This case study is intentionally meta: the portfolio is the product. It documents how anthonyrgomez.com evolved from a conventional UX-portfolio frame into a story about agentic design, how humans and AI work together, not only how interfaces look.
The problem: a portfolio that lagged the work
For years, "portfolio" meant case studies framed as hero execution: problems, process diagrams, and polished outcomes. That still matters, but my day job had moved into platform UX, cross-team systems, and agentic workflows (skills, governance, workbenches). The old site narrative still whispered "individual contributor who ships screens," while the work I wanted to attract and discuss was strategic, technical, and AI-shaped.
There were practical mismatches too:
- Positioning drift. Visitors saw "UX" first and had to infer systems leadership, AI exploration, and product strategy.
- Content debt. Placeholder case studies and mismatched summaries undermined trust. The site didn't reflect the rigor I apply at work.
- Product shape. An earlier direction treated the site as a gated product (auth, experiments as future). The clearer move for a public portfolio was open by default: fast, readable, and easy to update as the story changed.
The gap wasn't talent. It was story architecture. I needed a site that could sit next to an enterprise Argon narrative without feeling like a different person wrote it.
Strategy: the site as a positioning artifact
I reframed the homepage as a compressed positioning doc:
- Hero line. "Product Designer. Systems Thinker. AI Explorer." Signals craft, systems, and AI without burying the lede.
- Subhead. "UX Leader on complex platforms." Keeps leadership legible for hiring managers who still search on "UX."
- "Currently" bullets. ConnectWise platform leadership, Agentic UX Framework, and explicit tools (Cursor, Figma Make) anchor the story in how I work today, not a generic skills list.
The bio / journey route became a second narrative surface: long-form arc from craft to systems to leadership to where AI fits, implemented with scroll-reveal sections and structured journey data, not a PDF dump.
Audience: peers, design leadership, product/engineering partners, and recruiters who need to see agentic fluency in the same breath as shipping judgment.
Process: pair-building in Cursor
Almost everything after the initial scaffold was built collaboratively in Cursor: ideation, refactors, content passes, and MDX case studies. The workflow mirrored how I build at work: tight loops, explicit constraints, and treating the assistant as a pair that edits files, not a chat that suggests from afar.
Technical choices
| Layer | What I used |
|---|---|
| Framework | Next.js 16 (App Router), React 19 |
| Content | MDX via next-mdx-remote (RSC), gray-matter for frontmatter, GitHub-flavored Markdown (tables) for dense case study sections |
| Styling | Tailwind CSS v4, @tailwindcss/typography for long-form prose |
| Motion | Framer Motion–based ScrollReveal and journey presentation on /bio |
| Shipping model | Static generation for /work/[slug]; case studies are files in src/content/work/ |
What changed along the way
- Removed the auth gate. The site is fully public; no Supabase or login flow. That reduced friction for readers and simplified deployment and mental overhead.
- Case studies as code. Each featured project is an
.mdxfile plus a row inprojects.ts; prev/next on case pages follows featured order. Adding Argon meant proving the pipeline (tables, images, tone) on real content, not lorem ipsum. - Home + bio alignment. Role cards and the journey page reinforce the same through-line: systems thinking, AI-assisted design practice, and designing for real people without sounding generic.
What shipped
Today, a visitor gets:
- Home. Clear positioning, role cards, experience blurb, and featured UX work linking to full write-ups.
/work/[slug]. MDX-driven case studies (including Project Argon) with shared typography and optional GFM tables./bio. "My Journey" narrative with phased story, experience table, and resume link, supporting the same brand as the hero.- Public experiments placeholder. Honest "coming soon" for generative work rather than fake depth.
The live site is anthonyrgomez.com; this repository is the working tree that produces it.
Reflection
Portfolios are interfaces too. They have IA, tone, trust, and performance budgets. Rebuilding this site was practice for the same muscles I use on product: decide the job-to-be-done, cut scope that doesn't serve it, and ship iteratively.
Agentic design isn't a badge. It's a workflow. Using Cursor to co-author the site wasn't a gimmick; it was the most honest way to demonstrate how I work now. The remaining debt is visible if you look (e.g. generic LinkedIn placeholder URL, SVG placeholders for case imagery). That's fine. It records an honest mid-flight state.
If I did it again, I'd earlier instrument analytics on which sections recruiters actually read, and I'd replace placeholder art with real artifacts (diagrams, redacted work samples) as soon as they're cleared. The north star stays the same: the story and the stack should match the work.