Dive Club Episode Summary: "6 Tips to Make Your Portfolio Stand Out💡"
Hosted by Ridd, Dive Club is an insightful interview series aimed at unlocking the knowledge of today's most prolific designers. In the episode titled "6 Tips to Make Your Portfolio Stand Out💡," released on April 9, 2025, Ridd delves into actionable strategies that designers can employ to elevate their portfolios and capture the attention of hiring managers. Drawing from conversations with seasoned design leaders, the episode offers a comprehensive guide to crafting a standout portfolio. Below is a detailed summary of the six pivotal tips discussed, enriched with notable quotes and timestamps for reference.
1. Develop a One-Liner Narrative for Your Portfolio
Timestamp: [00:15 - 01:52]
Key Points:
- Chris Abbott emphasizes the importance of defining a clear, concise "one-liner" that encapsulates your unique value within a team.
- This one-liner helps hiring managers quickly understand where you fit and what specific strengths you bring, such as technical prowess, research expertise, strategic thinking, or stakeholder alignment.
- Consistently reinforcing this narrative across your resume, portfolio, and presentations solidifies your personal brand.
Notable Quotes:
- Chris Abbott: “If you can decide what is that thing that makes me different than the hundred other people that just applied to this role, and then design that into your story...” [01:00]
- Host: “Tactic number one is to think about what you want your one liner to be and then reinforce that in every touch point.” [00:36]
Actionable Insight: Craft a distinctive one-liner that highlights your unique strengths and ensure it permeates every aspect of your portfolio to create a cohesive and compelling personal brand.
2. Ditch the Traditional Portfolio Grid
Timestamp: [01:52 - 03:24]
Key Points:
- The conventional grid layout, which showcases project thumbnails in a uniform manner, often fails to highlight the designer’s personal narrative and best work effectively.
- This structure limits the visibility of detailed case studies, as most hiring managers may not delve beyond the initial thumbnails.
- Marco Cornacci provides a successful example by creating multiple entry points to his case studies directly from the homepage, allowing his best UI work to take center stage.
Notable Quotes:
- Host: “The traditional portfolio structure forces you to boil an entire project's worth of compelling work into a single thumbnail.” [02:48]
- Marco Cornacci: “I really wanted to make a good first impression... you can see the work immediately, you can interact with it...” [02:48]
Actionable Insight: Move away from the standard grid layout by prioritizing your personal narrative and allowing your best work to be immediately visible and interactive, ensuring that hiring managers can engage deeply with your projects from the outset.
3. Show, Don’t Tell
Timestamp: [03:24 - 04:49]
Key Points:
- Amar Areshi advocates for showcasing tangible outcomes and real-world problem-solving within your portfolio rather than relying on abstract storytelling.
- Avoid generic visuals like walls of sticky notes or superficial personas; instead, demonstrate how you’ve bridged cross-functional gaps or contributed to meaningful product decisions.
- This approach provides a clearer picture of your actual impact and day-to-day contributions within a company.
Notable Quotes:
- Amar Areshi: “I do not want to see a wall of sticky notes again and that you study and then you study three Personas... I get it, that’s the job.” [04:03]
- Host: “In the sea of cookie cutter portfolios, if you're leading with a wall of stickies, you're going to get ruled out pretty quickly.” [04:26]
Actionable Insight: Focus on demonstrating specific instances where you’ve made meaningful contributions, such as facilitating team collaborations or making strategic product decisions, to provide concrete evidence of your skills and impact.
4. Go Extremely Deep on One Part of Your Project
Timestamp: [04:49 - 07:24]
Key Points:
- Ashman Gagari highlights the importance of delving into the intricacies of a single aspect of a project to showcase your depth of understanding and attention to detail.
- By breaking down complex elements, such as data handling in UI design, you demonstrate your ability to think critically and handle nuanced challenges.
- This depth allows hiring managers to assess your problem-solving capabilities beyond surface-level design aesthetics.
Notable Quotes:
- Ashman Gagari: “We don’t need the 55th histogram design... I think that type of opinion being built into just a generic table is actually enough to talk about for half an hour...” [05:08]
- Host: “Be the designer who can get ultra specific and communicate the set of micro decisions that went into a small chunk of the product.” [06:20]
Actionable Insight: Choose a specific component of your project and provide an in-depth analysis of your design decisions, demonstrating your ability to navigate and resolve complex design challenges.
5. Incorporate Video into Your Portfolio (Alpha)
Timestamp: [07:24 - 09:30]
Key Points:
- Adrian Griveau discusses the emerging trend of using video to enhance portfolio presentations, allowing designers to convey their ideas more dynamically.
- Videos can effectively showcase UI elements, provide voiceovers, and create an engaging narrative that static images or lengthy PDFs cannot.
- This medium not only makes your portfolio stand out but also reflects your ability to excite and communicate ideas—a vital skill for successful designers.
Notable Quotes:
- Adrian Griveau: “Video is a great tool. You can put a voiceover, you can add some music... it means that's the first step of like showing that you know how to get people excited about stuff.” [07:41]
- Host: “Video... demonstrates your ability to get people excited about ideas, which is a huge part of what it looks like to be successful as a designer.” [08:27]
Actionable Insight: Integrate video elements into your portfolio to create a more engaging and expressive showcase of your work, highlighting your ability to communicate effectively and generate excitement around your designs.
6. Sell Craft as the First Impression
Timestamp: [09:30 - 10:41]
Key Points:
- Christophe Tosier underscores the paramount importance of craftsmanship in a designer’s portfolio, stating that top-tier craft is difficult to train and should be a focal point from the outset.
- Emphasizing high-quality design work ensures that candidates not only meet but elevate the standard of craftsmanship within a team.
- This focus on craft acts as a compelling first impression, signaling your dedication and proficiency to potential employers.
Notable Quotes:
- Christophe Tosier: “Craft, if you really want to get to the finals level, is really hard to train and you really have to focus on that all the way at the beginning when you're hiring people.” [10:25]
- Christophe Tosier: “Is this person going to level up the bar for us? Are they better than, you know, our average work and will they help us kind of lift it up?” [10:20]
Actionable Insight: Prioritize showcasing your best craftsmanship in your portfolio to make a strong, positive first impression, demonstrating your ability to enhance and elevate the design standards of any team you join.
Additional Insights and Examples
Timestamp: [10:41 - 11:30]
Towards the end of the episode, Ridd shares an example of a standout portfolio by Wandi Zoo. Despite its simplicity, Wandi’s portfolio immediately showcases her mastery of typography, layout, and color—key foundational elements that make a lasting first impression within the crucial first eight seconds of a website visit.
Notable Quotes:
- Host: “Take this portfolio from Wandi Zoo as an example. It's really simple, but right away I know she understands typography, layout, color...” [10:41]
Actionable Insight: Ensure that the foundational design elements of your portfolio—such as typography, layout, and color—are meticulously crafted to make an immediate and lasting positive impression on viewers.
Conclusion
In this episode of Dive Club, Ridd provides a treasure trove of strategies for designers aiming to make their portfolios stand out in a competitive market. From crafting a clear one-liner narrative and abandoning traditional portfolio layouts to diving deep into project specifics and incorporating dynamic elements like video, each tactic serves to highlight a designer’s unique skills and thoughtful approach. Emphasizing craftsmanship as the cornerstone of your portfolio ensures that you not only meet industry standards but also set new ones. Whether you're an emerging designer or a seasoned professional, these insights offer valuable guidance to refine and elevate your portfolio, making it a powerful tool in your career advancement.
Looking Ahead: Stay tuned for the next episode of Dive Club, where Ridd will host Jack Brody, one of the original designers and longtime head of product at Snap. The discussion will focus on his new role at Suno and explore the future of music design.
For more episodes, key takeaways, and bonus resources, visit Dive.club.