Scaling an International Career Consulting Business Through a Product-Led Website
Client
Hire Brazil
Industry
Career Consulting
Role
Product Designer
Duration
30 days
Context
Hire Brazil is a career consulting company that has supported over 2,000 clients in securing international job opportunities — remote and on-site — across more than 15 countries.
As the company prepared for national expansion, growth was still heavily dependent on:
Social media traffic
Direct WhatsApp conversations
Founder-led authority
There was no structured digital layer supporting education, qualification, or scale.
The goal of this project was to design Hire Brazil’s first product-led institutional website, capable of clarifying value, strengthening positioning, and scaling lead generation.
The Challenge
As Hire Brazil grew, its acquisition funnel revealed structural limitations.
Operational Friction
Leads arrived via WhatsApp with little context
The commercial team repeatedly explained the same services
Discovery and conversion happened in the same channel
WhatsApp was functioning as both education and closing tool, which limited scalability.
Brand Positioning Issues
The brand perception was strongly tied to the founders
There was no centralized, authoritative digital presence
Users lacked a self-guided way to understand the offer
From a user perspective, there was friction and uncertainty before reaching out. From a business perspective, there was low scalability and inefficient use of the sales team’s time.
If nothing changed, growth would eventually plateau.
The Solution
We designed and launched Hire Brazil’s first institutional website as a high-performance, conversion-oriented one-page experience.
The strategic decision was clear: Shift discovery upstream in the funnel.
The website would function as:
An educational layer
A credibility engine
A lead qualification mechanism
Instead of pushing users directly to buy, the main CTA focused on diagnosis and clarity, ensuring conversations started with informed, intentional leads.
Key Strategic Decisions
Clear Value Proposition Above the Fold
Immediate communication of promise, impact, and differentiation.Social Proof Early in the Experience
Testimonials, student results, partner credibility, and key numbers were moved higher in the hierarchy to build trust fast.Company-First Positioning
Reduced founder prominence and strengthened institutional identity.Simplified CTA Strategy
Focused on qualified entry into the funnel instead of aggressive selling.One-Page Architecture
Balanced clarity, continuity, and performance under tight time and budget constraints.
Although the website was developed in Next.js, my role focused entirely on:
UX strategy
Information architecture
Interface design
Funnel optimization logic
The Process
Stage 1: Discovery & Funnel Mapping
Hire Brazil already had defined personas, so the focus shifted to mapping the acquisition journey:
Traffic → Awareness → Trust → Decision → Contact.
Key insights:
Users needed reassurance before committing to a conversation
Trust signals were essential due to the high-stakes nature of international career decisions
The sales team needed leads to arrive with shared context
This clarified that the website was not just a marketing asset, it was a structural layer in the funnel.
Stage 2: Strategic Prioritization
With a one-month timeline, small team, and limited budget, prioritization was critical.
I structured the page to:
Front-load impact, authority, and CTA
Move testimonials and proof higher in the hierarchy
Push secondary content (like “About Us”) further down
Clearly explain all services within a continuous flow
The one-page constraint forced deliberate trade-offs. Instead of separating services into multiple pages, everything was integrated into a single narrative, reducing cognitive load and preserving momentum.
Stage 3: Design & Collaboration
The interface was designed with:
Responsiveness across devices
Performance optimization
SEO structure in mind
Some decisions were adapted to technical feasibility. For example, YouTube testimonials were embedded directly to balance performance and credibility.
The hero section was custom-designed using AI-assisted tools:
ChatGPT for conceptual exploration
Visual Electric for image generation
Photoshop for refinement and visual consistency
Collaboration with development and marketing was continuous. Although there was no formal agile ritual, alignment was frequent and iterative.
Stage 4: Validation & Iteration
After launch, we conducted lightweight usability validation and monitored analytics dashboards.
Insights informed minor refinements in:
Content hierarchy
Interaction clarity
Messaging emphasis
The approach shifted from building structure to optimizing performance.
Outcomes
Within three months of launch:
+18% increase in visits
Bounce rate reduced by 1%
Increased average time on site
Leads arriving with greater context
Fewer repetitive questions from prospects
WhatsApp shifted from discovery channel to conversion channel
Beyond metrics, the biggest impact was structural. The website transformed Hire Brazil’s acquisition model from founder-driven conversations to a scalable, product-supported funnel.
Key Learnings
This project reinforced that product design is not about adding more, it is about structuring clarity. Under tight constraints, strategic prioritization matters more than visual complexity.
The next stage of this product includes:
A/B testing messaging and CTA placement
Refining hierarchy based on behavior data
Introducing segmentation as traffic scales
With a strong structural foundation in place, the focus now shifts from launch to optimization.
