RudderStack
Why growth design?
Work in progress
Problem
When I joined RudderStack, the marketing website was attracting a significant amount of increasing organic traffic, demonstrating strong visibility in Google rankings and steady inbound growth. However, conversion rates were flat. The number of marketing qualified leads (MQLs) was not rising at an equivalent rate, and the sales pipeline was failing to reflect the level of interest generated by the site's inbound traffic.
At the same time, the website was a mess. Changes to the site were frequently reactive and driven by one-off requests or marketing campaigns. The design system was a broken style guide, creating inconsistency in both design and development workflows. The homepage, product pages, pricing section, and demo request were created without thoroughly considering user intent or data
RudderStack.com broken
Challenge: The site's content failed to present a narrative that emphasized RudderStack's value proposition to the primary audiences we were targeting: data leaders and engineers. To complicate things more, there was no one responsible for optimizing touchpoints. Product marketing was in charge of messaging, demand generation concentrated on acquiring traffic, and web engineering focused on optimizing site performance.
Role: My job was to bridge the gap and design an experience that guided users from interest to conversion. Using a data-driven approach, I developed a growth plan that aligned acquisition, UX, business goals, and experimentation around driving measurable outcomes.
Objective: To create an experimentation framework that could be scaled across teams, guarantee that every design decision was guided by data, and allow us to transition from decisions based on intuition to growth loops grounded in evidence.
My approach: With these challenges defined, I focused on finding where in the user journey friction was occurring, and how I could design targeted experiments to address the drop-off points we were seeing. The homepage served as the primary entry point and through Mixpanel I learned that high-intent users were directly navigating into documentation from the homepage.
User Journey Context: Understanding the journey was critical. Technical users (data engineers and architects) visited the site with immediate intent to evaluate documentation and product fit. Data leaders focused on assessing tradeoffs like cost, data control, and feature completeness to determine if the RudderStack platform met their business needs.
The homepage needed to support both groups, guiding them from different stages:
Homepage
Awareness: New visitors landing on the homepage often arrived from SEO, paid search, and partner content. Based on behavioral data, we identified two core user segments:
→ Technical evaluators (data engineers, architects) seeking documentation and product fit.
→ Business evaluators (data leaders, stakeholders) focused on trade-offs like cost, control, and feature completeness.
Many lacked immediate clarity on what RudderStack offered, leading some to bypass the homepage value prop entirely and self-navigate into documentation or leave.
Goal: Help new visitors across both segments quickly understand RudderStack’s positioning and core value proposition on first load.
Touchpoint: Homepage Hero (headline, body, and call to action)
Experiment 1: Homepage Hero Messaging (Simplified Narrative)
Variant: Homepage Hero Messaging (Simplified Narrative)
Assumption
The homepage hero content failed to communicate RudderStack’s value. High-intent users were self-navigating directly to docs and resources instead of engaging with content on the homepage.
Hypothesis
If we rewrite the homepage hero messaging to show outcomes, emphasizing technical differences and business outcomes, users will better understand RudderStack’s value earlier in their journey, leading to stronger engagement.
Success metrics: Scroll depth and Homepage CTA click-through rate
Consideration: Visitors arriving at the homepage weren’t seeing RudderStack’s differentiators early enough, causing drop-off.
Data showed two patterns
→ Some users bounced early without scrolling
→ Others scrolled but did not engage with mid-page value-prop.
Goal: Surface key product differentiators earlier to help both groups discover value faster and deepen exploration.
User Segments: Both technical users and data leaders needed visibilities on differentiators.
Touchpoint: Value Proposition Cards (Solutions for stakeholders vs teams)
Goal: Introduce business value and technical differentiators earlier on the homepage to enable faster value discovery and encourage exploration into product pages.
Experiment 2: Elevating Value Propositions Earlier
Variant: Elevating Value Propositions Earlier
Assumption
Key differentiators were buried too low on the page, limiting early discovery.
Hypothesis
If we move the value props higher on the page, both segments will see the benefits earlier leading to deeper engagement and stronger interest in RudderStack.
Success metrics: Scroll depth, product page visits, CTR, session depth (pages/session)
User Behavior: Users with distinct roles lacked guidance towards relevant product content.
User Segments: Data Leaders and Data Engineers
Touchpoint: Mid-page Solution Cards / Use Case Blocks (reinforced with outcome-based language)
Goal: Create role-based pathways that target personas with outcome-driven content, allowing them to reach relevant information faster.
Experiment 3: Persona-Based Entry Points with Outcome Reinforcement
Variant: Elevating Value Propositions Earlier
Assumption
Without clear persona-based pathways, users struggled to identify the most relevant product use cases aligned to their role and goals.
Hypothesis
If we add persona-based entry points reinforced with outcome-driven messaging, users will self-select into more relevant pathways, increasing qualified engagement and improving lead quality.
Success Metrics: Use case block CTR, qualified lead submissions, deeper page exploration.
Evaluation Stage
User Behavior: Many visitors do not convert into demo requests. CTA click-through rates were low.
User Segments: Engaged users ready to evaluate.
Touchpoint: Homepage CTAs (Primary CTA, mid-page CTAs, demo request modal)
Goal: Introduce outcome-oriented CTAs paired with reinforcement messaging to encourage user to sign up.
Experiment 4: Action-Oriented CTAs with Outcome Reinforcement
Variant: Action-Oriented CTAs with Outcome Reinforcement
Assumption
CTAs lacked both clarity around next steps and supporting proof points to motivate demo requests.
Hypothesis
Users will feel more confident in RudderStack’s impact and be more likely to request a demo when shown outcome-focused CTAs (“Get Started Free”, “3x conversion lift”)
Success Metrics: CTA click-through rate, demo request submissions, funnel progression (product page visits, demo starts)
"Suhani is one of the most determined, quietly unstoppable creatives I’ve ever had the privilege to work with. At RudderStack, she took our boring, no-frills website and turned it into something alive—with motion, personality, and fun. What I admired most was how she did it. She just works—steadily, thoughtfully—and somehow always pulls off the impossible. She delivers the best possible version every time. You give her a direction, and she’ll work through so many concepts you’ll start to wonder if what she’s proposing is even possible—it is. She’s already checked. Suhani doesn’t demand attention, but when she speaks, you listen. Not just because of her dry, self-aware humor that makes you laugh even in high-stress moments, but because she’s whip-smart and, frankly, annoyingly right about most things. She has this quiet, effortless way of making everything around her connect. She’s not just part of a team; she’s the piece that makes the team whole."
Steve Perkins
Head of Design @RudderStack