A portfolio is often justified through coverage. Different constituents provide different capabilities, allowing the portfolio as a whole to address more situations than any individual constituent could.
But a portfolio can provide another kind of value: expression.
Consider a small collection of watches.
An industrial Victorinox I.N.O.X., an elegant ice-blue Presage, a green Alpinist and a solar panda chronograph all perform essentially the same basic function. Their practical use cases also overlap considerably.
Yet choosing between them can still be meaningful.
The I.N.O.X. might express resilience and confidence. The Presage refinement without complete conformity. The Alpinist curiosity and adventure. The panda technical practicality and precision.
The question in the morning is therefore not necessarily:
Which watch do I need today?
It might be:
Which aspect of myself do I want to express today?
A Portfolio as a Vocabulary
Words are not valuable because one ranks above another. They are valuable because different words allow different things to be expressed.
Even words with similar meanings can carry different nuances.
Replacing one word with a supposedly superior word makes little sense if the two communicate different things.
The same can be true of portfolio constituents.
Two constituents may have different specifications while communicating essentially the same thing. Their contribution to the expressive range of the portfolio may therefore be small.
Conversely, two constituents may overlap substantially in practical capability while remaining valuable together because they enable different expressions.
This gives us another question for evaluating portfolio composition:
What can this constituent express that the existing portfolio cannot express adequately?
Difference alone is not enough. A collection containing many minor variations may contain many objects while providing little additional expressive range.
The differences must be meaningful in relation to the intent of the portfolio.
Beyond Functional Coverage
Functional coverage remains important, but it need not be the complete explanation for portfolio composition.
Some portfolios also provide a vocabulary of meaningful differences.
Their constituents are valuable not because they rank above one another, but because they allow different things to be expressed.
The portfolio provides the vocabulary.
The choice provides the expression.
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