As a design expert, manager, and now founder of my own design studio, I both hired practitioners as well as mentored others and helped them get hired. Through my experience in the industry, I reviewed tons of design portfolios. In doing so, I have come to the conclusion that the designers that tend to stand out the most are the ones that avoid falling into this trap while writing or talking about their previous projects.

THE red flag 🚩

WE, WE, WE.

Instead of I, I, I 🫵.

Whether you are writing a case study or discussing it during a design interview, stop explaining things on a “we-basis”.

Unless edge case scenarios (i.e. pitching as a design studio), the interviewer is not looking to hire you and your previous team. They are looking to hire you as an individual. All they want to know is WHY YOU.

Clients and hiring managers want to know what you personally brought to the table. They want to know what unique skills and perspectives you brought to the project, how you overcame challenges, and what your specific contributions were. Talking about “we” can make it difficult to differentiate your individual contributions from those of your team members.

Ownership

Using “we” in your portfolio can also make it seem as if you are trying to deflect responsibility for any shortcomings in the project. Clients and hiring managers want to see that you take ownership of your work and are willing to stand behind it. Using “I” in your portfolio allows you to take credit for your accomplishments and show that you are confident in your abilities.

Stand out

Moreover, using “I” can also help you establish your personal brand as a designer. By highlighting your unique skills and experiences, you can differentiate yourself from other designers and create a compelling narrative about your design career. This can help you stand out in a crowded job market and make it easier for clients and hiring managers to remember you.

What’s YOUR superpower? Or maybe your quirk? Do you like to create your own icons and illustrations instead of using libraries? Do you doodle? Do you love project management tools like Jira or Notion and you wonder if, in a previous life, you maybe were a project manager? Do you read a lot? Or maybe you love startups and always try to come up with creative solutions that you saw on the latest design trends from Product Hunt or Indie Hackers? Whatever it may be. Make it personal. Make it about you. Make yourself easy to remember.

Team player

Obviously, this does not mean that you should ignore the contributions of your team members entirely. Collaboration is an essential part of the design process, and clients and hiring managers want to know that you can work well with others. However, you can still talk about collaboration and teamwork without using “we” in your portfolio.

For example, you can describe how you collaborated with your team members on specific tasks or projects and highlight the unique contributions that each person made. Alternatively, you can focus the case study around the design input that you brought individually while instead explaining what process you followed with your team to reach the final output. How did you benefit from it? What worked and what didn’t? Which changes would you apply to such a process if you had to improve it next time?

Remember, they are after you, not your team.

You are the one interviewing. So focus most of the writing / talking on your individual contributions. Briefly mention which unique input each team member brought to the project, and then expand on it explaining which side of that relationship worked well and what instead you’d like to change.

In doing so, you will be able to not only stand out as an individual but also demonstrate that you can be a team player and that you are constantly eager to improve.

Found this or any other Medium story insightful? How about signing up for a membership?

Mind-blowing value for your personal development 🙌 🧠 🚀