Building Designfolio
How Product Thinking Shaped Our Journey⚡️
App name / Client
Designfolio
My Role
Co-founder/PM
Industry
Design
Platform
Web
In the rapidly evolving world of tech, being good at product thinking is key for product managers who want to make products that really connect with users. Product thinking is more than just making a product; it’s about fully understanding what users need, how the market works, and what makes a product truly necessary and not just useful. (Building features that are ‘must-haves’ rather than ‘nice-to-haves’)
The Essence of Product Thinking
At its core, product thinking is the art and science of crafting products that align with the specific needs and desires of users. It’s about peering beyond the surface to grasp the underlying motivations that drive user engagement and loyalty. This skill is not innate; it is cultivated through a relentless pursuit of empathy, observation, and a deep-seated curiosity about human behavior and technological possibilities.
Here’s how we used Product Thinking to build (or rather building 😉) DesignFolio
Shai and I came together to brainstorm ideas for our next product. The issue that really struck a chord with us was how design hiring is currently handled in companies, which we found to be far from ideal.
We took this broad problem/opportunity :
After identifying the broad problem area, we proceeded to outline the primary stakeholders involved in this process:
- Product Design Candidates
- HRs
- Design Managers
Once we did that, we mapped the most straightforward hiring flow that is happening right now in various organisations
- Design manager sees the need for a product designer in his team. Sends across a job requisition request to the HR department along with a clear set of requirements and responsibilities pertaining to this profile.
- HR department posts the job vacancy internally on company job boards and externally on relevant job portals and professional networks.
- HR screens incoming portfolios for basic qualifications and skills.Qualified candidates’ portfolios are forwarded to the hiring manager for review.
- Design Manager conducts initial screenings (phone or video calls) with selected candidates to assess their fit for the role, experience, and interest in the company.
- Shortlisted candidates are often asked to present their case-studies or complete a design exercise (Sometimes both on the same day😐). The Design Manager evaluate candidates’ design skills, creativity, and alignment with the organization’s design principles.
- Candidates who pass the initial screening and design exercise/portfolio review are invited for on-site interviews.Interviews may include meetings with cross-functional team members, technical assessments, and behavioral interviews.
- Hiring manager and interview panel evaluate candidates’ performance and suitability for the role. Finalists may undergo reference checks.HR extends a job offer to the selected candidate, negotiating terms and salary if necessary.
This may not be exactly how all hiring is done, but it provides a bird’s eye view of the process.
We decided to deep-dive so as to get a precise problem statement over which to work. Looking at the process, it was evident that every candidate is needed to have a portfolio, as this is the starting point that every candidate needs to carry out to land a job.
We decided to go out there and talk with Product Design Aspirants to understand their POV with regards to the building of portfolios for job hunt.
Talking to some a slight clarity came into picture. Most of these aspiring product designers faced one of these two problems if not both.
- Lack of Time- Building portfolio takes a lot of time to get it right.
- Too much effort- Building a portfolio often meant the candidate needs to learn to develop a website or learn no-code builders like Framer which has a steep learning curve.
So, now that we identified the major pain-points, we started to brainstorm and came up with the idea of Designfolio, which would be a No-BS portfolio builder.
But before going for product building, we both came into consensus that the product has to be Lean AF: no unnecessary features, no fancy animations, nothing flabbergasting, just a product which works seamlessly and caters to the pain points of the user.
But we had to make sure we were solving the right pain-points. So we decided to launch something called Designfolio Launchpad where we invited aspiring product designers to a 30 days case-study workshop. This move brought in around 180+ designers who wanted to test their Case-study creation skills!
There were basically two reasons we had in mind when we launched the DesignFolio Launchpad:
- To help aspiring designers build case-studies which would enable them to be ready for the job-market.
- To be close to our target users so that we learn and build a better product through Designfolio.
Won’t that be a win-win?😄
The Workshop was a learning journey both for us and the participants. We gathered alot of crucial points with regards to the product. We were confident that we were going in the right direction.
During the product development, both Shai and I had multiple feature ideas to be integrated into the product. But we fought with those ideas and managed to keep the product as lean as possible (even we are surprised how we managed it).
Finally our dev team managed to help us build a beautiful product which we lauched with waitlist. At the time of writing, one day after the launching the waitlist, we have 408 users joining our waitlist with more than 580 people visiting our website. That’s a conversion rate of over 70%, something I am drooling over right now!
That’s the brief journey of how Designfolio came into being.
What we learnt about Product thinking ?
Product thinking is not just a skill but a strategic asset that can differentiate a product in a crowded marketplace. It enables product managers to create products that are not only useful but also deeply resonate with users, fostering loyalty and driving growth.
Moreover, it contributes to a culture of innovation, where products are continuously refined and reimagined to meet evolving user needs and market dynamics.
So, here we are, building in public! The reason behind this is that we wanted to be transparent about our thinking processes and to grow together with our users. So, take a look at Designfolio and let us know what you think!