Why do designers put 20 case studies on their website?
Think about the last time you landed on a website. How long did you stay? A few seconds. Maybe a minute if something caught your eye. You didn't read every page. You scanned, decided, and moved on.
Your clients do exactly the same on yours.
So why would a client spend an hour going through twenty of your projects? They won't. And if you're honest, you know it. [What a client told you when you asked what they look at.]
If your portfolio is getting bigger and your inbox isn't, that's okay. Mine did the same for months. The day I removed 15 projects, it started working.
Unfortunately, most designers keep going the other way. Every new project goes in. Every case study gets longer. The portfolio grows, and the inbox stays quiet.
Why you keep adding
Mostly because more feels like more experience. Twenty projects must look more serious than three, right?
But a client isn't counting your projects. They're looking for one thing that matches what they need. Twenty projects in ten styles make that one thing harder to find.
You probably recognise a few of these too:
- You're scared to remove the one project a client might have wanted.
- You look at big agencies that show fifty projects and copy them.
- Explaining your whole process feels safer than showing the result.
- Everyone online tells you to add more case studies.
- You've never asked a client what they actually look at.
None of these mean you're doing something wrong. They're just habits nobody questions. Here's how to look at your portfolio differently.
Keep only the work you want more of
Imagine you had to hire yourself. You have a project, a deadline and a long list of designers. Would you read twenty case studies? Or would you scan the work, see if it looks like what you need, and move on?
You'd scan. Everyone does. So three or four projects are enough. Not your favourites. The ones that look like the work you want to be hired for next, for the kind of client you want to work with.
Your portfolio quietly teaches clients what to hire you for. Show ten kinds of work and you'll get ten kinds of requests. Show one kind and you'll get that one. When I cut mine down, the requests changed. [What you kept, and the kind of client who started reaching out.]
And the rest of your work doesn't have to disappear. Put it on Behance. Your portfolio is only for the work you want more of.
Show the result, not your whole process
You've probably written out your process. Six steps, every wireframe, a long story for each project. It feels professional.
But a client of mine once looked at a finished design and asked me one question.
Will this get me leads?
That's all your client wants to know too. Does it work for them? Nobody reads the copy you wrote about your process. They want to see what changed.
So show the work first. Then a few lines. What was the problem. Who the client was. What changed for them after. Your process still matters, but save it for the call, when someone is already interested and wants to know how you work.
Picture two designers applying for the same landing page. One sends every project they've ever done. The other sends three landing pages, each with the problem and the result. Which one would you call? The second one, even if the first is more talented. You can see yourself in their work.
Let your portfolio filter your clients
Here's something most designers miss. A good portfolio doesn't only attract the right clients. It also keeps the wrong ones away.
When people can see what you do and roughly what you charge, the ones who aren't a fit leave before you ever talk. That saves you a call that was never going to work, and it saves them one too.
And give every page one clear next step. People can love your work and still not know how to reach you. One simple line, here's how to work with me, changes that.
Spend your time where clients come from
Here's the part nobody tells you. Your portfolio won't find clients for you. It only helps people decide once they're already looking.
Clients come from you sharing your work online, even concepts when you have no clients. Take an existing website or app, redesign it, and show what's broken and how you'd fix it. Not some fake Nike redesign. A client isn't looking for pretty pictures. They're looking for someone who can see what's wrong with their product.
They come from you helping people without asking for anything back. From networking. From past clients recommending you to their friends. That's where most of mine came from.
Your portfolio is where they land. It isn't what brings them. So take the hours you spend adding projects and put them there instead.
There's a lot more to what goes inside each of those three case studies, and how to make a client say yes before the call even starts. That's where most of the real work is. I'll come back to it in another letter.
Bottom line
Keep three or four projects that look like the work you want. Show the problem, who it was for and what changed. Let your portfolio filter your clients, and spend the rest of your time sharing work and talking to people. A client hires the one thing they need, not everything you can do.
How many projects are on your portfolio right now? Hit reply and tell me. I read every one.
See you in another one! Let's grow together 🙌
P.S. Want me to look at your portfolio with you? 1:1 calls open soon, 4 a month. Reply with the word call and you'll hear first.
