The Death of the Design Portfolio (Don't Panic)
Execution Is Cheap Today. Your Portfolio Needs to Show Why, Not What.
A (very) short guide for design students and job seekers on creating a portfolio reviewers actually want to see
Portfolio season is almost upon us. Every other semester at UC Berkeley's Master of Design program, I review dozens and dozens of design portfolios. It's a peculiar ritual: opening tab after tab, scrolling through carefully curated case studies, watching auto-play animations demonstrate interaction patterns. User research is mentioned, personas are presented, Figma prototypes are linked.
And yet, increasingly, I find myself thinking: "Nice (now where have I seen this before?) execution … Zero insight into who you are.”
It's not that the work is bad. Quite the opposite. The work is frequently excellent. The problem is that this type of excellence in execution has become, shall we say, rather domesticated of late. And by "of late" I mean "since approximately last week when someone discovered they could generate professional-looking visuals by typing sentences into a text box."
Your portfolio, I'm afraid to say, is lying about you.
The portfolio illusion
For decades, the design portfolio has been the design industry's currency. Show me what you've made, and I'll know if you're good. It made sense in a world where execution ability was rare and hard-won. If you could ship beautiful work, you probably knew something valuable.
But here's what portfolios actually measure, and this is where things get a bit awkward: the opportunities you've been given. Students show us their coursework. Professionals show us their client projects. Both are really showing us access: to good assignments, supportive mentors, clear briefs, adequate time and resources. We're measuring your past circumstances more than your design potential.
AI didn't create this problem. It just made it impossible to ignore. The portfolio no longer signals what it used to.
Past execution stops being predictive. The student who spent a semester building an impressive Figma prototype and the applicant who learned Midjourney last week can both produce work that looks professional.
Perfect portfolios are red flags
The skills that actually matter in design were never visible in portfolios.
Can you recognize a real problem worth solving? Can you work without a brief? Can you navigate ambiguity when there's no one to tell you if you're on the right track? Can you stay motivated when nobody's looking? When there's no grade and no client at the end? We see the process executed perfectly but not what happens when you have to figure out the process yourself.
The designers who stand out in the age of AI
So what should I show?
In our portfolio reviews, certain candidates immediately distinguish themselves. Not because they have the most polished school projects, but because they demonstrate something more valuable:
They work on problems that matter to them personally, revealing intrinsic motivation, which is far more predictive of success than technical skill
They show the messy parts: what didn't work, the user testing session where everything fell apart, the three directions they explored before finding one that actually solved the problem
They demonstrate real empathy, not performed empathy, showing they actually talked to real people, observed them struggling, and understood their context deeply enough to solve problems users didn't even know they had
They make things without permission, building side projects and redesigning things for practice in a self-directed way that school projects can never reveal
They understand design is about people, not pixels, focusing on outcomes and impact rather than whether their Figma file looks impressive
They're intellectually honest about AI, articulating exactly where AI helped and where their judgment was critical—pragmatists who understand the tool's capabilities and limitations
How to build a portfolio that stands out
Whether you're applying to our program or preparing for job interviews:
Stop relying on assigned work alone. School projects and client work prove you can follow a process, not that you can think independently.
Find problems that genuinely frustrate you in your daily life: things that make you think "why doesn't this work better?" (and think of systems as well, not just products!)
Start solving them, even if nobody asked you to. Don't wait for permission, a client, or the perfect brief.
Document everything, especially what didn't work. Show us what you tried, what failed, the dead ends. That's where the learning is.
Make your thinking visible. Explain the constraints you worked within and the trade-offs you made.
Talk to real users for your own understanding. Not for a deliverable. Interview friends about apps they struggle with. Watch your parents use technology. Observe strangers in coffee shops navigating interfaces.
Build things when nobody's watching. Work on side projects at 2 AM. Redesign things for practice. That's when we see what you're actually capable of.
Show us what you care about. Reviewers can tell the difference between a project you did because you had to and a project you did because you couldn't not do it.
The portfolio isn't dead because AI makes beautiful execution trivial. It's dead because it was always measuring the wrong things. We're simply being forced to acknowledge it now.
What you show matters less than why you made it in the first place.
