Learning Portfolios

As designers, our portfolios are our professional currency. Over time, I've developed a perspective that divides portfolios into two distinct categories: professional and learning.

Professional portfolios showcase client work—the projects you're paid to create, often bound by NDAs and workplace constraints.

Learning portfolios represent your self-initiated journey—permissionless projects where you explore, experiment, and grow without external limitations.

While professional portfolios demonstrate your market value, it's our learning portfolios that truly excite me. They offer boundless creative freedom and potential for growth. I'll admit, I haven't been as methodical with my learning portfolio as my professional one—but AI is helping me change that.

In today's landscape, prompt engineering has emerged as a critical skill. Your ability to communicate effectively with AI directly impacts the quality of outputs you receive. Rather than approaching this haphazardly, I've designed a structured 100-day curriculum to integrate prompt engineering into my daily responsibilities as a design leader.

Crafting effective learning projects requires balancing art and science. The science demands progressive difficulty—continually stretching your capabilities. The art lies in designing challenges that provide a sense of daily accomplishment while maintaining momentum. AI has transformed my workflow in multiple dimensions: as thought partner, coder, intern, and occasionally, coach.

I've developed a comprehensive 100-day curriculum specifically for me (i.e design leaders) navigating this new terrain. Interested? Send me a DM, and we can grab coffee to discuss whether AI is replacing us or empowering us to reach new heights. Perhaps it's doing both.