I find it interesting that even though there are a lot of designers working in enterprise (B2B) products pretty much 100% of design conversation revolves around consumer products and marketing design. Why is that? Because it seems boring & visually unappealing to most designers?

NDAs don’t let people talk openly nor include designs in their portfolios. Even enterprise conference talks are scrubbed of any meaningful insights. Anytime you see a designer talking about their work publicly it’s because their org is leveraging that for an outcome.

Not being able to include designs in portfolios is a huge problem that needs to be discussed since portfolios have become the most important thing in the hiring process of designers.

Well technically the work you do is the property of the organisation you are working for. We should ideally move away from judging designers based on their portfolios.

Yes, technically. But that's the number one thing designers are judged on now so not being able to show work is kinda a problem. What do you suggest using instead?

I honestly feel the individual fitting into the team is far more important than the skills they bring. I’m currently calling it “Hiring by Vibes” 😅

Agree with you and that's what I look at the most when hiring. It's extremely subjective though and companies are all about data points now and trying to make the process as objective as possible. At least that's the lip service.

Only good hiring managers can bring the change in the industry and unfortunately they are scarce

The industry follows whatever FAANG companies do and those are obsessed with data and metrics. The entire process feels totally robotic now and they think it's a good thing. Used to be very different.

Yup. Unfortunately, that's now how it is now at all. It's all about the portfolio first. Only if the passes muster they move on to the rest.

I hear you. I know that even at executive level people expect you to make Figma screens.