Amanda Nguyen Portfolio
Product Designer at The New York Times
Two fully written-out case studies (Moonai, Butter) walk through 10-participant and 13-participant research rounds, low-fi to hi-fi iteration, and named trade-offs cut for timeline — not just polished final screens.
Location
Brooklyn, NY
Companies
Skills
Notable
- Moonai named a top-12 finalist, She Loves Tech 2021 global startup competition (South Europe region)
- Moonai accepted into the FemTech Lab accelerator program
What makes it work
A breakdown of the choices that make this portfolio stand out.
Moonai case study research depth
Documents 10 one-to-two-hour user interviews with people who experience period pain, then traces how findings shaped How-Might-We statements, a dark-mode prototype test, and a mid-project pivot when the business swapped in an AI-generated sound engine — the write-up shows the design changing in response, not just the finished UI.
Butter case study research-to-decision chain
Runs a two-week research sprint (13 interviews split across 5 facilitators and 8 casual users, plus a 26-respondent delight survey) and shows two rejected explorations before landing on the shipped "Presentation Mode" — includes the reasoning for cutting each one, e.g. an idea that "does not offer a visually distinct space" per feedback from Butter's Chief of Product Chris Holm-Hansen, named directly.
Two of four case studies are password-gated
NYT Games and Allbirds are behind a single "secret password" field (no login/account creation) rather than fully public — standard NDA practice for enterprise/current-employer work, but it means only half the showcased projects can actually be evaluated by a visitor without the password.
Verifiable outside claims
Moonai's "top 12 finalist, She Loves Tech 2021" and "FemTech Lab accelerator" claims both check out against independent press coverage, and her New York Times role is independently corroborated (LinkedIn title match, and public mentions of a Times Publisher's Award and work on the Family Subscriptions launch).
What Product Designers can take from this
Specific, actionable tips to apply to your own portfolio — no generic advice.
Password-gate two of four projects and visitors — including hiring managers skimming quickly — see only half your work; consider a redacted/sanitized public version of at least one gated case study instead of a full lock.
The "role" and "timeline" mini-header on Moonai/Butter is a good pattern — it front-loads scope before the reader commits to the long scroll.
Both open case studies name a rejected direction and why it was cut (Butter's "Exploration 2" scrapped for scope) — that kind of documented dead-end is more convincing than a lot of portfolios attempt.
The homepage never says how to reach the two locked projects (no "email me for the password" prompt) — add one so a genuinely interested reviewer isn't just stuck.
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