Jeffrey Wilkinson

😡 WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT UX PORTFOLIOS. I just saw a job posting for a UX Research position that was adamant about a VISUAL portfolio. That was the final straw. Call me old-fashioned, but what is going on here? 🧓 I know the portfolio trend has been growing in UX design for a while, but I never understood how it would get this out of hand. For a profession that insists it's about "solving problems" and "being strategic," not just pixels and "making it pop," this obsession with slick Figma mockups and made-up KPIs in a PDF is baffling. Let me be clear: I'm all for demonstrating impact. But isn't that what CVs, cover letters, references, and in-depth interviews are for? The best researchers and designers I know have worked on problems so complex they can't be neatly packaged into a few slides. Without full context, their work would look like an alien technical document. This is before we even mention NDAs. And honestly, even without a strict NDA, it's just unprofessional to "spill the tea" on internal company strategy in a public document. And the KPIs? "Led to a $20M increase in ARR." "Decreased churn by 20%." Let's be honest: most of these are wild fabrications. In the real world, we often struggle to accurately measure much simpler things. I believe we are all trapped in a vicious cycle. Aspiring professionals feel they must create a portfolio because everyone has one. Recruiters and hiring managers ask for it because it's what everyone provides. This puts immense pressure on students to create shallow projects, and my fellow co-instructors suffer right alongside them, forced to teach how to build these portfolios simply because the market "wants" it. I honestly don't think anyone truly profits from this arrangement. Who started this cycle, and how do we break it? For your consideration, I've attached my portfolio to this post.

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In environments where PMs are hired as "user proxies," designers will always lose in a fight over "rendering intent." The belief that subject matter expertise can replace the need for research and an SME already knows the right thing to do is irreconcilable with real user-centered design, and pushes us into the role of Feature Designers.

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Hiring designers in today's market doesn't work with the old school "So tell me about a time..." type of questions or "What did you do in this challenging situation?" It's 2025 and this isn't how you assess design talent anymore. Instead, do this 👇 (This is just a small sample) ↳Ask about HOW they conducted research → Where they found users → How they documented the insights → How they mapped insights → How they prioritised insights → How they communicated them and to whom ↳Ask about HOW they validated the solution → What did 'success' look like → What did PMs say about this → How did they measure them → What was the initial hypothesis → What business impact did this have → Who defined the metrics and what were they ↳Ask about their contribution (This is non-negotiable) → Who did they turn to for help → What would they do differently → What did they do, how and why → When did they need to compromise → How did they deal with ambiguity or uncertainty (The list goes on) Ask for evidence of the above. Stories. Examples. Break it down into small pieces. #design #ux #tech #careers

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Mistakes are human. So why do so many interfaces treat them like crimes? User clicked the wrong thing? Page reload. User typed the wrong email? Start over. User pressed back? Data lost. This isn’t UX. This is user punishment. Here’s what great UX does instead: 1. Catches errors early 2. Highlights the fix clearly 3. Saves input progress 4. Lets you undo, retry, recover Design isn’t just about “happy paths.” It’s about handling human ones, too. User errors are part of real use. Design accordingly. (Repost if you believe UX should forgive, not punish ♻️) P.S. What product gives you the safest-feeling error experience?

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If I had to rebuild a UX Research team from scratch… I wouldn’t start with headcount. I wouldn’t start with frameworks. I’d start with intent. Because UX Research isn’t just about methods—it’s about building organizational clarity. Here’s how I’d do it differently (and more intentionally): 1. Embed researchers, don’t silo them. Partner early with product, design, and engineering. Make research unavoidable in decision-making. 2. Hire translators, not just technicians. A great researcher can turn complexity into a story that moves teams to act. 3. Prioritize influence over insight. It’s not about how many studies we run—it’s about how well the org listens. 4. Build shared rituals. From research share-outs to insight repositories, consistency makes research a habit, not a hurdle. 5. Make space for curiosity. The best teams aren’t just reactive. They explore the “unknown unknowns” before they become blockers. And above all: Empower research to lead, not just validate.

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93% of Junior Designers Don't Do This One Thing, And It's Hurting Them I see it all too often—young designers setting out on their professional journey, looking for their first entry-level role. They're hungry, they're eager, but they're missing something crucial: A portfolio full of gorgeous, high-fidelity projects showing process and quantifiable business impact. I know you just graduated a bootcamp and have never worked as a designer before, but it's absurd you don't have a SINGLE metric showing that your work singlehandedly saved the company $5M. What's worse, you didn't take a screenshot of your Miro or FigJam board every twenty minutes to show us your process in painstaking detail. At minimum, pick up some freelance work—no, I don't have any leads for you—and put that in your portfolio to show you have real-world experience. How am I, a professional designer or design recruiter reading your portfolio, supposed to understand your skillset without these critical pieces of information? It's baffling. Do better. -- This is how every trite post about portfolios, juniors, bootcamps, and hiring sounds to me. We really need to have better conversations on this site. I'm so bored.

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I spent the week building products with Replit and Lovable, and it got me thinking a lot about what this means for design. The role of UX design is shifting—fast. For a while now, the idea of a generalist UX designer has been fading. AI isn’t causing this shift, it’s just accelerating it. The truth is, anyone will soon be able to create standard product flows—whether it’s tweaking a checkout experience for different markets or A/B testing onboarding designs. PMs can already do this, and once AI integrates more deeply with design systems, it’ll become effortless. But let’s be honest: generalist UX has been on its way out for years. Not because of AI, but because of a deeper shift in the industry. We’ve seen a flood of people entering design, often without a strong foundation in craft. Entry-level roles are scarce, and the rise of robust design systems has made it easier to ***assemble*** rather than _design_. The reality is, being a "workshop facilitator" isn’t enough anymore. If you want to stand out and be a valuable asset today, you need a specialization—whether that’s craft, growth, or strategy. But do we still need designers? Absolutely. After playing around with these AI-powered tools, one thing is clear: if you don’t define how you want something designed, you’ll get something generic. Sure, I can type in a prompt and get a solid design in minutes—something that would have taken me two full days to create from scratch. But we’re about to see an explosion of bland design. Think about Squarespace. It makes great-looking websites incredibly easy to build. But why are there still so many bad websites out there? Because great tools alone don’t make great products—taste and design sensibility do. In the same way you can immediately recognize an AI-generated LinkedIn post, you’ll be able to spot an AI-generated landing page that hasn’t been touched by a designer. Designers shouldn’t be freaking out—they should be thrilled. For years, designers have fought for a seat at the table. The playing field just shifted in our favor. If you know how to solve meaningful problems and have strong craft, you’re about to be more empowered than ever. You won’t need a technical co-founder to bring an idea to life. You won’t need investor funding to get a product off the ground. If you develop a specialization—whether it’s craft, growth, or strategy—and learn how to leverage AI tools, you’ll be founder-ready. And the products you create will stand out because the extra 10% of craft will make all the difference. That is, if you've been investing in your craft.

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The UX/UI design field offers a diverse range of career paths, from broad generalists to deeply specialized experts. So, how do you choose which path aligns best with your goals and aspirations? This article will explore the pros and cons of becoming a UX generalist versus a specialist, helping you determine the best path for your unique career journey. #uxdesign #uidesign #ux

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UX hiring pro tip: Focus on human connections when applying for UX roles - research and look up hiring managers and folks who work around the role you are applying for and ask how they like working there, or some other open questions. Do not rely on "spray and pray". Just submitting a resume with no human connection makes it less likely for you to be picked up. Some folks will ignore you, a few may crab at you, and many will help you!

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Most UX job rejections aren’t about talent. They’re about readiness. In 2019, nearly 68% of new designers landed roles. By 2024, that dropped below 50%. Meanwhile, 73% of hiring managers say they can’t find “qualified” candidates (via Fortune 2025). So how can both be true? Because what we’re seeing isn’t an oversupply problem. It’s a preparation problem. → Design schools churn out polished portfolios built on perfect scenarios. → But the industry needs systems thinkers who can ship inside messy, constraint-heavy realities. That mismatch is why so many designers get interviews but not offers. The difference between “job-ready” and “impact-ready” is simple: 📊 Case studies connecting design to revenue, retention, or efficiency 📉 Proof you’ve solved problems under budget, time, or stakeholder pressure 🤝 Evidence of collaboration across PMs, devs, and business partners 📂 Process artifacts that show how you think—not just what you polished 👉 Swioe for a breakdown of education vs. real life, and how you can stand out in 2025. Want feedback on your case study? Drop a snippet in the comments—I’ll rewrite the first 3 to show how I frame business more clearly. #uxdesign #uxcareers #uxstrategy #uxjobs ⸻ 👋🏼 Hi, I’m Dane—your source for UX and career tips. ❤️ Was this helpful? A 👍🏼 would be thuper kewl. 🔄 Share to help others (or for easy access later). ➕ Follow for more like this in your feed every day.

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Tried my hand at vibe coding before it gets over saturated 👀 I’ve always thought I’m not really much of a “color” designer and I was struggling with gradients at work. Looking around in a place like Raleigh which is always so green I thought — what if I could just drag and drop that gradient into my UI? What if someone could customize their app every day based on what they see around them? That was just it. Replit did all the remaining insane work. It’s slow and glitchy and I totally need my dev friends to fix things. But its a start. HERE'S WHAT IT DOES (in simple terms): 📸 You take a photo of anything — sky, flower, wall — and it picks the colors to create a gradient 🎨 You choose how it flows — horizontal, vertical, diagonal 🧩 Then apply it to the web app’s UI theme and upload a screenshot to see how it actually looks (though that needs lot of work!) 🦻 You can check the accessibility contrast (needs work too) Some gradients turned out beautiful , some not so much. But it was exciting to see something become live. Personally, I feel this isn’t about tools vs. skills — tools like Replit, VO or Bolt just helps me explore an idea, that I wouldn't have followed through I guess, as a fun side project. Skills still are and would be the core of anything, way more personal and subjective to the need of the situation and person. #replit #vibecoding

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For as long as I’ve been a UX researcher, I presented findings in decks and reports. Stakeholders would nod… then nothing changed. I was following conventional wisdom: document your process, data, and findings. Yet the impact never matched the effort. "I'll review the slides later" or even after presenting your findings " I don't remember that insight,where can I find those stats?" A few months ago, I discovered Atomic Research during a webinar. A fellow researcher mentioned using it, and curiosity led me to dive deeper. What I found? A framework that’s transformed how I (and other UX designers & researchers) drive impact. Developed by Daniel Pidcock, this method finally let me retire dusty reports. I’ve since adopted it and played a bit with Glean.ly (Daniel’s purpose-built tool, a game-changer for teams embracing Atomic Research). Here’s how it reshaped our work and influence: #AtomicResearch #UXResearch #ProductManagement #UserInsights #DataDriven #DesignOps #AgileUX

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I've poured hours into my UX portfolio and I've explained my process. But I've still had nothing It’s frustrating, and it feels personal. But here’s something I’ve learned from talking with hiring managers: What I focused on in my portfolio often isn’t what hiring managers actually care about most. I was showing: My step-by-step design process My visual storytelling My craft and final outcomes But when I’ve asked hiring managers what really matters, they say things like: Can you solve our product challenges? Can you collaborate effectively with our team? Who are you as a designer, really? This is why I was getting passed over. My portfolio doesn’t answer those questions, so it won’t work out no matter how beautiful it was. So how did I fix that? I started to show: The messy decisions, trade-offs, and product thinking How I collaborated, adapted, and communicated What motivates me and how I think about design at a human level My goal isn’t to just explain what I did. It’s to make someone feel like they’ve already worked with you. That’s how I got hired.

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During my design coaching and client work, I often see designers struggle to guide reviewers through their designs. They come to meetings unsure how to explain their screens and end up saying things like, "Users will click this to go here and see that." To help protect your design from unconscious or unqualified ideas, I put together some tips on how to ask better questions, so you don’t get stuck solving too-wide or unclear questions from non-designers. Clear guidance leads to better feedback and stronger collaboration. #UXDesign #DesignLeadership #ClientCollaboration #DesignTips #ProductDesign

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Are you struggling to connect user insights to business impact? If you're in design or research, you know the challenge: moving past simple user needs to uncover what truly drives behavior. The Jobs-to-be-Done (JTBD) framework is the key to making that leap. This excellent text by my friend Itamar Medeiros, "Using Jobs To Be Done to Elevate your Design and Research Practice," breaks down exactly how JTBD can help you: - Gain sharper insights by focusing on user outcomes, not just demographics. - Improve collaboration by framing research in a way that aligns design, product, and engineering teams. - Win buy-in by connecting your design choices directly to business value and a more focused roadmap. If you want to elevate your influence and build more impactful products, this is a must-read. https://lnkd.in/dXGgv8sb #JobsToBeDone #JTBD #UX #CX #Design #UserResearch #ProductStrategy #ProductDesign #DesignThinking #GrowingDesignCulture #AmplifyingDesign #BusinessTransformationByDesign

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