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Strong case studies follow a structure reviewers can scan. Below is the exact nine-section template Document Portfolio starts every project with — plus what to write in each part and the mistakes that cost interviews.
The template
This is the structure you get when you start a case study in Document Portfolio. Use it as a checklist for any portfolio, wherever it's hosted.
One short paragraph that says what the product is, who it's for, and what you were responsible for. Recruiters skim — give them the whole story in three sentences.
Frame the problem you were solving and why it mattered. A good challenge section makes the reader care before they've seen a single screen.
Show how you learned what to build: interviews, surveys, analytics, support tickets. Even small studies count — what matters is that decisions came from evidence.
Walk through how you moved from insight to direction: journeys, flows, wireframes, workshops. This is where reviewers see how you think, not just what you shipped.
Present the directions you tried and why you rejected some. Two or three explored options with honest trade-offs beat ten unexplained mockups.
The payoff. Show the shipped design at its best — key flows, states and details, with captions that point at the decisions behind them.
Embed a video or link an interactive prototype so reviewers can feel the product move. Motion communicates what static screens can't.
Close the loop: what changed after launch? Metrics are ideal, but qualitative outcomes — adoption, feedback, iteration — are honest results too.
End with what you learned and what you'd do differently. Self-awareness is a senior signal — this short section often decides the shortlist.
Before you publish
Screenshots without decisions read like a Dribbble shot. Every image should answer “why this way?”.
If results exist, tease them in the Overview. Reviewers decide in the first 30 seconds whether to keep reading.
“We designed” tells a recruiter nothing. Say exactly which parts were yours.
Alternate text, images and embeds. A case study is a page to scan first and read second.
Start a project in Document Portfolio and these nine sections are already on the page — write, pick a theme, publish, share the link.
Document Portfolio