Creating Portfolio Projects without Real Customers
A candidate without a real customer can find one person with one real problem and treat solving it as a genuine engagement.
A Portfolio Gap with a Practical Fix
Imagine you are building a portfolio to show a future employer or client that you can take a vague business need and turn it into working software. The obvious way to prove this is to have delivered something for a real customer. Many candidates have not yet had that chance. They have skills and projects, but no paying or committed client they can point to.
The question this article answers is practical: what should you do when you cannot yet ship for a real customer, yet still want your portfolio work to look and feel like a real engagement?
The source offers a direct answer. Rather than inventing an abstract project with no one behind it, find a single real person who has a real problem, and then work on that problem as though you were carrying out an engagement for them. The author describes this as the most useful trick they know for candidates in this situation.
Two Requirements That Work Together
A stand-in customer is one identifiable person who has one real, already-existing problem, and whom you treat as the client for a genuine simulated engagement.
The source's advice rests on two requirements. The first is one person. The stand-in customer is a single individual or a single organization, not a large audience. The second is one real problem. That person must actually be struggling with something that needs solving.
Both conditions matter, and each fails in a different way. A problem with no owner tends to remain hypothetical, which means you are building against an imagined need. An owner with no problem gives you nothing to build against. When the two are combined, you have a concrete engagement: someone who needs an outcome, and you working toward that outcome.
The engagement becomes useful because it has a single focus. One person, one problem, one outcome to work toward.
Tracing a Candidate Without a Customer
From a vague goal to a stand-in engagement
A candidate, whom we will call Sam, has strong coding skills and two finished practice projects, but no client. Sam wants a portfolio piece that looks like real delivery. Walk through what Sam does according to the source's approach.
- 1Starting state
Sam has skills and projects but no customer. The gap is the missing real engagement, not a missing skill.
- 2Find a person, not an audience
Sam does not invent an abstract project. Sam looks for a single individual or a single organization who is connected to a real problem.
- 3Confirm the problem is already real
Sam checks that the person is already struggling with something that needs solving. The problem exists before Sam arrives, so Sam is not making one up to fit a project.
- 4Work as if engaged
Sam treats the person's problem as a genuine engagement: working toward the outcome the person needs, as though delivering for them.
Sam now has one person with one real problem, which is the pair of requirements that makes the simulated engagement useful.
The Four Kinds of Stand-In Customer
The source lists four kinds of person who can serve as a stand-in customer. Each one shows a different way a real problem can surface, so it helps to look at them as distinct situations rather than a single category. The four are a friend with a small business, a non-profit, a creator with a workflow problem voiced publicly, and a small B2B SaaS founder who needs an AI feature they cannot build.
Notice what the four examples share. In each case the person is already aware of a problem, and in some cases has already voiced it publicly. That visibility is what makes them good candidates. The problem is real before you arrive, rather than something you invent to fit a project.
Checking Whether a Person Fits
When you are considering a specific person, you can run the source's two requirements and its warnings as a sequence of checks. The diagram below shows the order. A person is rejected at the first check they fail, and only a person who passes all three qualifies.
The first check comes from the requirement of one person: a large group of interested parties does not give you a single focus. The second check comes from the requirement of one real problem: a person with no problem gives you nothing to build against. The third check comes from the warning to avoid choosing a problem before a person. Starting from a problem you already like and then looking for someone to attach to it reverses the order the source recommends.
Mistakes When Choosing a Stand-In
The source names three selection errors. Each looks reasonable at first glance, which is why they are worth recognizing in advance.
Common mistake Choosing a problem before a person
What it looks likeA candidate decides to build a scheduling tool and then searches for someone who might use it.
Why it failsThe problem was invented to fit the project, so it may never have been real for anyone.
Do this insteadStart from a specific person who already has a problem, then work on that problem.
Common mistake Naming an audience instead of a person
What it looks likeA candidate says the stand-in is small business owners in general.
Why it failsA group does not give you one individual with one problem, so the engagement has no single focus.
Do this insteadPick one individual or one organization to be the stand-in customer.
Common mistake Selecting someone with no problem to solve
Why it failsWithout a problem the person is not struggling with anything, and there is no outcome to work toward.
Judging Three Candidates
Three people are proposed as stand-in customers. Person A is a friend who runs a small business and mentioned that invoice tracking takes them hours each week. Person B is a group called small business owners in my city. Person C is a neighbor who seems happy with everything and has no particular problem. Using the checks from this article, decide which person, if any, qualifies, and name the first check each rejected person fails.
Hints
- Check whether the proposal names one individual or one organization, or a broad audience.
- Check whether the person is already aware of a real problem that needs solving.
- Consider whether the problem was chosen before the person, which the source warns against.
Key Takeaways
- A candidate without a real customer can find one person with one real problem and treat solving it as a genuine engagement.
- The two core requirements work together: one identifiable person and one real, already-existing problem.
- The source gives four kinds of stand-in customer: a friend with a small business, a non-profit, a creator with a workflow problem voiced publicly, and a small B2B SaaS founder needing an AI feature they cannot build.
- Avoid choosing a problem before a person, naming an audience instead of a person, or selecting someone with no problem to solve.