Redesigning for Revenue: Persona-Driven Website Strategy That Increased Qualified Leads
The Project
The Problem: FarmerConnect's website offered generic information that didn't speak to different decision-makers' needs, missing opportunities to capture qualified leads and drive sales conversations
FarmerConnect, an IBM-powered blockchain supply chain startup, had a generic website that treated all visitors the same. With "qualified lead generation" as their north star metric, they needed a homepage that spoke directly to different decision-makers' needs—from sustainability officers to procurement managers—each with distinct pain points and buying triggers.
For: FarmerConnect
My Role: Lead UX Designer
Tools: Figma, Sketch
FOCUS AREAS:
Multi-Persona Design
Product Strategy
User Flow Design
Stakeholder Management
Information Architecture
The challenge:
FarmerConnect is an innovative supply chain start up driven to empower and grow the entire supply chain through blockchain technology. They have deep knowledge of their audience and know that conversations are a driver for business, even more so given the innovative technology and newness of their business. Their website offers generic information, untargeted to the various decision makers’ needs and challenges.
The approach:
First, I started by a stakeholder interview (with CEO and Head of Marketing) to understant the company’s mission, products and goals. I then defined personas to help shape the different messaging and conversations we wanted to create. Finally, I created wireframes as a proposition of the website homepage redesign.
The outcome:
Through conversations with the stakeholders, I defined 3 key areas of focus in order to build a homepage that would answer their need for lead generation and growth: data capture, customer-centricity, solution vs. product focus.
The solution:
Building 4 personas to highlight each pains, challenges and goals was the first step to defining a conversational, personalised and expert homepage. Introducing the company as a partner to solve challenges, for each one of them was also key to build trust, specifically for a B2B start-up.
Personas
With the input of the stakeholders and individual research I created personas to build an understanding of the target audience to help shape the vision for the new homepage.
I created 4 main personas to highlight each challenges and goals. This exercise was useful for me to understand the business but also a great tool to base my recommendations on for the new proposed homepage of the website.
Personas
The Solution
From the conversations we had with the stakeholders and their wish for data capture and consuner-centricity, I wanted to develop user journeys that would be personal, conversational and educational.
The navigation menu was changed to reflect the challenges of each persona, leading to a specific page that would answer their query in a more targeted and personal way. This gives the users the peace of mind that they will get valuable rather than generic information and highlight the width of problem-solving solutions that the company can provide them.
Introducing a controlled-by-the-user contact form with the ability to choose their most important topic as well as the date and time they wanted to be contacted is a good way to drive the users to the best person to contact them back, and for the sales reps within the company to prepare and personalise the approach once the call happens.
The conversational and targeted design is also reflected on the banner below to drive the users to personalised content and solutions. The dropdown menu enables all to understand the width of solutions provided by FarmerConnect but also creates a trusted relationship with the company. They understand the challenges each persona faces and have a solution to offer for each and more.
Reflection & Strategic Trade-Offs
This project exemplified a reality of startup work: perfect research isn't always possible, but strategic decisions still need to be made.
With a 6-week timeline and no budget for user recruitment, I couldn't validate personas through direct interviews. Instead, I leveraged stakeholder expertise (CEO + Head of Marketing had years of sales conversations) and my own B2B background to build credible personas rapidly.
The risk? Personas based on assumptions rather than observation.
The mitigation? I designed the navigation framework to be modular—if a persona proved wrong, we could swap messaging without restructuring the entire site.
What I'd validate first if given more time:
Whether the four personas actually represented distinct user journeys, or if some could be consolidated. My hypothesis was that a Sustainability Officer and Procurement Lead needed different entry points; user interviews would have confirmed or challenged that.
What worked:
The "challenge-based navigation" approach—organizing content around problems rather than products—became FarmerConnect's standard for all subsequent marketing pages. The framework outlasted the specific implementation, which is the mark of good strategic work.
The lesson I've carried forward:
When time or budget constraints limit research, design for flexibility. Modular systems let you course-correct based on real data without throwing away your foundation. I've applied this "design for uncertainty" approach to early-stage features across industries—from blockchain startups to maritime cybersecurity to consumer brands.