Perlego

INTRODUCTION

Perlego is a digital library for university students, offering access to over a million books across all devices. Guided by an accessibility ethos, each book includes features like text size adjustment, read-aloud, AI Researcher and BeeLine gradients.

When I joined, Perlego had just raised £50M in series B funding, aiming to expand their workforce by ~20%.

As Head of Brand and Creatives, I built the brand function and employer brand and integrated design mentorship into the product. Prioritizing collaboration, I used Human-centered design methods to guide my activities. My yearly brand strategy was based on a ‘Compass Framework’ and six Strategic Opportunities identified during an 8-week research project. Scroll down to see my projects for the year.

"We need you to identify key opportunities for Brand and plan activities for rapid execution." 

I led a 10-week brand discovery project, identifying strategic opportunities to enhance Perlego’s marketing, product, and culture. I interviewed and workshopped with over 25 people, from interns to C-suites, moving from research insights to tested concepts. This resulted in a yearly brand roadmap with innovative project proposals and incremental brand initiatives. The work below showcases my roles as a creative strategist, art director, mentor, designer, and writer.

“We need to have a cohesive narrative around our business decisions, with data to show where we’re heading”

Collaborated with an ed-tech expert to conceive, design, and produce a company report.

We defined impact goals aligned with Perlego’s audiences, ensuring accountability for yearly business results. By combining data with user stories, the document was crafted to make their strategy visible, memorable, and tangible. Explore the full process story on the Impact Report page here. Access the mobile version here and the desktop version here.

“We need a decisive, and memorable Employee Value Proposition, yet inclusive of everyone’s perspective”

Defined and launched Perlego’s Employee Value Proposition (EVP) and employer brand to boost talent retention and acquisition. Collaboratively created and tested a framework and principles with the people and operations team, followed by a series of remote and in-person workshops.

“We need a new homepage to reflect our why, and showcase our learner-centredness”

Led a team of two to research, design, and launch Perlego’s new homepage in four languages. Utilized human-centered design through internal and external qualitative interviews, A/B testing, and prototyping. Integrated brand guidelines from parallel workstreams.

The new Perlego.com features a company manifesto, refined brand tone, animations guided by motion principles, and updated photography and video styling. Collaborated closely with a product manager, an external copywriter, a brand and product designer, and external agencies for testing and translation in five languages.

Browse the live page here. Full web design process case study coming soon.

“We currently lack a unified view on the role of study guides in our brand and site architecture. As unique content, we should use them to engage with student and educators”

I led a team of two to shape Perlego's study guides strategy. We conducted workshops to map out user journeys and position the product within the market. Using the cascade strategy framework, we pinpointed the guides' unique value and audience needs.

Our strategy focused on accessibility and quality, targeting humanities students. Collaborating with Phd professors, we launched TikTok videos introducing guide topics. This approach boosted Perlego's SEO, generating organic clicks and backlinks, contributing to grow Perlego as a prominent academic resource.

“Globally ~40% of GenZ searches on TikTok over Google. In the USA, 11% of consumers start their buying journey on TikTok. We need a platform where we meet students, that’s not as overpolished as Instagram”

Crafted a TikTok strategy and content plan to engage students and boost organic search results. Our top videos hit 200k+ views, showcasing our commitment to diversity and inclusion. By interviewing students and tapping into trends, we honed our content and grew a loyal following.

“Brand and product design are too disconnected, our guideline is missing some key pieces and we’re lacking consistency”

Initially, Brand operated within marketing, with a product copywriter and brand designer under my purview. To align strategically, we closely partnered with marketing, using TikTok as a collaborative initiative. This endeavor provided an opportunity for our brand designers to enhance leadership skills, managing external content creators, and collaborating with performance marketing.

Mid-year, we expanded the team by hiring a junior designer and instituted routine design sessions, reviews, and retrospectives. We also designed workshops and experiences for company reviews and offsites to foster creativity and collaboration.

I engaged the team in various brand partnership briefs, including student competitions, accessibility whitepapers, and go-to-market productions for client events.

Following a company reorganization that dissolved the marketing function and led to the departure of our full-time copywriter, I recognized the necessity for closer alignment between the Brand and product design teams due to their similar work methods and focus on customer experience. Over eight months, I introduced new collaborative sessions, such as 'Creative Seedlings' and 'Design Buds.'

'Creative Seedlings' served as a weekly standup for inspiration and leadership continuity, while 'Design Buds' aimed to establish consistency in applying the brand and develop a common language for evolving guidelines. This initiative yielded tangible outcomes, including refined motion design principles, illustrations, and photography rules, now integral parts of our brand guidelines.

“We don’t have a cohesive language across Perlego, our tone of voice is inconsistent, and we need a guideline and role to support us ahead of our upcoming localisation efforts”

Crafted a compelling narrative for Perlego, linking the company with students' needs.

Collaborated with an external copywriter to conduct internal research and testing, engaging a cross-section of Perlego. By prioritizing the student audience, we led workshops involving product, design, and marketing teams to define brand strategy, including archetype, idea, and personality. This informed the development of a tone of voice applied across various touchpoints, from FAQs to newsletters and product onboarding flows, which we iteratively tested. The outcome: a new section of the brand guidelines and practical messaging, now live on Perlego.com. While I've moved on, this work lays a solid foundation for future extensions.

For more insights, check out my Medium blog articles on lessons learned as Head of Brand in a scale-up.
Coming soon!