193: Should your UX portfolio approach change based on your role or seniority?

UX portfolio approaches based on seniority or role. That question lands in Sarah Doody's inbox nearly every day. Does the approach actually need to change? This episode answers a real question from a listener targeting director level UX roles, wondering if the portfolio frameworks taught inside Career Strategy Lab only apply to individual contributors.

The process for building a strong UX portfolio doesn't change based on your job title. That's the real answer buried in a question Sarah gets constantly, usually from people convinced their situation is the exception. 

This time it came from a listener targeting director level UX roles, wondering if the frameworks taught inside Career Strategy Lab only apply to individual contributors. Sarah's answer: no.

Three reasons why. A portfolio's job stays the same no matter your title or years of experience. UX recruiters and hiring managers are always answering the same core questions. The way a portfolio gets consumed doesn't change either. A role gets 500 applications in 48 hours. 

Every portfolio gets skimmed and scanned, not read word for word. And what makes a portfolio good is consistent across roles too. Answer the so what behind your decisions. Not just what you did.

Gamified, operating system style portfolios are trending on LinkedIn right now. Sarah explains why they create friction instead of clarity for a recruiter trying to move fast. Then there's what-ifing. Hunting for UX portfolio advice specific to your exact job title, years of experience, or city. That search doesn't exist, and it's costing you time you don't have.

If your job title or seniority level has you wondering whether you need a different UX portfolio strategy, this episode settles it.

Topics Discussed

✅ Why the three questions UX recruiters and hiring managers are actually trying to answer never change, no matter your job title

✅ How the "jobs to be done" framework applies to your UX portfolio, and what your portfolio's actual job is

✅ What happens when a UX role gets 500 applications in 48 hours, and how that changes what your portfolio needs to survive

✅ Why talking only about what you did is the most common UX portfolio mistake, and what answering the "so what" actually looks like in a case study

✅ Why operating system style UX portfolios are trending on LinkedIn right now, and why they're probably working against you

✅ The real cost of constantly asking "what if" about your specific UX job title, years of experience, or city instead of just building your portfolio

✅ What went wrong with an early UX portfolio back in 2006, and what fixing it actually looked like

Links & Resources

🔗 Episode 155, Sarah's interview with Patrick Neeman, Director of UX and AI Experiences at Workday

🔗 Episode 173, Sarah's interview with Jeni Bible, UX Manager at Home Depot

🔗 Episode 172, Sarah's interview with Alexander Zeh, Head of Product Design at ManyChat

🔗 Episode 192, Sarah's interview with Sylvain Maretto, Director of Design at Ecosia

🔗 Episode 161, Sarah's interview with Jared Tredly, Design Recruiter at Shopify

🔗 Episode 188, UX Portfolio Myth: Your UX Portfolio Does Not Need To Be A Website (Myth 2/5)

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