How the hell do UX designers standout in 2026 (Pro designer explains)

If I had to summarize one of the biggest problems that UX designers are dealing with right now, it will be this. How do you actually stand out when there are so many good designers who are competing for the same opportunities as you? It's not necessarily that you're not good enough. The problem is that being good enough is no longer enough to create separation from the competition. You've probably done most of the things that most people tell designers to do. You've improved your portfolio. You've gone to conferences. You've gotten better at your Figma skills. You started posting your work online. You're learning AI and you're applying to more jobs than ever, but somehow it still feels like you're not able to separate yourself from everyone else. And yet it doesn't look like the competition is getting any easier. The market is getting flooded with thousands that are trying to break in to land their first roles. You have overqualified seniors who have been laid off at bigger companies who are competing in the same pool with you. You have unrealistic expectations from hiring managers, and then you have the elephant in the room, AI, which is making companies feel like they don't need to keep hiring designers. The mistake that I've seen a lot of designers making is that they are trying to stand out at the wrong level. And this is what I want to explain in this video. So in this video, I'll break down the different levels of competition, the wrong level that most designers are competing at, the right level to compete at, and the right competition strategy, and some personal examples help you apply these strategies. A few years ago, this advice was fairly straightforward. Become a better designer, build a good portfolio, learn how to communicate your work or process and understand what hiring managers are looking for. Look at designers who are doing better than you and then learn from them. And to be clear, this isn't bad advice. I've literally made videos where I teach the same advice. So this is good advice to follow. The problem is that this advice became so mainstream and so popular that, you know, every hiring manager on LinkedIn, everyone who has hired a designer shares the same advice. So everyone follows it. If 10 people are applying for a job and you are the only person with a really polished portfolio, that's fantastic. Then you get to stand out. But what happens when you have 500 people applying for a job and 400 people have polished portfolio? That means 80% of the people that applied for the job have already followed all of the rules. Um, of, you know, standing out. Therefore, you don't get to stand out. And the thing that happens is that when the competition gets harder, the natural instinct that we have is to compete harder. And this is where I think designers get trapped. Your portfolio isn't working, so you redesign it. You're not getting interviews, so instead of applying to 10 jobs, you apply to 30 jobs in a day. You're not getting noticed online, so you start posting more content. And when this happens, I think something interesting also happens. When everybody starts to respond to competition in the same way, everybody starts to conform. So, um, you've been told that this is what you should do, this is the common advice, and then one person tries it, it works for them, another person tries it, it works for them, 100 people try it, 1,000 people do it, that becomes conforming. Then it no longer This is no longer a way for you to stand out. And then you find out that eventually you just blend in. You just blend in. And that's why you find a lot of portfolios today that actually start looking the same. You have similar case studies, similar presentation styles. You have the same screens, even the same language. Everybody has ChatGPT writing their case studies for them. And you can literally hear or read the voice of the AI in the presentation. And after a while, if you're the person hiring and you see that everybody's starting to blend in into one big pile, you just spend 30 seconds on every portfolio until you find that one thing that sticks out or that stands out. This is why I think that one of the worst things that you can do right now is to blindly try— is to blindly try to become better than everyone else at exactly the same game that everybody else is playing. And I've sort of developed a framework for this that I've been using to think about it, and I call it the different levels of competition. There are basically different things that you evaluate when you're trying to find your unique advantage as a designer. The first thing that you evaluate is your skills, and this is the lowest level of competition. And this is where you look inward and you look at your skills, you look at your craft, you look at your portfolio, you think about how you communicate, how good your work looks, and how well you use the tools. This is where you're just asking yourself, am I actually good enough? Um, and 10 years ago, just being able to show that you're good enough is enough for you to stand out. If you can just show that, oh, I can design, I have Figma skills, and you put some shabby PDF portfolio together, then you're good to go. And of course, I'm not saying that skill doesn't matter. In fact, now more than, more than ever, I believe your skill, your craft really, really matter. They are very, very important. It's probably more even important now than it was before, but having the skills and being good has become the basic requirements. It's just the floor, basically. The next level is all about how you make people understand the value that you bring. And this is what I call the level of perception. So level 1 is level of skills. Level 2 is level of perception. And it's basically how you show people that you have the skills, how you show people that this is the value that I have, and you make that value easy to recognize. Every portfolio advice that we've gotten in the last couple of years, um, every advice to, you know, post content on social media, every advice to, um, do things in a certain way, like how you write your case study, how you put your portfolio together, how you show up, all of that advice fits within this level of perception. It is all about how you show everyone that you have the skills and you can do the job. I think this is the level that most designers are competing today. This is where most designers are operating. You study the people that are winning, you study the people that are hiring and hiring manager, and then you adjust yourself to fit what they're looking for, which completely makes sense. But the problem is that everybody else is doing exactly the same thing, and then that is where conforming happens. A lot of designers, most designers today, are competing at the game of perception. It is why you find a lot of designers on social media trying to post content, which I encourage, but you find out that they have no strategy at posting content. They post content like, you know, is this better than this? Which UI is better than this? And some just kind of content that you start to think about it and like, you know, what exactly are you trying to achieve with this content you're posting? It's because they're trying to manage the game of perception, but they're not doing it right. Now the third level is where things become a lot more interesting because to avoid conforming, you need to compete at a strategic level where you intentionally do things differently. Instead of looking at your skills and just trying to ask if you're good enough, or instead of competing at the game of perception and looking at what hiring managers are asking for and trying to adjust to what they're asking for, you zoom out and you look at the whole design and tech industry as a whole. You study the trends and you start questioning the assumptions that everybody the industry is already operating with. This is how to compete strategically. And this is where you're asking yourself the question, am I actually competing in the smartest way? The thing is that the advice in the industry gets dated really, really quick. There's a lot of advice in the UX design industry that we just accepted without actually challenging the assumptions. And designers that are playing at this level, at the level of strategy, are challenging the assumptions. Every day. For example, you, the industry has changed so much that between 2016 and 2019, it was fine to have long case studies. You could show all of your process in your design. You can even just put a PDF design portfolio together and send it. You can put your portfolio on Behance or Notion, but if you have a website, it's good. A website was a way to stand out between 2016 and 2019. After that, between 2020 and 2023. Your content needs to become important. You start posting content about your work so that you can be more visible. You have to introduce a lot more storytelling into your portfolio. So you can't just dump all your design processes in your portfolio anymore. You have to put some storytelling into it. The website actually becomes a bare minimum. You actually can't use a Behance website for your portfolio. You can't use a Notion website for a portfolio because that's just generic. So You need to have your portfolio on the website. That becomes basic. So every designer that you know that's looking for a job or that's looking for their next role has a website. In 2024, that website became the bare minimum. Your website needs to be super polished. You need to introduce some personality. Your case studies need to look good. They need to tell a good story. So now between 2024 and now, which is like in the last, just in the last 2 years with like AI getting so good at designing websites and doing all of these things, it is so easy to create a polished website. You could create 5, 6, 7 different versions of different portfolio websites in one weekend. So you can see how that is no longer a way to stand out. And this is showing how the industry is changing. This means that if you question the assumptions, you know that you cannot keep up with the pace of the demand of the industry. What you need to Think about some foundational and fundamental things that are never going to change. And I'm going to give you some examples. Basically, competing strategically means questioning everything. What hiring managers supposedly want, what should your portfolio look like, where should you post your work and why, and then why should you adopt AI in your design process? Sometimes it means questioning advice from other designers that you're listening to, including me. Like. You go through my videos, see something that I posted 2 years ago, don't take that as gospel. Question it and think about it in your own scenario and in your own use case and ask yourself, does this work for me? If not, what actually works for me? Let me give you 3 examples of assumptions that you can start questioning right now. Number 1 assumption, to create content and build a personal brand so that you can be more visible. It's great, right? But you need to ask yourself why, why exactly do I want to build a personal brand or create content? When I'm creating content, who am I creating content for? Am I creating it for founders? Am I creating it for recruiters? Am I creating it for clients? Am I creating it for other designers? Because some designers are creating their content so that other designers can like their work. And then what do you actually want to get known for? When you question these assumptions, it can help you frame that assumption to create content and build a personal brand to something like, should I just position myself for the opportunity that I'm looking for and let people understand what I want to be known for as a designer? Do I want to be known for a designer that can create like really, really good interaction design? Do I want to be known for a designer that is really good in creating fintech apps? Do I want to be known for a designer that is good in creating SaaS? Do I want to be known for a designer that is really, really good at website design that uses tools like Framer to actually build websites? Because you don't want to be doing everything that way. You're spreading yourself so thin. So that helps you rephrase, reframe that assumption of creating content and building a personal brand to something a lot more targeted. And then you can then become visible once you've answered that question. Because creating a personal brand isn't a goal. It's a moving target. You could create a personal brand on anything. You don't have to be a designer. You don't have to talk about design to create a personal brand. So that shouldn't be your goal. And that is why you need to question that assumption. The second assumption is use AI in your design process so that you don't get replaced. The popular saying is that If you don't use AI in your design process, you're going to get replaced by somebody that uses AI in their design process, or AI isn't going to replace you. Someone that uses AI will be the one to replace you. Yeah, but again, I've said it in previous videos that all your value shouldn't be hinged on you being scared that someone that uses AI is going to replace you. Because what's the point of using AI if you actually cannot use it to ship quality work? You're going to ask, and you know, if you ask this question, You say, okay, because AI makes you fast, but speed doesn't essentially mean that you're creating something that is better. So the question that you should ask is, okay, if I use AI in my design process, does it actually make my work better? Does it actually improve like my skills as a designer? Can I use it to create something that I wouldn't have been able to create if I didn't have this tool? So you can reframe that assumption as what can AI help me create? That I couldn't have done before? And how can I demonstrate this in my portfolio or in my content? Because I can bet you that if a hiring manager comes across your portfolio and they see something that just looks so different, that just looks so different, that they know that there's no way that this person would have been able to do this 1 year ago or 2 years ago, they definitely know that you've been able to use AI to do this, but it actually improves and the quality actually improves and raises the bar for the quality of your work, then that can make them more attracted to the work because they're not coming into your portfolio to come and check, does this designer actually use AI or not? No, they actually just want to come look at your work. But being able to show a different point of view with the quality of the work that you put in your portfolio because you use AI is now a way to Attract them. As option three, which is the one I'm going to go a lot deeper in, is that a lot of people will tell you to play the volume game, to just make sure that you apply. A lot of people do that. They have spreadsheets and they're applying to like thirty, forty roles in a day. You even have AI tools now that just do like Tinder for jobs, where you just swipe and then it goes and apply for you. And this is the default strategy, and some people are doing a lot of this in a day. Forty applications per day. You apply in the same app. You apply with the same pool of thousands of applicants. All of you submit generic portfolios and nobody's actually doing any kind of like warm applications. And you can reframe this to be like, okay, what if I picked fewer companies and went so much deeper? Because you could actually pick a niche. You could pick a set of companies that you're interested in or a category of companies that you're interested in and go so much deeper. You could look at a startup in your environment or in your area that is, you know, maybe getting some buzz or that you like the way they do their work. Start connecting with people within that startup. Maybe LinkedIn might— if LinkedIn is difficult, you can start looking for people that work there on Twitter. Start engaging with their tweets, start engaging with their CEO on Twitter. It's a long-term play. You could play this game for Maybe one or two months where you're just engaging with the CEO on Twitter, engaging with their tweets, trying to understand what they are doing. What did they just ship? What what did they just announce? What is the company trying to do? So that when you are ready to apply, and you don't have to wait for when they have a role, by the way. So that when you're ready to apply, you basically just send in your resume, send in your portfolio, send a DM to the the CEO or anybody you've been in contact with because they've already been seeing your name in their mentions. They've been seeing your name, you've been engaging with them. And then you can also tailor your application to whatever, you know, problem that you feel like they're facing. And it doesn't— you don't have to solve a huge problem for them. It could be as simple as, oh, you guys are not a big company yet, but then, you know, these are the value— this is the value that I can offer. I'm still, you know, a young designer, but, you know, these are the skills that I have and I'm willing to grow. This kind of thing. Could help you in the long run than when you're just doing this spray and pray approach, because this is how you actually narrow your targets and you increase the depth of the kind of role that you're looking for, what you want to achieve. And you don't have to wait for jobs to appear before you start doing this. You can build a list of companies that you're interested in, and then once you have a list in your mind, naturally your mind will just find things around what they are doing. Your mind would naturally tune into content that they are posting. And then that way it's easier for you to tailor whatever you can offer or what all your portfolio to them. And like I said, the fact that, you know, you have all of this polished portfolio being so easy to do with tools like Framer and AI, it actually means that you can tailor your portfolio to some of these roles. So you don't have the same one portfolio that you're using to apply everywhere. You can actually tailor your portfolio to the actual role that you're applying for. And this isn't theory because you might think that, oh, I'm probably saying this because I have a lot of experience, so it's easy for me. This isn't theory. I'm going to show you how I've done this repeatedly. In 2019, I sent a DM to a CEO on LinkedIn, the CEO of a Nigerian company called Flutterwave. They didn't have any kind of open roles for designers. I just listened to an interview that I, that, that they were— I just listened to a podcast where they were interviewing them and I enjoyed how the founder spoke about the company. And I was like, oh, actually I would like to shoot my shot with this. And I sent a simple DM. I introduced myself. I told them how I came to know about them and the company, why I would like to join, the value that I can bring. And the next morning they sent in a response inviting me into their office for a conversation. It was as simple as that. Of course, it's not going to work every single time, but this kind of approach might be a way for you to differentiate yourself from every other person that is applying to 40, 50 jobs every day. Because I've actually showed this CEO that actually I know you, I listen to you on this podcast, this was what you said, and therefore I like your company and I would like to offer this value that I have to to your company. The second one that happened in 2021 when I moved to the UK, I made a list of all of the companies that I wanted to work in. I made a list of like the top targets for me, the next targets. I made a list of some cryptocurrency companies because I really, really like crypto. And I made a list of some startups as well. You can see that in the picture there. And today from this list, I've actually worked with 2 of the companies there and I've interviewed with 2 of the companies there. One of the companies I worked with was Deliveroo. And how did the Deliveroo one happen? Before I joined Deliveroo, I was randomly listening to a podcast again. I mean, podcasts have been so impactful for me. I was randomly listening to a podcast of a CEO of Deliveroo on Diary of a CEO. Diary of a CEO wasn't even popular at the time, and I wasn't kind of doing any kind of sophisticated job hunting strategy. I just found a conversation with the founder I'm interested So when I was applying to Deliveroo a few months later and I had that box that would ask you, why do you want to join this company? I just remembered the interview and what the CEO said. I went back to the interview to go listen to the interview, and I just mentioned some of the things that the CEO had said in the interview as one of the reasons why Deliveroo is a company that I'd like to work in. And I got an interview. I went to the interview, I passed the interview, and when I got my offer letter, The hiring manager actually sent me this email where they said that one of the things that was their motivation for giving me the offer letter was that the fact that I listened to the podcast with the CEO and I spoke about, you know, how his message really resonated with me. Like that could be the single thing that differentiated me from the other applicants. That could also be the single thing that even made them consider me for an interview. In the first place. So you can see like examples of how in both cases I never had to submit my portfolio and never had to submit my resume. So standing out is often just doing the opposite of what every other person is doing. When you ask, when people ask, so how does a UX designer stand out in 2026? I don't think the answer is just be better at what you do. Of course you should be good at what you do, but that is becoming table stakes. That is becoming the bare minimum and it is the floor. To raise the floor, you need to stop standing in the same place that everybody else is standing. If everybody is going broadly, maybe you go narrow. If everybody is obsessing with speed of AI and they are creating portfolios or designs in 2 hours, maybe you obsess over the quality and you do interesting things that wouldn't have been possible with AI. If everybody is building the same type of portfolio, maybe you find a completely different way of demonstrating your work. Some people don't even have live portfolios anymore. Some people just have like their Twitter is literally their portfolio. You see, they're always posting interesting work and that way they keep their portfolio fresh because their Twitter literally has all of their portfolios. Of course, most jobs that you apply for will still eventually ask you to send in a portfolio. But if you were sending somebody a DM on Twitter about the value that you offer and your telling them that you'd like to work with them or you're pitching to them, of course they will check your Twitter and then they'll check your page and they'll see all of the kind of like work that you've posted. That is your portfolio. So if everybody's waiting for jobs to be posted and waiting for them to apply with 2,000 other people, maybe you can start even talking to the companies or talking to people that work in those places before that job even exists. The thing is that competition in the tech industry isn't going to get easier. It's going to get a lot tougher from here, and designers are not going to be spared from this. Companies are going to— will keep questioning if they need to hire designers. AI will keep making things easier to do. It's going to keep making average work easier. So a lot of people are going to be doing average work. So I think this is an advantage actually, but you still have a lot of talented people that will keep competing for the same opportunities as you. So you have to do so deliberate about creating your opportunities for yourself instead of waiting for the market to hand those opportunities to you. The only true secure job is the job that you can create for yourself, and this is what I believe. I don't mean you should go and start a company or go and start a business. I mean you have to develop the ability to create demand for what you can do. You have to be able to find people that need it. You have to be able to show them that you are valuable, and you don't wait for anyone's permission to make a move. Because when you do that once, then you prove that, okay, I don't have to wait for opportunities. Therefore, I can create opportunities for myself. Therefore, my job is always going to be secure. I will always have a job. I will always have opportunities because I don't have to wait for them and I can create them. The thing about it is that you can't compete strategically if you have low confidence in your skills. So while Moving up the one, moving up to level 3 and making sure that you compete strategically is very, very important. You still have level 1 and level 2 that might look like they are table stakes right now, that might look like they are basically the floor right now, but you need to make sure that you still sharpen these levels, levels 1 and 2. Your skills need to be good and you need to be confident in your skills as well. And also you need to have mastered ways to improve how people perceive you as a designer. So if you want to really understand what the next wave of like 10x designers are doing to make sure that they show themselves as valuable, you should watch this video next and I'll see you there.