Why I’m Building The Designer’s Story Kit (and What I’ve Learned Already)

When I started working on The Designer’s Story Kit, I wasn’t thinking about creating another “resource.” There are already more templates and frameworks out there than most designers will ever use. What I wanted was something more practical, more alive, a way to help designers capture the real story of their work without getting stuck in the blank page.

The seed for the kit came from coaching sessions. Again and again, I’d see talented designers struggle not with their craft, but with telling the story of their craft. They would freeze when it came time to explain a project in a portfolio, pitch themselves to a client, or even just write a case study. The result: great work stayed invisible.

So I started building a set of tools I wish I’d had earlier in my career. Simple prompts, structured templates, and lightweight frameworks that turn “what happened on this project” into a clear, compelling story. The first piece of the kit, the Project Story Builder, is already finished, and I’ve been using it myself to capture my own recent work.

What I’ve learned so far:

Storytelling is not about making yourself look polished. It is about making the real process visible.

When you frame a project as a story, clarity follows naturally. Even messy work becomes easier to explain.

Designers do not need more jargon. They need tools that help them show their thinking in plain language.

This blog will document the journey of building the kit, the experiments, the wins, and the lessons learned along the way. My hope is that it becomes useful for anyone who is tired of struggling to explain their work.