Hey, UX friend.

If you're not getting invited to design interviews, chances are — your portfolio is holding you back. If you’re focusing on explaining your design process - this post is for you.

The bad news is:

You’ve poured time and effort into sharing all the details about your project, only to find it’s not hitting the mark. Process-driven case studies can be a turn-off for hiring managers who’ve seen the same design thinking template over and over again.

The good news is:

There is a proven way to help your portfolio stand out: And it is by telling good stories.

We can do this by following a ‘Story arc’.

The story arc is a classic storytelling structure found in books and movies that represents the progression of a narrative through 3 stages:

1. Beginning → 2. Middle → 3. End.

When applying it in the case study, we can simply replace it with:

1. Context → 2. Story → 3. Results.

To make sense of it, let’s go through each start one by one.

1.1 The book cover...

Here are two examples. Both are looking great. Clean, sleek, apple style, but in the example A:

⛔️ All the screens are tilted and hard to read. There are a lot of details, but they are not telling what we'll be seeing inside. We also cannot look through the UI details.

✅ With only one detail you know what is this project about. In this case, it must be related to some job posting. We can also learn enough about the designer's UI skills. Same style, but a better story.

1.2 Does your story sound intriguing?

⛔️ It's one way to say — This is the company and this is a topic.

✅ It's way better to say — here was a challenge, the subject, and an impact. By adding only two components (challenge and impact), you're implying the scope of the work and the range of the skills you were acquiring.

💡Tip: The 'challenge' here is a hook that aims to spark curiosity and motivate the reader to learn how you solved it. Think how your project title can imply an intriguing challenge that prompts readers to read the full story.

2. Story

2.1 Design your headlines.

Imagine you're about to read an interesting book, but as soon as you open it — you see yet another double diamond and a bunch of sections about the steps you took in the process.​
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✅ Example B: Martin Jancik is a design manager at Kiwi (the flight booking engine). If you just read this title and you connect the dots you immediately understand that "We do not sit together" is probably about seat assignments. This headline leads with a great insight, not a design process step.

2.2 Lead with research insights, not methods.

⛔️ Don’t start by saying what research methods you’ve used and show a bunch of Miro screenshots. No one will be able to understand them. That’s process reporting.

✅ Prioritize the key insights that impacted the end result. Reflect on:

• What were your AHA moments that defined your project direction?
• The conversation nuggets that made you realize something new.
• The assumptions that you were wrong about?...

The insights you’ve uncovered will tell a story. Not research methods. But don’t get me wrong, mention the research methods, just not in the first place.

2.3 Rationalize your design choices.

⛔️ Don't slap the user flow at your hiring manager hoping they will figure it out.

✅ Show how you arrived at a decision that works. Show your iterations. Share your considerations and the thinking behind it.

💡Tip: Zoom into the details you’re most proud of: micro-interactions, empty states /edge cases, experience delights, or witty copy. This step is optional, but if your strong power as a designer lies in polishing these details, you wouldn’t want to skip it.

2.4 Show what you’ve learned from validation.

⛔️ Don’t do: I’ve run 20 quantitative usability tests to learn about user issues.

✅ Do: Turns out guests miss the payment button leading to a 20% dropout.

3. Results

3.1 State the impact you drew.

• What were your key achievements? (e.g. Improved CVR by 10%).
• If there are no measurable results, you can approximate testing results to the business impact. E.g. SUS correlates with NPS.​
• Alternatively, you can also mention the impact of this project on the company people or process improvements (E.g. Improved the team UX maturity by running cross-functional discovery workshops).

3.2 Reflect on the lessons you’ve learned.

Your story closing notes. To make your story more real and show the signs of a growth mindset, it's also worth talking about your personal learnings:

• Were there any conflicts? If yes, how did you resolve them?
• What were your personal key lessons?
• Looking back what would you improve in the project/design?

If you're looking for a guided exercise...

Join us for the "Storytelling portfolio workshop" on October 15th.

In 2 hours, you’ll:

• ✅ Discover how to create an engaging case study.
• ✅ Build your case study structure with a hearty community.
• ✅ Get a detailed plan to complete your case study post-workshop.
• ✅ Have a shot at winning “Storytelling Pip-Deck Cards” by submitting your case study within a month.

​👉 To join, click here and secure your spot​

Don’t trust me, trust designers who took the WS

Check out the case studies community members have designed after the workshop:

👉 An entry-level UX designer (just landed an internship).

👉 Mid-level UX designer (just landed a job at a scale-up).

👉 Mid-to-Senior UX designer (currently interviewing at the remote-friendly scale-up).

💡Tip: You can also join the portfolio community where we run this and 10 other job-hunting workshops 10x/month.

When and how:

📆 October 15th, Tuesday. 10am (PST), 1PM (EST), 7pm (CET), 10.30pm (IST, India). Or exactly in:

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💸 Price is $45.00.

⏳ Duration is 2 hours

🗂 Bonus: A detailed guide to complete your case study post-workshop.

💼 My project is NDA, can I still join? Yes! you won't need to reveal any sensitive information during the workshop.

🎥 Yes! I'll send the recording to all the registered members after the workshop.

👉 Register workshop now ​

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Still have questions? Just DM me to anfisign@gmail.com

Otherwise hope to see you there.

Much love,

Anfi

❤️