Path to Pro was built to confront a critical workforce challenge: the widening skilled labor gap threatening the construction and home improvement industries. Designed to empower the next generation of tradespeople — including students, job seekers, and transitioning service members — the platform provides free, bilingual education, certifications, and a direct pipeline to active employers. By leveraging the trusted equity of The Home Depot, Path to Pro transforms complex workforce logistics into a fluid, user-first digital marketplace.
Services
- Brand Strategy
- Creative Direction
- UI/UX Design
The Challenge
As a cornerstone of The Home Depot’s skilled trades initiative, Path to Pro serves a diverse ecosystem of learners, job seekers, and industry partners. However, the legacy site suffered from a fragmented architecture that created navigation friction and diluted the platform’s core mission. The challenge was to modernize the experience and create a cohesive platform that could speak to four distinct audience segments without overwhelming the user.
The Result
By prioritizing clarity and user-centric strategy, we transformed Path to Pro into a high-performance resource that guides users with precision. We delivered:
- Branded Architectural Efficiency: A reworked site architecture that significantly reduced page count and the number of clicks required to reach key conversion points.
- Targeted User Journeys: Persona-mapped pathways ensuring four distinct audience segments are funneled directly to relevant content without friction.ٚ
- Search Optimization: An SEO strategy focused on technical performance and keyword authority to drive a 908% increase in organic visibility, a 48% increase in overall users, and a 14% decrease in bounce rate.
Refining Architecture
Path to Pro serves four distinct groups: those exploring the trades, those seeking training, those looking for work, and contractors looking to hire. The original site was built quickly to solve an immediate need, but lacked a long-term architectural strategy. We started by remapping user journeys around explicit intent, organizing the entire site structure around these four clear pathways.
Consolidate + Elevate
Serving multiple audiences required clarity, not complexity. We consolidated overlapping content, restructured the site hierarchy, and eliminated over 14 extraneous pages to drastically reduce the clicks required to reach key conversion actions and pertinent information. To refresh the visual identity, we conducted a three-day photo and video production shoot, capturing authentic imagery across active trade environments.
Strategic Brand Alignment
Though Path to Pro technically falls under The Home Depot’s non-profit entity, The Home Depot Foundation, we made the strategic decision to align its visual language directly with The Home Depot Pro brand. Bridging this gap anchored the platform within the commercial network that professional contractors already know and trust and that new tradespeople would come to utilize.
Clear Impact
By combining user-centric strategy with a streamlined content architecture, we transformed Path to Pro into a high-performance career engine. Our work contributed to substantial growth for the platform, including:
- 908% Increase in Organic Visibility: Driven by a technical SEO overhaul and keyword authority strategy.
- 232% Surge in Unique Visitors: Total site traffic grew 98% year-over-year, culminating in 2.8 million page views in 2025.
- Expanded Training Reach: Free training registrations grew from over 7,300 to over 17,200.
- Optimized User Engagement: Achieved a 48% increase in total active users and a 14% drop in bounce rate, enabling the network to blow past its goal of 50,000 active candidates.
The impact of the redesign earned lead strategist, designer, and our Founder + Creative Director, Antoine Thomas, one of The Home Depot’s highest organizational honors: the Orange Spotlight Award, alongside an EVP Award.
