Industry

Renewable Energy & B2B Tech

Client

Exlabs

Exlabs — Market Entry MVP for Energy & Resources

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Key Achievement

Delivered Exlabs’ first Brand & Market Entry MVP for the Energy & Resources sector — giving the company a dedicated ICP, coherent value narrative and a platform built to generate insight, trust and conversations.

My role

I owned the strategic pivot — reframed a website redesign request into a market-entry initiative.

Led discovery with leadership, defined positioning, Brand DNA and messaging architecture, and translated them into a design system and website MVP.

Built AI-assisted content workflows and GTM assets enabling the team to validate the new niche at scale.

Context & Business Challenge

Exlabs had strong engineering capabilities and a broad portfolio, yet no specialization.
Sales relied on ad-hoc opportunities. Most leads entered early, unqualified and required long nurturing. There was no clear reason for a decision maker to choose Exlabs over other vendors.

Outwardly, the brand looked competent. Internally, everyone felt the same constraint:

We were visible — but not distinct.
Trusted — but not chosen early.

The leadership requested a new website.
Before designing screens, I needed to answer a more fundamental question:

What narrative convinces a CTO to trust us before the first call even happens?

This pivot changed the nature of the project.

Strategic Decisions

Instead of immediately designing UI, I initiated a diagnostic phase with founders. We mapped positioning weaknesses, analysed competitors and clarified what Exlabs must signal to enter a high-trust industry like Energy.

The objective was to create a vehicle for market validation, not a final brand.

The direction became clear:

  • specialization narrowed to Energy & Resources / IPP

  • shift from software vendor to senior technology partner

  • creation of Brand DNA as a foundation for communication

  • design of a light, testable MVP brand system

  • integration of AI for rapid content and IA iteration

Discovery & Reasoning

Access to key decision makers (CTO, Head of Engineering, IPP execs) was limited. Classic research methods were unrealistic at this stage.

Instead of trying to gather perfect inputs first, we shaped a system that could collect insight through real outreach.

A market entry MVP that makes conversations happen — and then learns from them.

Research informed direction. The MVP generates insight.

This approach allowed us to move forward with clarity in uncertainty.

Design Execution — From Strategy to System

I developed a structured foundation to guide communication:

  • mission, values and brand promise

  • tone of voice and archetype

  • ICP & anti-ICP boundaries

  • value propositions tailored to Energy

The tone emphasized maturity, reliability and engineering depth over stylistic playfulness.

Information Architecture & Narrative

The website content and sales materials were built around the buyer’s decision journey.

Problem → Why now → Our approach → Proof → Invitation to talk

This narrative structure became reusable across outreach, sales collateral and internal communication.

AI-Augmented Workflow

Working without direct access to decision-makers meant I had to prototype the market before fully understanding it.
AI enabled rapid hypothesis generation, tone validation and messaging iteration — faster than traditional content development cycles.

Output — Market Entry MVP

Final deliverables formed a cohesive launch base for the new niche:

  • Website MVP optimized for trust signals

  • Brand DNA + Design System v1

  • Messaging architecture + sales collateral

  • Content & outreach templates

  • Internal Prompt Bank supporting GTM execution

A pragmatic first step — built not for polish, but momentum.

Reflection

This project was less about designing screens and more about designing access to a market.
A new brand became a hypothesis — and the website, a way to test it.

I built a system the business can learn through, not a polished artifact to admire.
A step towards predictable revenue, not just visual refresh.

Outcomes delivered:

  • Exlabs enters the Energy & Resources sector with clarity and confidence

  • A reusable narrative and messaging framework now exists across teams

  • Brand and content no longer rely on a designer to scale

  • Sales outreach has a structured base to test, iterate and refine

  • The company can generate insight from real conversations, not assumptions