I told a designer this week that her portfolio would be an immediate reject. She asked for it, I was honest, and I’m sharing the advice because a lot of designers need to hear it. Here’s what I’m seeing from the hiring side: The market is hard for designers that are mid. Wars are being fought for the ones that are really good! Case studies are mostly dead. When I review designers with startups, it’s a quick scroll and it’s almost all visual. Nobody has time to read your process. The craft bar is high, even in “boring” B2B SaaS. Designers who hit it are getting interviews left and right. Designers who don’t are having a really hard time. Startups want someone who can punch above their weight. They’re a team of 3 or 4 on a rocket ship, and they need a designer who can wear multiple hats. AI raised the floor. Anyone can generate something generic normie shit now. What’s in demand is the person who fights with the tools until it creates something exceptional instead of accepting the default. So what I told her to do: → Take your first 2-3 projects and redo the screens that matter → Time-box it. Two days, two screens, one quick motion study → Don’t worry if your company’s design system was weak. Redo it and show how it should have been → Get someone with a strong visual bar to push you → Keep the site simple. A single page can get you hired → Start applying and building interview slides only AFTER you fix your portfolio. → Use your network to open doors for you. Nothing matters more right now than the portfolio. It’s not a fun thing to hear. But I’d rather you hear it from me than from silence in your inbox.

Go-to-Market Builders AI Lab - Singapore 🇸🇬 Last weekend, we teamed up with @Singtel & SMU Institute of Innovation & Entrepreneurship to host a hands-on build event focused on one of the hardest problems in AI right now: actually getting it to market 😬 Teams got hands-on with a powerful toolkit, including @ManusAI, @mem0ai , @Vapi_AI , and @ExaAILabs , to bring their ideas to life. From collaborative study tools to business strategisers, the creativity in the room was something else entirely. Thank you to our brilliant judges and mentors, + Our sponsors and our community 🤍

Where is design? It's been absorbed into Product Managers. For what's worth, designers, please start building and shipping. This is a big signal.