To Portfolio Or Not To Portfolio

Teresa Torres argues that public portfolios are a poor fit for product professionals, since they encourage over-claiming credit for team work and expose proprietary or employer-owned material. Hiring managers still want evidence of quality work, so she offers a workaround. She recommends pointing to public marketing materials about past products, clearly explaining your role relative to teammates, and saving behind-the-scenes process artifacts for interviews. She stresses respecting company confidentiality and getting permission before sharing. Even without a product job, side projects can demonstrate capability, so the goal is to tell a credible story without disclosing private details.

01Key takeaways

• Avoid public portfolios that overstate your credit or expose employer-owned work.
• Point to publicly available marketing demos or videos as proof of past products.
• Describe your specific role and how it differed from teammates' contributions.
• Hold process artifacts like wireframes and test results for interviews, not public display.
• Get permission before sharing any internal work, even one-on-one with a hiring manager.
• Side projects can demonstrate product thinking when you lack formal product roles.

02Key sections

The problem with public portfolios

Public portfolios tend to inflate individual credit for team output and can reveal employer property. Messy process is what employers actually want to see, creating tension.

Reference public materials

Use publicly available demos, screencasts, or videos about products you built to show your work without exposing private information.

Clarify your role on the team

Explain what you personally owned versus what designers, engineers, or others contributed, such as inheriting a mature product or owning one from concept to launch.

Show process artifacts in interviews

Keep user stories, wireframes, success metrics, and test results private and bring them out on request during interviews, respecting company methods and obtaining permission.

Use side projects and storytelling

Without product experience, side projects can serve as evidence. The aim is a compelling story showing quality work aligned with the role, not disclosure of proprietary details.

03From the post

“This post is part of the So You Want To Be a Product Manager series. Most product and design job requirements ask for a portfolio. What do you do if you don't have one? I'm not a big fan of public portfolios. They lead to poor behavior. The”

Summary and takeaways written by PM Atlas; quotes are short excerpts. © the original author.