Approach and learnings from the portfolio that turned into an offer
Last year I spent three months trying to fill one role.
A founding product designer.
I interviewed designers from names you'd recognize instantly. No one passed. I started to worry I couldn't find the person at all — the people who could do it were senior, expensive, and not a fit on salary or level.
Then I was complaining to a friend, and she stopped me: "I had someone on my course. We were reviewing portfolios. Her work was insane."
She shared the link.
The moment I opened her portfolio link, I knew — that's the candidate."
That was Kate. We signed her offer within a couple of weeks.
That portfolio was NOT an "open the tool and build it" afternoon.
It came out of a hard, non-linear process — and out of Kate finding the strength to keep building when she wasn't even sure she'd return to design. On Jul 9 she'll walk you through both: how she built the portfolio, and how she kept going.
You'll learn:
❌ A portfolio written like a Medium article nobody has time to read
❌ The result buried under five scrolls of "process"
❌ A template copied off someone else, hoping the work speaks for itself
💚 A clear process — result and impact first, a storyline the reader can follow
💚 The mindset — designing for the person deciding, not for yourself
💚 Your own taste, made deliberate — why these colors, why this cut, why it holds attention
Who this is for:
Every level — junior, senior, staff, manager. Anyone building a portfolio, planning to, or getting ready for the market as it actually is right now.
Your immediate CTA
Bring your questions and your experience. We answer as many as we can live; whatever we don't get to, we cover in follow-up content.
How it runs
Part 1 — Kate's build, straight from the source (~45 min) → Her honest rebuild story — burnout
→ the portfolio that flopped on feedback
→ The process — result and impact first, a storyline the reader can actually follow
→ The mindset — designing for the person deciding, not for yourself (and why one recruiter's yes isn't the finish line)
→ The taste — making your visual choices deliberate: why these colors, why this cut, why it holds attention
→ Her own teardown — old portfolio vs. current, side by side, the exact changes
Part 2 — open floor: your questions, a safe space (~15 min)
→ Bring what you're stuck on — this is a conversation, not a hot seat
→ Real Q&A mapped to the process mindset taste framework
→ Whatever we don't get to live, we answer in follow-up content
🎤 Who's presenting:
Kate Kalento — Founding Product Designer @ Nevis
Kate rebuilt her portfolio from harsh recruiter feedback into one other designers now reference — and turned that rebuild into a repeatable framework. Today she's a founding AI designer at an early-stage startup (Navis, founders ex-Revolut).
Lena Kul — Founder @ kuːl, ex-Design Recruiter & UXR
LinkedIn · Substack · Youtube
After 8+ years hiring designers, UXRs, and leaders at Miro and 10+ companies, and 5 years teaching designers how to move through their careers, Lena brings the top insights. Having hired 100+ top talent across the globe, supported hundreds of students and private clients, and signed their offers, she's built methodologies that convert in 2026.
Why now:
This is one of the bi-weekly live sessions, each built around one of the three pillars of the designer / UXR skillset:
Craft · Network · Positioning
Hiring is very specific right now, and the roles keep blurring — growth, AI, founding, product. A case study that only fits one title gets you screened out of the rest. This session is Craft: build the one case study you can adapt to any room, before your next interview, not after.
If your case study only works for one kind of role, you're doing 3× the work and getting fewer offers.
Come fix that in 90 minutes 💛
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🚨🚨🚨 The session will be recorded, and everyone who signs up will receive the recording. Please do not email me with this question 🖤