Open your portfolio next to 10 other designers.

For many of us it’s the same “UX/Product Designer solving complex problems for users and business”. As a design hiring partner and portfolio coach, I see this all the time. Often the rest is similar too: same case structure, same portfolio layout, sometimes even similar solutions.

So I ask myself, what separates these designers?

Skills, partly. Visual craft you catch at a glance, storytelling you catch from scanning the headings. But AI does the execution now, so a mediocre portfolio is easier to reach than it used to be. The quality bar has risen. What used to be an advantage for a few, a clean portfolio, soon won’t be enough for a lot of roles.

So what is?

I went through the latest job descriptions and industry reports, and the same words keep showing up: visionaries, captains, relentlessly resourceful. Companies don’t want just designers anymore. They want a different designer archetype.

Here’s what that means for your positioning:

01. Analyse

Positioning starts with knowing what you’re actually positioning. Most designers skip this and end up describing the role, not themselves. I use my own framework for figuring this out: the PPF framework. I start from mapping out my career first before I touch anything else.

The overlap between what you’re good at, what you want, and what the market needs is your position. Not a job title you borrowed from a random design job description.

Exercise for you:

Write three columns, past, present, future. Fill them honestly, then circle the two or three things that show up across more than one column. That repetition is your signal.

02. Decide

Companies aren’t hiring just designers anymore. They’re hiring heroes, the people who connect disciplines and own the outcome end to end.

Netali Jakubowitz, VP of Product at Maze, puts it plainly: they no longer see speed of execution as a differentiator, so instead of solid executors they hire visionaries.

Notion’s job description says it all too: “You're familiar with the work of computing heroes like Douglas Engelbart, Alan Kay, Bret Victor, etc. — and understand why we're big fans”

All of them are pioneers and innovators who blend engineering, science and design, all with a clear POV on the future. That’s who companies are pointing at now. That’s the shift. Companies want to hire design founders (like it or not).

Your value is broad and deep at once. Solid across business, visual, code, content, with real depth where it counts. That’s more than “designer”. That’s a hero portfolio.

Exercise for you:

Pick your combination. Get genuinely strong in one area while staying solid across the rest, then get strong in another. Finish this in your headline: “I’m a designer who…”.

03. Systemise

A hero portfolio is packaged with your AI systems. Saying you “use AI” means nothing now, everyone says it. Show how you run it.

Jessica Rosenberg, Head of Brand at AIROPS, describes an agent captain model, designers acting as captains overseeing the AI agents that handle production. That’s the posture to show and not “I used a tool”, but “I directed the work”.

Exercise for you:

Pick one project where AI changed the outcome. Write the before and after in one line each. If you can’t show what changed, it’s not yet proof.

04. Communicate

The skills get you considered, but it’s your point of view that gets you hired. This is the part AI can’t replicate, and the part most portfolios bury.

A real product design job description literally asks for someone “relentlessly resourceful”, a phrase Paul Graham coined in 2009 to describe startup founders. The opposite of passive. The kind of person who makes things happen instead of waiting for them to. Companies are screening designers for a founder trait, and it shows up as judgement.

Exercise for you:

Take your strongest project and write the one decision you’d defend in a room full of seniors. If your portfolio doesn’t already show that decision and your reasoning, add it. That’s your POV.

Final thought

There’s no right answer here. Both can teach you a lot.

If you’re a beginner, I’d go all in on becoming a design engineer, design + code. If you’re senior, you most likely don’t want to start over like that. That’s when I’d question whether I actually want to try running a business for myself instead.

For what it’s worth, I’m trying to be a hero for myself. Both paths are hard. But these are the times we’re in.

And the pattern is turbo clear. Just look at the keywords pulled straight from job descriptions and industry reports: '“visionaries”, “captains”, “relentlessly resourceful”.

Maybe companies want us to help save their business, because they’re afraid of AI and what’s coming next too. Ultimately, not every business is good at speed and becoming innovators.

Tools I actually use in my workflow. Some links support this newsletter.