Christopher Nguyen

UX Playbook

UX education is broken, why?

🤑 Bootcamps are extortion
😵‍💫 Over emphasis on Figma
🫠 No real world preparation
😫 No career focus just skills
🫨 Getting started is confusing
🤥 Theory taught isn’t practical

That's why I created UX Playbook.

At UX Playbook, I help frustrated designers figure out how to take control of their education, make better decisions, and ultimately build the career they want. 

Over 17,000 designers, from 90 countries, are using my playbooks to better their career.

300+ five star reviews.

Learn more: www.uxplaybook.org

Founder

The Design of Everyday People Livestream

Livestream AMAs, where I speak to design experts, from all over the world.

Livestream Host

Play of the Week Newsletter

Get UX mentorship in your inbox. 2-minute read. Every Wednesday. Absolutely free.

Writer

Backlog

Antler

Entrepreneur in Residence

Playstack

Co-Founder

Divvy Notion

CoiBoi

BAEMIN Vietnam (Woowa Bros.)

Designing thinking training with Baemin's leadership teams

Design Thinking Trainer

MoMo (M_Service)

Facilitating Design Sprints for multiple product teams inside MoMo for their B2C and B2B2C products

Design Sprint Facilitator

I help UX designers go from Fuzziness to Focused (uxplaybook.org), now Freedom (backlog.design)

I went from 0 experience to Head of Design in 4 years.

Then, in 2020, I quit.

Leaving the high-paying salary and status of working at a FinTech unicorn behind.

The job I once dreamed of wasn't align with my values.

But, I wasn't ready to give up on UX.

I intrinsically want to help other designers succeed. 

Working with 100s of designers, I realised that most designers are in someway self taught, but why? 

Because most UX education is incredibly expensive, lack accessibility, and real-world practicality.

I had a hypothesis.

Designers craved for education that 1) cuts to the core, 2) applies to every day scenarios, 3) templatized execution, 4) affordable, and 5) personalized 

Thus levelling the playing field for equal opportunities in the design industry.

So, I started an experiment in mid 2020. 

And the results were pretty phenomenal.

We grew 1400% in one year.

It was clear people valued UX Playbook.

My mission is to "Make UX Education Accessible & Enjoyable." 

My impact:

→ 14,000,000+ content impressions in the last 2 years
→ 270,000+ weekly newsletters & blogs read
→ 92,000+ people following my daily UX content
→ 17,000+ people downloaded my UX guides & templates
→ 1000+ people, from 84+ countries, bought my products 

If you want to learn more about how I can help you as a designer, you can check out:

FAST TRACK DESIGNER BUNDLE

In this 6 product bundle, you will learn how to thrive in your UX career. Build a kickass portfolio, learn how to job hunt, and master UX frameworks for project success, grow meaningfully, and lead your first design team. It’s packed with 93,000+ words, 130+ videos, 125+ templates, and 200+ examples. Join 15,000+ designers using this system to level up.

→ https://uxplaybook.org/fast

BACKLOG

If you're looking to replace your 9 to 5, become an independent designer, and kickstart your designpreneur journey, join us a Backlog. Be part of our tight-knit community, get personalized coaching, and access our resources made for design founders.

→ https://backlog.design

Email: hello@uxplaybook.org
YouTube, Twitter, IG: @uxchrisnguyen

Co-Founder & CPO

If UX Designers have a yearly wrapped...

(2025 version)

———
♻️ Repost if this is even slightly true for you

👉 Follow Christopher Nguyen for more unhinged wraps
🔗 Grow your UX career at UX Playbook

📰 Listen to me moan weekly in my newsletter: https://lnkd.in/gmTfNKwN

2025 Wrapped

Figma valued at $20B.
Notion valued at $12B.
Canva valued at $42B.
Airbnb valued at $78B.
Pinterest valued at $22B.
Instagram valued at $100B.

All founded by designers.

Designers have founder DNA
(most just don’t know it yet)

Y Combinator’s latest Request for Startups memo said:

“More designers should be founders”

Yes, that YC.

Think about what’s winning today:

∗ Notion feels like clarity, digitalized.
∗ Figma made design a multiple player game.
∗ Canva made design stupidly simple for everyone.

Those wins weren’t just technical.
Those wins were emotional.

A designer’s gift is…

→ Taste
→ Intuition
→ Empathy
→ Storytelling
→ Sensitivity to friction

What could 100x your career?

𝗠𝗮𝗸𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴𝘀.

↳ Use AI to build
↳ Use your taste to differentiate
↳ Use your empathy to solve hard problems

Your aspirations shouldn’t be a “senior product designer”

It should be a Design Founder.

Designers who leap today will:

— Set their own vision
— Build products people love
— Own 20% of something they made

...Not 0% of someone else’s dream

The tools are here.
The moment is now.

If you could design anything, what would it be?

P.S. Thinking about making the leap? Best decision I ever made!

📰 Get a weekly email to grow your UX career 🌱
https://lnkd.in/gmTfNKwN — 2 minute read. No fluff.

I study these 7 sites
(not for inspiration)

The internet is full of “inspirational” portfolios.

Sadly, most designers copy the wrong things ↓

✘ They copy the layout
✘ They copy the colours
✘ They copy the branding
✘ They copy the animations
✘ They copy the positioning

The number one thing they should copy

But almost nobody does…

✨ The strategy ✨

Here are 7 sites to “copy” from ↓

✓⃝ pfolios.net
✓⃝ pafolios.com
✓⃝ personalsit.es
✓⃝ bestfolios.com
✓⃝ prettyfolio.com
✓⃝ wallofportfolios.in
✓⃝ portfolioproject.io

The value isn’t only in their visuals.

It’s in their strategic decisions:

→ How they tell their story
→ How they guide attention
→ How they frame problems
→ How they quantify success
→ How they position their role
→ How they simplify complexity
→ How they highlight collaboration

A recruiter’s attention span = one TikTok swipe.

In 3 seconds, they need to see:

• You fix problems
• You know your process
• You can make business impact

If it’s clear → interview.
If not → next.

A good portfolio sells you in seconds.

It makes recruiters think:

“𝘛𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘰𝘯 𝘨𝘦𝘵𝘴 𝘪𝘵. 𝘓𝘦𝘵’𝘴 𝘵𝘢𝘭𝘬 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘮.”

Summer is over.

School is officially in session.

Good luck kids!

—

P.S. In the comments, I tell you how to reverse-engineer great portfolios.

taplio