Redesigning DataUP for scalable future growth
Project: Since its inception in 2021, DataUP Consulting's digital presence and brand identity were managed through fragmented, incremental updates that lagged behind their actual growth. This reactive approach created a disjointed user experience that failed to communicate the full technical breadth of an emerging data analytics company located in the Twin Cities. To align their image with their trajectory, the leadership team initiated a comprehensive redesign of the DataUP primary website. This new digital hub serves as the definitive showcase for their evolving data capabilities, integrated consulting services, and specialized client solutions. Beyond just a visual refresh, the redesigned site was engineered to function as a scalable growth engine, enabling the marketing and sales teams to rapidly deploy new content and capture higher-quality leads in an increasingly competitive market.
My roles and responsibilities for this project
Currently, I continue to serve as the Design Director for all DataUP website product initiatives as a consultant. Some of my other key responsibilities central to the success of the DataUP product website include:
Strategic Alignment and Vision
I ensure that every design initiative for the DataUP website directly supports the company’s business goals, and I closely work with the CEO to transform strategic outputs into measurable assets that drive long-term profitability.
Design Direction and Execution
I serve as the primary design consultant responsible for the direction, vision, and user experience of the DataUP website to ensure the final product delivers an experience that is accessible, mobile-responsive, and high-performing.
Design System Management
I am responsible for engineering and governing Analog, the DataUP centralized "Single Source of Truth" design system library. A system of reusable components that aligns their design language for development to ensure brand consistency.
The Challenge:
Defining the footprint of a startup to build the voice of a brand
At the start of the DataUP redesign, the goal was to transform a fragmented digital presence into a high-performing growth engine. Using an OKR framework, our Objective was to establish DataUP as the definitive authority in the Twin Cities data landscape by professionalizing the website as a digital touchpoint. The Key Results focused on increasing lead quality by 25% and reducing time-to-market for new pages through a scalable architecture. This initiative allowed us to validate new design patterns as a bedrock for future growth. The stakeholders recognized the solution required more than a visual refresh; it demanded an interface and code structure flexible enough to support rapid, iterative expansion.
To meet these requirements, I engineered Analog, a centralized "Single Source of Truth" design system. By utilizing Figma for high-fidelity prototyping and building components in isolation, I ensured every element was accessible, responsive, and high-performing. The final output was a feature-rich design ecosystem built on a modular framework developed in Webflow, allowing deployment of complex layouts while maintaining strict brand consistency. This systematic approach transformed the site from a reactive blog into a robust digital hub that showcases DataUP’s technical breadth and integrated consulting solutions.
The following sections document the standards created for developing a solutions-based website product and the strategic process used to build Analog and its components.
Discovery:
How strategic alignment would define what success looks like
To ensure the DataUP redesign moved beyond aesthetics, I led a discovery phase focused on strategic alignment with leadership. Through stakeholder workshops and quantitative research, I bridged the gap between business goals and user needs, defining success before starting the design. This objective-driven framework shifted the focus from subjective preferences to growth-oriented prioritization. By codifying these insights early, we ensured that the final product was not just a website, but a validated business tool designed to convert high-level data expertise into measurable market authority.
Business Goals & KPIs
To transform DataUP into a scalable growth engine, we identified two core objectives that served as the primary indicators of the platform’s performance:
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Lead Quality: Increase the conversion rate of "Sales Qualified Leads" by 25% through targeted service-page storytelling.
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Market Authority: Establish a 30% increase in organic traffic for Twin Cities-based data analytics search queries.
Success Metrics
The following quantitative and qualitative metrics were established to track the long-term health and user viability of the new digital ecosystem:
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User Retention: A 15% improvement in average session duration, indicating higher engagement with our specialized consulting content.
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Brand Consistency: 100% adherence to the Analog design system across all new web modules to eliminate visual debt.
Stakeholder Mapping
To build a truly representative platform, I conducted a Stakeholder Mapping exercise to identify the key voices within DataUP Consulting, ranging from executive leadership to lead consultants. By interviewing these team members, I uncovered the unique pain points of each department, ensuring the website would serve both as a powerful sales closer for the CEO and a functional portfolio for the technical team. This collaborative mapping was essential for building the internal trust needed to execute a unified brand vision that resonated across the entire organization.
Building on this internal alignment, I transitioned to a comprehensive Competitive Analysis to identify how DataUP’s unique value proposition could be positioned against key competitors in the data analytics landscape.
Benchmarking an industry leader to carve a unique path.
To establish a clear market position, I conducted a competitive audit of DataUP against OneMagnify, a global leader in data science and marketing. By auditing their service architecture and digital touchpoints (their website), I identified several critical disadvantages in their enterprise model, and specifically a lack of bespoke client interfaces. This research revealed that while OneMagnify excels at scale, it often leaves a "usability gap" for clients seeking direct collaboration and rapid iteration, creating a clear opening for DataUP.
I leveraged these insights to position DataUP as a "specialized" consultancy company, combining global technical expertise with the intimacy of a local partner. This benchmarking validated a strategic path into the "market white space," positioning DataUP as a modern, high-touch alternative for mid-market clients underserved by legacy data science companies.
Building on the audit, these findings distinguish OneMagnify’s marketing model from DataUP’s technical focus. While both share AI capabilities, they differ in audience and execution. By identifying how enterprise clients feel distanced by layers of management, DataUP can leverage its agility through a "Senior-Led Execution" narrative. This would help to capture market space by offering technical leaders a high-touch alternative with direct accountability from pitch to delivery.
Key Learnings
Opportunities
Apparent Differences
Similar Capabilities
Why facilitated UX ideation sessions set the foundation for what we built
To further refine the project’s direction, I led a series of facilitated UX ideation sessions designed to bridge the gap between high-level business strategy and tangible website features. As the Product Designer, my goal was to move beyond basic assumptions and extract deep institutional knowledge from the leadership team. By creating a collaborative environment, we explored the technical breadth of DataUP’s offerings and translated their complex data services into user-centric website sections that would resonate with technical decision-makers.
Working closely with key stakeholders, we conducted in-depth analyses of specific capabilities such as predictive modeling, (Machine Learning) ML architecture, and data integrity. This collaborative approach ensured the website's features weren't only visually appealing but also technically accurate and aligned with the company’s "Senior-Led Execution" narrative. These workshops allowed us to identify which specialized services required dedicated landing pages and which technical proof points were non-negotiable for establishing market authority.
To organize the high volume of concepts generated during these sessions, I utilized affinity clustering. This technique allowed us to take a chaotic "brain dump" of features and group them into logical themes—such as "Technical Scalability," "Client Success Stories," and "Strategic Consulting Frameworks." By visually clustering related ideas, the team could clearly see which themes carried the most weight, helping to define the primary navigation and the hierarchical structure of the new digital experience.
In the final stage of this discovery phase, these clustered ideas provided the raw data needed for the next level of refinement. I transitioned these high-potential concepts into a prioritization matrix, mapping them based on their expected business impact for implementation. This rigorous filtering process ensured that the MVP (Minimum Viable Product) focused on the most critical features first, allowing us to build a scalable foundation that could grow alongside DataUP’s evolving service model.
Using prioritization as a method to discover what is important
To bridge the gap between ideation and execution, I implemented a UX prioritization framework to evaluate which features would drive the most immediate value for DataUP and its users. By mapping our brainstormed concepts onto an Impact vs. Effort matrix, I could objectively filter the "must-haves" from the "nice-to-haves" based on their alignment with our core business objectives.
Through this lens, the Partnership Section emerged as a must-have requirement, needed to showcase DataUP's strategic alliances and technical trust. Conversely, while a Community Forum was discussed as a way to engage users, it was deemed out of scope for the MVP because the high technical overhead would have distracted from our primary goal of shaping DataUP as a data authority.
Definition
Defining the deliverables for the product roadmap
To establish a unified vision, I developed a comprehensive product roadmap that aligned stakeholders on the strategic "why" and "what" behind our digital direction. This roadmap served as more than just a timeline; it was a strategic anchor that ensured every feature—from technical architecture to front-end components—supported our primary business objectives of increasing lead quality and market authority. By visualizing the product’s evolution over time, I was able to manage stakeholder expectations and maintain a steady focus on high-impact outcomes, ensuring that the project remained a scalable growth engine rather than a series of reactive updates.
To bring this roadmap to life, I implemented a Kanban-based workflow using Microsoft Planner to manage the technical execution. Much like Jira or Trello, this tool allowed me to foster a culture of transparency and collaboration by making the status of every task visible to the entire team. By tracking the flow of work from ideation to deployment, I was able to proactively identify potential bottlenecks—such as resource constraints or technical dependencies—and resolve them before they impacted our timeline. This systematic approach ensured that our development cycles remained lean, predictable, and fully aligned with our strategic milestones.
Ideation
How wireframes inspired a clear direction and solidified stakeholder buy-in
After defining our product roadmap, the next step was to establish a clear visual direction and solidify stakeholder buy-in. I transitioned into the ideation phase by developing low-fidelity wireframe mockups. These wireframes served as a structural blueprint, translating our high-level strategy into tangible layouts that prioritized DataUP’s core business objectives. By focusing on a "content-first" design approach, I ensured that every section was purposefully and strategically placed to address the technical needs of their audience while maintaining a clear path toward conversion.
This phase was critical for aligning the leadership team on the digital vision, as it enabled us to validate the user flow and information architecture before transitioning to high-fidelity production. By visualizing the execution early on, I secured the internal confidence necessary to move forward with a unified, objective-driven design.
A centerpiece of this effort was the specialized Solutions Page, which I engineered specifically to resonate with business decision-makers and technical leaders. This wireframe focused on clearly articulating DataUP’s complex capabilities—such as data architecture through a lens of business value and scalability. By showcasing technical depth in an accessible, results-oriented format, this page and others directly supported the strategic goal of establishing market authority and converting high-level expertise into a powerful sales tool.
Establishing a core foundation built for accessibility, clarity, and scalability
After the wireframes were approved during the ideation phase, the focus shifted to establishing the core of a scalable brand system. I engineered Analog, a centralized design system built on accessibility, flexibility, and scalability. I developed the color palette using a functional shading system specifically tested to meet WCAG contrast standards, ensuring clarity for all users. For the typescale, I implemented a dual-scale strategy using pixels for design accuracy and rems for font sizing to support a responsive development process and improve browser-based accessibility.
To further enhance the technical foundation of Analog, I leveraged Figma variables to build a robust primitive color collection powered by design tokens. This systematic approach allowed for a clean separation between raw color values and their functional application, ensuring that any global brand update can be pushed across the entire ecosystem instantly. By utilizing these tokens, I created a "Single Source of Truth" that streamlines the handoff between design and development, guaranteeing that the DataUP website remains scalable and easy to maintain as the brand evolves.
Components designed for flexibility and scalability
To ensure the Analog could keep pace with DataUP’s rapid growth, I engineered a library of components defined by their flexibility and scalability. Rather than building static assets, I developed modular UI patterns that allowed for the assembly of complex layouts without reinventing the wheel for every new page. A prime example of this is the testimonial card system; by treating elements like the avatar, quote text, client name, and job title as independent sub-modules, we could effortlessly pivot between different component patterns—such as vertical stacks for mobile or horizontal viewports for high-impact social proof. This atomic approach ensures that as DataUP expands its service offerings, the digital ecosystem remains cohesive, accessible, and remarkably easy to maintain.
Interactive UI component design
To complement this modularity, I designed the testimonial cards as interactive UI components, utilizing motion and animated transitions to create a tactile, engaging experience that guides the user’s eye through each success story.
Code programmed and developed to be user-friendly for every interface
To ensure the DataUP platform remains cohesive and scalable, I implemented a token-based design system that bridges the gap between design and code. By centralizing the visual logic into a global framework, I created a "single source of truth" for all UI elements.
As shown in the project’s globals.css, I defined a comprehensive set of design tokens, reusable variables for font weights, radius, and a specialized chart color palette. This systematic approach allowed for:
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Maintaining Visual Consistency: Every component pulls from the same set of definitions, preventing "style drift" across the platform.
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Scale Efficiency: Design updates (like adjusting a primary brand color or corner radius) can be made globally in seconds, rather than manually updating individual screens or components.
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Development Handoff: By aligning my Figma variables with the front-end tokens, I’ve streamlined the handoff process, ensuring the final build matches the intended UX specifications with high fidelity.
UI Design
From fireframes to a polished, component-based digital product experience
The final UI mockups that started from establishing strong strategy objectives, to detailed design layouts that prioritize clarity, accessibility, a better user experience, and ways to showcase DataUP's capabilities—all came together under a unified goal to deliver an experience the DataUP team could be proud of. The results delivered were a comprehensive set of page designs, including a streamlined Solutions page and an interactive Partnership section—all using a custom-built, standardized Figma component library. These visuals ensured a seamless handoff to development, maintaining consistency across every touchpoint of the DataUP platform.
The strategic overhaul of the DataUP website resulted in an ecosystem that blends DataUP’s technical depth with an intuitive user experience. By replacing a fragmented, reactive model, the website product now functions as a unified brand hub. Key updates, like the Industries Detail page, provide immediate social proof and translate complex data science into clear, business-value narratives—showcasing the company's expertise in data architecture and database analytics.
This transformation represents a fundamental shift in market engagement. The CEO noted the redesign as a "definitive turning point", signaling DataUP’s growth as a data authority. By establishing a scalable, product-focused website platform, DataUP grounded itself as a sophisticated alternative to legacy consultancy firms, ready to evolve alongside the industries it serves.
What I learned
The DataUP product redesign was a profound lesson in how strategic discovery and competitive analysis define a brand’s market position. By auditing industry leaders like OneMagnify, I learned that DataUP's greatest advantage lies in its agility and "Senior-Led Execution," which fills a unique gap often overlooked in larger, legacy firms. This insight was further refined during facilitated ideation sessions, where I discovered what strengths DataUP had to amplify and why this mattered for its technical capabilities. These workshops taught me that for a growing company, success is not just about aesthetics; it’s about developing a product strategy to transform the industries it serves with meaningful solutions and capabilities.
I delivered a scalable, component-based digital hub that enables flexible decision-making—designed for continual growth. This strategic overhaul increased unique visits by 64% and drove significantly higher-quality leads. Ultimately, this project proved my ability to bridge high-level business objectives with a clean, accessible, and high-performing user experience.
