Design manager portfolios

A first-line design manager is hired on two proofs at once: that they can still judge craft, and that they can multiply it through other people. Most manager portfolios show only the first, because the case studies were written when the author was still an individual contributor.

The ones that work change the subject of the sentence. They open with scope stated as fact (team size, disciplines, who they partnered with), then describe what they decided, who they grew, and what changed for the team and the product afterwards. A case study about a critique ritual, a hiring bar or an onboarding path counts, and it is rarely confidential.

Manager portfolios are the rarest in this collection, because many managers never rebuild their site after the promotion. If yours still describes projects as if you did the pixels, rewriting the first sentence of each case study is the fastest fix.