First, a public announcement: we are just 3 WEEKS away from the early bird deadline (Sept 10) for the 7-Month Live UX Design Accelerator. If you are serious about committing to your UX learning and career growth, I recommend registering for the course this week. I’d love to see you in class for the Fall 2026 cohort :)
Okay, back to your POV: You lied on your UX resume and now you’re hired as the solo product designer at a stealth AI startup. What would you consider when building a design system for a startup product from scratch? Would you start with the branding, technical constraints, user problems, or monetization strategy? The answer is all of the above, but the order matters, so let’s break it down.
Welcome back to UX Challenge #30 on the UX psychology behind everyday brands. I’m Samaya, your UX Woman and I help you land six-figure UX jobs, sharing my experiences working with brands like Disney+, Hulu, Marvel, Vanguard, and more.
It’s important to start with user problems. Did you know that 40% of startups fail because nobody actually needed or wanted their product? If there is a need, then startups often get outcompeted by other bigger competitor players in the market. This will be true for AI startups and products as well in the age of AI.
Next, design ideation and working closely with developers to work within technical constraints. What pie in the sky solutions can you design to solve tough user problems? And how might you simplify those solutions based on what’s technically and operationally feasible.
That brings me to the business perspective. There is no business without a clear monetization strategy or a solution that users are actually willing to pay for. So that is the next priority- a lot of startups try freemium models to get users hooked on using a product for a brief time before purchase.
And finally - branding and graphics! Surprised? But this is really just the cherry on top. Companies rebrand all the time. The key to building a successful design system is to focus on the substance, not the looks.
To land a UX job in a competitive job market, you need to build a UX portfolio that is far from cookie-cutter. Here’s the secret to creating a successful UX portfolio that lands you UX design jobs: Don’t do what everyone else is doing! Instead, build a focused UX portfolio based on your PERSONAL strengths, expertise and passions.
We’ve noticed so many Google Coursera grads and UX bootcamp grads finish their curriculums with irrelevant portfolio case studies that are not likely to get them hired. Why is that?
Cookie-cutter portfolio pieces: They are graduating with UX consulting case studies that dozens of other students have in their portfolios. Or they were assigned project topics like building a weather app or dog training app. But how many weather apps and dog training apps are actually hiring UX designers or UX researchers at the moment?
A focus on visuals rather than storytelling: We’ve reviewed hundreds of UX portfolios from a variety of UX bootcamp grads and Google Coursera grads. We’ve noticed that their portfolios tend to emphasize the end results or the solution, without providing enough context on how they got there or why they made the design decisions that they did. It’s really important to be able to talk through the project context, design process, and decision making involved when building a UX portfolio.
Irrelevant portfolio pieces: There’s often a HUGE mismatch between UX bootcamp grads past work experience and what’s in their UX portfolio. For example, they might have a stellar 5-10 year career in healthcare, education, or marketing BUT their portfolio only showcases dog training apps, cooking apps, and travel apps (i.e., nothing related to their actual career or industry expertise).
No business model for UX case studies: The harsh truth is that an app or idea or design with no solid business model is not valued by executives and stakeholders with business, tech, and operations expertise. Truly useful and impactful design aligns user needs with the business model, as well as tech and operations constraints. Truly useful and impactful design scales as the business scales. A lot of UX portfolios don’t showcase this! It’s not just about pretty aesthetics!
Before you get started with ANY UX bootcamp or UX course or grad program, do the following to set yourself up for success and really get the most out of your education.
Evaluate your passions & expertise: Don’t build cookie-cutter UX portfolio pieces that everyone else is building! Instead, evaluate your passions and expertise. If you are a professional with 2-10 years of experience in another field making a career change to UX, then evaluate the industries you worked for in the past. Can you specialize in UX for those industries because of your expertise? For example, Valerie leveraged her 10+ years of expertise in healthcare, to land a UX lead role at CVS corporate. If you are a new grad or in the early stages of your career, can you define for yourself what industries you are most passionate about?
Balance emotions & logic in your storytelling: Most cookie-cutter UX case studies only focus on articulating user needs, forgetting to showcase the emotional journey a user or customer must make as they navigate problems and frustrations. In addition to this, UX researchers and UX designers must showcase both qualitative and quantitative data to justify why they chose to focus on a specific user problem and why they chose to design and build a specific solution. This qualitative and quantitative data is crucial when it comes to persuading senior executives and stakeholders about the value of the product ideation and implementation. Balance between emotional storytelling and highlighting impactful metrics is key. Check out how Andrea weaves a UX story that balances her passion for fashion design, e-commerce business models, user needs and emotions, and technical/operations constraints.
Create relevant portfolio pieces: Most UX portfolios contain 3-5 case studies. You HAVE to ensure that ALL your case studies are relevant to your passions and expertise if you want to land your dream UX job. For example, Valerie created 2 healthcare case studies as part of the UX Woman Live UX course, but also rebranded some of her previous healthcare expertise to showcase 3 additional case studies in UX research and service design, skills she had used while optimizing processes and operations at the healthcare practice where she had previously been working.
Become an interdisciplinary designer or researcher: You have to be able to articulate how the business, tech teams, and operations teams will be impacted by your designs. What are the consequences of your designs on these teams? It is crucial to understand the business model for the product or service you are designing to be able to articulate how your designs will impact the business, or scale as the business scales. These are some common knowledge gaps that UX bootcamp grads and even seasoned UX designers have! We address these gaps in our 7-Month UX Design Accelerator starting on September 20th! Come join us for the Fall 2026 cohort by registering for the course here.
As always, rooting for your success!
Samaya, your UX Woman.
P.S. With the early bird deadline just 3 weeks away, I recommend registering for the Fall 2026 cohort TODAY to save your seat! And don’t be a stranger! You can use the summer discount code UXDESIGN101 to get $200 off on your registration.
P.P.S. Don’t be a stranger! Book a 20-minute strategy call with us to see if the 7-Month UX Design Accelerator is the right fit for you right now.
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