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15 mins

Feb 27, 2026

The New Design Portfolio (No Case Studies)

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Hiring managers spend 55 seconds on your portfolio. I know because I’m helping companies like Cursor, Vercel, and Figma find designers, and what’s getting callbacks right now looks nothing like a case study.

In this video: real portfolios from designers who are working right now, what hiring managers are actually scanning for in 2026, and four paths you can take to start building this new kind of portfolio.

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Chapters

[00:00] - 55 seconds to make a decision

[00:45] - What the Figma hiring study actually says

[01:45] - What’s changing on the canvas

[02:30] - Chloe Yan’s 10-minute playground

[03:15] - Preston Booth: the site is the portfolio

[03:45] - When the product is the portfolio (Seb Cornelius)

[04:15] - Wora Work’s entire world

[04:45] - Viktor Oddy: experimenting in public

[05:15] - Does this actually lead to work?

[06:30] - The paradox: jobs are up, but hiring managers disagree

[07:30] - The junior designer problem

[08:30] - Tool osmosis: the new apprenticeship

[09:30] - PwC data: AI-exposed industries grew 38%

[10:15] - Path 1: Micro interactions

[10:45] - Path 2: Build your own playground

[11:15] - Path 3: Software as a gift

[12:00] - Path 4: Learn in public

[12:45] - Where to post (X, Instagram, LinkedIn)

[13:30] - The DM that changed my mind

[14:15] - My challenge to you

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