Why Your Portfolio Isn’t Working
(and How to Fix It)

By Hannah Baker

Dear Reader,

Let’s talk about a harsh truth: Your UX portfolio might be the least important thing in your job search. Yep, I said it.

You spent hours making sure it showcases your best work. You structured your case studies just right.

You ensured your problem statements, research insights, and solutions flowed together. And yet… hiring managers are ghosting you like a bad Hinge date.

Well, the problem isn’t your portfolio—it’s how you’re thinking about it.

Designers know their work isn’t just about aesthetics, but many people still think of portfolios as a display case for past projects.

But hiring managers? They’re not here to browse. They’re here to solve a problem and want to know if you can help them do it.

So, let’s flip the script and treat this job search like a UX project.

Because guess what?

The hiring manager is your user. And your portfolio? Just one tiny touchpoint in the hiring journey.

How I Helped a Mentee Land a Job

A while back, I worked with a mentee who was feeling completely stuck in the job hunt. Although she had a solid portfolio, it wasn’t landing her interviews.

Instead of telling her to ‘just keep applying,’ we took a facilitation approach and used the Audience Strategy Worksheet (ASW) to help her rethink her entire job search.

First, we treated hiring managers as the users of her portfolio. That meant:

Researching their needs—digging into what companies were actually looking for.
Identifying gaps & strengths—so she knew what to highlight and where to improve.
Redesigning her portfolio to address concerns—making it speak directly to what hiring managers care about.

Over three sessions, we went from portfolio-as-a-pretty-thing to portfolio-as-a-strategic-tool.

And guess what?

She started getting interviews. Here’s how we did it:

Step 1: Do some user research

Before you send out another soulless application, take a breath.

You wouldn’t design a product without knowing what users want, so why are you applying to jobs without knowing what hiring managers care about?

Here’s your first mission:

Find 3-5 job descriptions for roles you’d love. Not just ‘meh, I guess I could do this’ roles, but ones that make you want to immediately quit your day job (or your current state of funemployment).

Now, extract the most common skills and requirements. Look for patterns. Are they all asking for facilitation or data-informed decision-making?

Next, rate yourself on each skill, 0-5 style:

0 = No clue, might be a made-up word
1-2 = I kinda know it but would Google frantically if asked
3 = I can hold my own
4-5 = I could confidently teach this to a small, eager crowd

When my mentee did this, she realized she’d been downplaying some of her best skills—and completely ignoring skills that every job was asking for.

This does two things:

It tells you what to highlight in your portfolio. If you’re a solid 4-5 on stakeholder management, that should be all over your case studies.
It shows you where you need to improve. If “designing for accessibility” keeps showing up and you’re at a 1, maybe it’s time to learn more.

Step 2: Use the ASW to get inside the hiring manager’s head

The Audience Strategy Worksheet (ASW) was created for workshop and presentation planning—to help designers think about who’s in the room, what they need, and how to guide them toward action.

But guess what?

It works just as well for job applications.

Think of your portfolio like a user experience.

If it’s unclear, unfocused, or missing what hiring managers need, they’ll bounce—just like a frustrated user on a bad website.

Here’s how to adapt some of the sections for your job search:

3a.
Original: Who will be in the room?
Adapted: Who will be looking at your application?
Identify whether a recruiter, hiring manager, senior designer, or all could review your work.

3b.
Original: What’s their experience level with the topic?
Adapted: What’s their experience level with UX and hiring designers?
Some hiring managers are designers themselves, while others rely on signals like clarity and communication.

4.
Original: What VALUE does this bring to your audience?
Adapted: What will they thank you for after reviewing your application?
Did your portfolio save them time by being clear? Did it remove doubts about your skills? Did it show initiative and leadership?

5.
Original: Expectations
Adapted: Why are they reviewing your portfolio?
Are they filling a skill gap? Scaling a team? Replacing a designer who left?

6a.
Original: What concerns might they have?
Adapted: What concerns might they have about hiring you?
Lack of leadership? Gaps in experience? Weak case study storytelling?

6b.
Original: How will you address those concerns?
Adapted: How will you proactively address those concerns?
Highlight relevant projects, add testimonials, or clarify your role in team collaborations.

Step 3: Make your portfolio a decision-making machine

Once you’ve completed the ASW, return to your portfolio and apply these insights.

Your case studies shouldn’t just say what you did; they should say how you helped the team make decisions.

For example:
❌ "I designed a new onboarding flow based on user research."
✅ "I ran a workshop with PMs and engineers to align on onboarding goals. The team was split on prioritizing speed or engagement, so I facilitated a decision-making process that led to a 20% increase in activation rates."

See the difference?

One is about design. The other is about leadership. And guess which one hiring managers are looking for?

Your Challenge:

You can either keep sending out the same portfolio and hoping for better results, or you can actually design the hiring experience.

Try this for just one job application and see what happens.

Find 3-5 job descriptions for roles you’d love.
Extract the key skills and requirements that show up the most.
Rate yourself on those skills (0-5 scale) to identify strengths and gaps.
Download the ASW (right here, no signup form) / and fill it out for your portfolio.
Make one update to your portfolio or cover letter based on what you have learned.
Hit apply and see what happens.