Content Strategy

Best practices for organizing and presenting your portfolio content.

Featured Content

The featured field controls which items appear on your homepage.

Projects

featured: true   # Shows on homepage
order: 1         # Lower number = appears first

Recommendations:

• Feature 2-4 projects maximum
• Choose projects that demonstrate range
• Prioritize recent work
• Lead with your strongest case study (order: 1)

Selection criteria:

• Clear, measurable impact
• Interesting technical challenges
• Projects you can discuss confidently
• Work that represents your career direction

Testimonials

• Feature 2-3 testimonials on homepage
• Choose different relationship types (manager, peer, report)
• Prioritize specific praise over generic endorsements

Speaking

• Feature talks with recordings or slides available
• Prioritize larger events or well-known conferences

Ordering Content

The order field determines display sequence. Lower numbers appear first.

order: 1   # First position
order: 3   # Second position
order: 5   # Third position

Tips:

• Use gaps (1, 3, 5) to make reordering easier later
• For projects: lead with impact, not chronology

Content Volume Guidelines

Content Type	Minimum	Recommended	Maximum
Projects	3	5-8	12
Decisions	2	4-6	10
Journey	3	5-10	15
Writing	0	3-5	No limit
Speaking	0	2-4	No limit
Testimonials	2	3-5	8
Uses	1	1	1

Quality over quantity. 4 excellent case studies beats 12 mediocre ones.

Content Refresh Cadence

• Projects: Add within 1-2 months of completion
• Journey: Update quarterly or after milestones
• Writing: 1-2 posts per quarter if blogging
• Uses: Review annually
• Testimonials: Request after successful projects

Writing Effective Case Studies

The Narrative Arc

1. Problem — What was broken or missing?
2. Constraints — What made this hard?
3. Approach — How did you tackle it?
4. Decisions — What trade-offs did you make?
5. Impact — What changed because of your work?
6. Learnings — What would you do differently?

Metrics That Matter

Good metrics are:

• Specific: “60% reduction” not “significant improvement”
• Contextual: “from 2.5s to 1s” shows before/after
• Business-relevant: Connect technical wins to outcomes

metrics:
  - label: "Processing Time"
    value: "60% reduction (from 2.5s to 1s)"
  - label: "Error Rate"
    value: "0.1% (down from 2.3%)"

Decisions Section

The keyDecisions field separates a portfolio from a resume:

keyDecisions:
  - decision: "Use event sourcing for payment state"
    reasoning: "Complete audit trail, easier debugging"
    alternatives:
      - "Traditional CRUD with audit logs"
      - "State machine with database transactions"

Tips:

• Include 2-4 key decisions per project
• Always list alternatives considered
• It’s okay to mention decisions that didn’t work out

Draft Mode

Use draft: true for work-in-progress:

---
title: "My New Article"
draft: true   # Won't appear in production
---

• Visible in development (npm run dev)
• Hidden in production builds