How to make a product manager portfolio (to actually land your dream job)

Designers have portfolios, Engineers have Leetcode, PMs have... case questions? Here's how to level the playing field with the interview preppers.

Designers have been making portfolios for as long as design has been a profession.

For PMs, the portfolio is a much newer invention. And its adoption still varies widely. Fewer than one in six have one:

Poll I ran on X.

I’ve further dug in and talked 5 hiring managers in each of the 3 major geos. Here’s what I found, roughly:

• 10% of PMs in the US have one

• 20% of European PMs

• 40% in Asia & Africa

If you don’t have one, at this point you might be thinking like PM Micah Andrews:

Never been asked for one and never felt like not having one has limited my opportunities.

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This Actually Presents an Opportunity

But, here’s the thing: the job market (in all geographies) for PMs is very tough right now.

Back in February, I chatted with a US-based VP of Product at a Series C startup who had been doing a ton of hiring. They shared this:

I saw a brand new technique last week. The candidate had a portfolio… like a design portfolio, but for PM.

It was awesome. I ended up spending nearly an hour reading her portfolio before the interview and got to know her well.

15 minutes into the interview, I knew she was the PM I needed. And I flipped the interview to a sales call. Fast forward to now, and she’ll be joining the team in a few weeks.

Clearly, portfolios can differentiate you.

This insight made me think:

• In a geography like the US or Europe where the portfolio is not commonplace, you can actually build a portfolio to differentiate and get jobs.

• In a geography like Asia or Africa where lots of PMs are making a portfolio, it’s virtually a must to have a good one.

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Tested in Today’s Market

→ This hypothesis encouraged me to test the portfolio advice in the market with 5 members of our Slack community.

Interestingly enough, it didn’t work right away. Especially in March, a lot of trial and error was required.

But come April and May, I’m happy to say the technique is working. We’ve managed to use portfolios to get interviews and win jobs.

As of today, all 5 of the PMs have used it successfully. And they purposefully have totally different profiles:

1. A PM who was laid off 11 months ago used it to finally find a job

2. A Director of Product used it to leave a toxic manager

3. A principal PM finally broke into FAANG

4. An aspiring PM nailed her first APM role

5. A CS major scored a PM internship

It’s working up and down the seniority spectrum.

Since we've ironed out the how, it’s now time to share with the broader newsletter audience in a deep dive.

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Today’s Post

Words: 4,769 | Est. Reading Time: 21 mins

I’ll be honest: all of the free advice I found out there on this topic was totally wrong. I read 40+ articles. What you find in them is going to lead you down the wrong path.

Here’s what you need to know:

1. Product Portfolio Basics

   • Why product portfolios can work

   • The types of product portfolios (and best examples)

   • When and how to market your product portfolio in the search

2. Creating your product portfolio

   • The key factor that makes portfolios great

   • A step by step guide to building your own portfolio

   • How to make your product portfolio even better to stand out

3. Advanced product portfolio techniques

   • The worst advice out there on portfolios

   • Website & presentation templates

   • Your differentiation strategy

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1. Product Portfolio Basics

1.1 Why product portfolios can work

Both on the hiring side and the job seeker side, a good portfolio can make a big difference.

On the hiring side, most hiring managers don’t actually believe that much in interviews. For instance, this is what my boss told me at Affirm:

Interviews are terribly low signal. You’re going to get some right, you’re going to get some wrong.

You’re much better off with a work product than an interview. Or even better: get a back channel reference with someone who actually worked with them.

Every hiring manager, including me, has been burned by thinking a candidate was great in an interview—even case interviews—and then finding they are not-so-good in the job.

As a result, hiring managers are desperate for real information about a candidate’s work outside of their resume or work products. Indeed, that’s exactly what one of the hiring managers who hired one of my mentees had to say:

The portfolio really helped. It gave me confirmation you can do the job.

Separately — on the job seeker side, it’s hard to actually sell all the details of your work in an interview or your resume:

• In interviews, you typically only spend 2-4 minutes on any given story. It’s rare to go as deep as a product portfolio.

• Similarly, on your resume, you only get to go through a line or two at best for each project.

This is why portfolios are so powerful. It’s a great way to equalize the playing field against “the interview preppers,” who are better interviewers than they are PMs. It brings the focus back to the work.

PSA 1: A blog is not a product portfolio

A lot of people mentioned that they maintain their own personal blog, or newsletter, which they share as their product portfolio.

Unfortunately, there’s a big difference between a blog and a portfolio:

• A blog is about sharing your perspective on tech, industry, and PM topics.

• A portfolio is a breakdown into the context, actions, and results—with visual proof and examples—of your prior work.

PSA 2: A case study is not a product portfolio

Another alternative that a lot of people have been sharing is the case study, where they do a mock sort of analysis for the company. Or staple together multiple assignments they made in some PM course.

Let me be honest: 99% of these I have seen are worse than bad. And experimenting with my 5 mentees, not a single one saw success with them.

They make you look like you aren’t ready for the job. (That’s right: all the YouTube content is off. And don’t get me started on Reddit…)

A portfolio is a recap of actual PM work you’ve done. And, as such, it is much more powerful than a blog or a case study.

Let’s help you craft a winning one…