Sprout Social Careers Site
2021
Role
Web Design
Art Direction
Core Creative Team
Michelle Grano (copy)
Patrick Olson (branding)
Moll Nye (photography)
Andrew Stein & Joey Reyes (dev)
Stanton Valentino (web animation)
In October of 2021, I was presented with a project to give a light cosmetic lift to Sprout Social’s then-live company career pages in order to get them more aligned with what was Sprout’s established marketing branding. I presented an idea for an alternate approach: what if we did a total site redesign instead? The previous web pages had not been updated, outside of copy, for at least five years. Photos of Sprout’s offices and team members were out-of-date. The page layouts didn’t flow well due to years of frakensteining in sections that weren’t intentionally crafted as part of the design. The UX and content were not up-to-par with brands that Sprout was in competition for the same top talent. It was time for more than a facelift.
To see the full website, visit sproutsocial.com/careers
Making the case for a full redesign
Before any visual design began, I needed to demonstrate why a light reskin would not solve the site’s larger problems. I conducted a competitive review of careers experiences from brands competing for similar talent, then developed a new sitemap to align the internal creative team around a more intentional structure and candidate journey.
With that foundation in place, I translated the strategy into an 11-page wireframe for Sprout’s VP of Brand Creative, Chief Creative Officer and Chief People Officer. The work helped secure leadership alignment around a significantly expanded scope and a more strategic redesign.
Bringing the experience to life
With the new structure and candidate journey approved, I translated the wireframes into a complete visual experience that balanced clear, intuitive content with a more distinctive expression of Sprout’s employer brand. The redesign needed to feel connected to the broader company brand while giving Sprout’s culture, people and values more space to come forward.
In addition to leading the web design, I art directed a new series of employer-brand photography shoots and partnered with the lead brand designer to bring the updated visual system to life across the site. Together, the photography, layouts and supporting brand elements created a warmer, more people-centered experience that better reflected what it felt like to work at Sprout.
