in credibility.
Keep It Focused and Selective
One of the biggest mistakes we see is uploading every project you’ve ever touched. Instead, we always recommend curating:
✅ Show only two or three standout case studies that demonstrate the depths of your abilities.
✅ Lead with the most sophisticated or high-impact projects.
✅ Summarize your role and responsibilities so visitors know exactly what you contributed.
Ditch the “One-Size-Fits-All” Design Process
Sometimes we open a portfolio and see a robotic breakdown: “Define → Discover → Research → Personas → …”. In reality, the design process rarely follows a neat sequence. Recruiters/Design managers prefer seeing how you actually tackled the challenge:
Walk through the genuine process, including unexpected twists. Trim the fluff (like endless personas or generic journey maps). Make sure to connect research back to the final deliverable—otherwise, it’s just filler.
Get Personal with Your About Section
We are drawn to portfolios that show personality. We have read so many generic About pages that could come from ChatGPT. Instead, show who you really are:
✅ Write in your own words—using your own voice.
✅ Highlight interesting aspects of your background (side projects, events, or even non-design hobbies).
✅Humanize yourself. Let your personality shine.
Showing Breadth and Impact
If you’ve been at the same company for years, it can be tempting to showcase just one giant project, but design recruiters love seeing variety within that single organization. Maybe you handled a rebrand, designed a mobile app, and jumped into a big marketing campaign. Put them in separate case studies.
Quantify the impact where possible: talk about improvements in metrics or how your redesign improved user satisfaction.
Touch on product thinking: Do you collaborate with product managers and developers? Did you plan out the big picture?
Don’t Forget the Visual Design
There’s a misconception that, as a UX designer, it’s acceptable to have a purely “functional” portfolio. We strongly disagree—visual polish affects first impressions. Use this free platform to up your visual design game.
Focus on solid visual principles like typography, spacing, and legibility.
Minimize random animations and huge file sizes (users won’t stick around if it takes too long to load).
Keep everything scannable. Employ bullet points, visuals, and short paragraphs
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When Video > Static Images
Sometimes we’ll come across an incredible Loom walkthrough. Let me tell you, a short video can say far more than a long written paragraph.
Quickly demonstrate the flow of your app or website.
Narrate your reasoning, design decisions, or constraints.
Don’t let videos drag on—short and snappy is best.
Show your versatility
Designers are often multifaceted. If you run workshops, speak at conferences, or build Figma plugins, feel free to brag about it!
Showcase side hustles, community initiatives, or specialized domain knowledge.
If you’re a writer, link to your blog or newsletter.
This humanizes you beyond your final screens and is often a conversation starter during interviews.
Wrapping Up
Each portfolio tells a story—your story. By curating your case studies, focusing on real impact, embracing your unique process, and letting your personality shine, you’ll create a portfolio that resonates with anyone on the lookout for talent.
Whether it’s a hiring manager, potential client, or curious peer, your work should leave them excited to connect with you.
Thanks for reading, and happy designing! Feel free to let me know if you have any questions or if there’s another specific topic you’d like me to dive into next time.
And here’s the full video below, in case you prefer watching