Case study · Cogent Analytics

I rebuilt the site their own sales team had stopped using

Their branding director opened with “I really hate this website.” Four inbound leads in seven months told the same story.

Role

• IA
• Content
• Design
• Build

What they do

Business consulting

Worked with

Megan Baker’s team, Slide UX

What I walked into

Cogent Analytics runs a business consulting practice, and their own team was blunt about the old site. Sarah Rose Mosh, their Brand Director, put it plainly going in: “I really hate this website, y’all. I hate it so much.” It wasn’t built for mobile, the copy was dense enough that she called it “almost impossible to read,” and it was producing four inbound leads in seven months, two of which turned into clients. Their own sales team had stopped using it, because it didn’t match how they pitched. I came in through Megan Baker’s team at Slide UX and ran the rebuild end to end: information architecture, content, design, and build.

The site had to match the company Cogent had become: seven years on the Inc 5000, a larger leadership team, and a sales process the old site no longer fit. I wrote the new homepage argument and the navigation language it runs on. I also carried through a word-choice call from the messaging framework: the new site calls Cogent’s people advisors rather than consultants, because their own team had already decided the older word carried the wrong baggage. The About page says so outright.

What I built

The homepage headline became “Build a business that doesn’t need you every minute,” running under an animated hero that cycles through different kinds of business owners, the same range of clients Cogent serves. Underneath it, a manifesto-style scrolling section tells the story of what those owners deal with day to day. Their own team told me it matches the “quality of life” story they already use in internal training.

“

I recognize this completely. This is our quality of life story. Spencer recognizes it too; we read this story in every single training we do internally… Some of these are my direct words from that story. You’re speaking directly to our guy here.”

Sarah Rose Mosh Brand Director, Cogent Analytics

The About page leads with “We’re advisors, not consultants,” laid out as a magazine-style spread with the founder and the incoming CEO together at the top, so the leadership handover is visible before anyone reads a word about it. I also redesigned Cogent’s two trademarked diagnostic tools, the Profit Platform and Portrait of Life graphics, to match the new visual system while keeping the circular, four-part layout their clients already recognize.

The centerpiece is the Business Health Quiz, a tool the team needed fully built. Cogent’s CEO, Caleb, made it his condition for approving the rebuild in the first place. I designed the input flow and worked with their developer on how the output gets visualized.

For context

Cogent Analytics has made the Inc 5000 list seven years running and the Business Journal Fast 50 for five. It’s who I was building for: a company that had already proven itself and needed a site that read the same way.

The health assessment, screen by screen

A four-step diagnostic a business owner completes on their own, ending in something worth a sales conversation.

The valuation tool

The same idea aimed at a different question: what is this business actually worth?

Templates the team can keep building on

The part that outlasts the launch. Three page templates built so the team can add content for years and the design holds.