Transforming Leadership Online
A data-backed redesign for a coaching-first institute.
Leadership Development
B2C
Education
📘 Overview
Ecsell Institute needed a site that could translate their industry-leading research and coaching frameworks into a digital experience. Their old site lacked focus, trust signals, and clear conversion paths.
Our goal: create a data-driven, human-centered website that made leadership development actionable.
Services
UX Strategy, Web Design, Creative Direction
Client name
Ecsell Institute
Team
Vahan Kirakosyan, Lead Product Designer
Kimari Chen, Product Designer
Mateo Alvarez, Junior Designer
Sahana Patel, UX Researcher
🧑🤝🧑 Users & Audience
Primary Users
HR Leaders searching for proven leadership training
Executives assessing coaching partners
Secondary Users
Team managers interested in their own growth
Athletic coaches and educational administrators seeking leadership development
🎯 The Challenge
"The old website made us look smaller than we are."
The current site buried their biggest asset — data and impact. Visitors didn’t immediately understand what Ecsell offered or why it mattered.
Our challenge was to design a site that:
Created immediate trust
Simplified complex offerings
Guided users toward clear, simple actions
🧠 My Role & Team
My Role
I owned product direction, UX strategy, wireframes, UI design, and stakeholder collaboration.
Team
Vahan Kirakosyan, Lead Product Designer
Kimari Chen, Product Designer
Mateo Alvarez, Junior Designer
Sahana Patel, UX Researcher
🔍 Research & Insights
Our approach was structured around depth. We conducted stakeholder interviews, competitor audits, and heatmap analysis of the old site. We also ran card sorting with previous clients to understand how they categorized Ecsell’s services.
What stood out: users wanted clarity on “What’s right for me?” and quick paths to get proof this program worked. The data mattered. So did personality. People loved Ecsell’s bold voice, so we leaned into it while stripping away anything vague or generic.
✍️ Design Artifacts
We mapped early user flows around:
Exploring services intuitively
Driving users to The Academy, The Book, and Research
Reducing friction for lead capture (Schedule a Call)
Low-fidelity wireframes focused on:
Simplified navigation structure
Strong hero messaging with fast proof points
Flexible content blocks for evolving offerings
Working in low-fidelity allowed us to validate structure and engagement before visual design.
🎨 Hi-Fidelity Design
Every section was designed to earn attention and keep trust. The dark hero section opens with a strong type lockup and a call-to-action that feels urgent. Service cards use sharp layout contrast and layered hover states to communicate credibility without clutter. Research highlights are presented with bold numbers and intuitive filtering. And throughout the experience, the "Take the First Step" button anchors the user’s next move.
We collaborated with the internal marketing team on video usage, implementing subtle parallax and scroll triggers to make large content areas feel dynamic without overwhelming the user.
🧠 Case Study Summary
This website redesign wasn’t just about aesthetics. Ecsell Institute needed a digital experience that truly matched the depth and rigor of their leadership coaching model. The goal was to translate trust, professionalism, and research-backed credibility into every interaction across the site. The previous website lacked cohesion and failed to convey the weight of their data-driven insights. As Lead Product Designer, I led the strategy, design vision, and execution, working with a team of designers and a UX researcher to reimagine the entire site from the ground up.
🖥️ Overview
Ecsell Institute is a leadership development organization that uses data-backed methods to transform managers into high-performing coaches. With over 300,000 documented leader-team interactions analyzed, they’ve built one of the world’s largest research databases on leadership. Their work spans business, sports, and education. But their old website didn’t reflect this impact. It lacked visual authority, made it hard to explore services, and missed opportunities to demonstrate the science behind their approach. Our task was to rebuild trust and clarity—while showcasing their core offerings, credibility, and bold brand purpose.
👥 Users & Audience
We focused on two primary user groups. First, HR decision-makers and executives who are evaluating coaching vendors for their leadership teams. These users need evidence, case studies, and a clear ROI pitch. Second, returning clients and alumni of Ecsell programs looking to stay connected and access new resources. The experience had to guide, not overwhelm—balancing new conversions with long-term brand trust.
Selected work
[2022 -2025]
