I stopped designing portfolio projects

I stopped designing portfolio projects to look like real client projects. I used to think a strong Product Design case study needed a lot of screens. Dashboard. Settings. Profile. Notifications. Every possible state. The file looked impressive. But when I looked at it as a hiring manager might, I realized something: More screens weren’t showing more thinking. They were mostly showing that I could keep extending the same UI system. So I changed how I approach portfolio projects. Now I start with one question: What is the most important problem this product needs to solve? Then I build one complete journey around it. For example: Monitor → Locate → Diagnose → Act → Verify Five stages can tell me much more about a designer than twenty unrelated dashboard screens. Because now I can show: → why the flow exists → what information the user needs at each point → what I chose to prioritize → what I removed → how one decision affects the next screen I’ll still design additional states when they matter. But I no longer add screens just to make the Figma canvas look impressive. A portfolio isn't proof of how many screens you can design. It’s proof of how you think through a problem. That shift has made my case studies smaller but much stronger. Designers: when reviewing a portfolio, would you rather see 20 polished screens or one deeply considered journey? #ProductDesign #UXDesign #ProductDesigner #UXPortfolio #CaseStudy #UIUX #DesignProcess