John Deere
Role (User Experience Designer II): Design Strategy, UX Design, UX Research
There is an estimated shortage of 73,500 heavy equipment technicians as of 2024. As the leader of the industry, John Deere launched its Technician Recruiting campaign to inspire individuals to explore and pursue the career path. In my role as a UX Designer II at John Deere, I worked with a team of excellent visual designers and writers to rebuild the web experience for John Deere’s Dealership Careers page. In addition to this page, I was also responsible for the creative foundations of the campaign, including the personas and mood board.
Problem:
How do we increase the number of technicians at John Deere Dealerships?
Solution:
By inspiring potential technicians to join the training program.
Research:
Personas: Military and Early Career
After extensive research spanning multiple teams, our research concluded that there were two big opportunities: Recent high school/college graduates who are unsure about their career path
and
Veterans looking to transition back into civilian life.
Mood Board
With the assistance of my team, I compiled a collection of deliverables with content relating to recruiting, career exploration, and mechanics. We used generative AI to create inspiration for what our deliverables might look like.
Solution:
“How Do I Become a Technician?”
Our research discovered that the biggest hurdle to becoming a technician was the lack of knowledge regarding the path to become one. Because of this, I combined my content strategy abilities with my writer’s storytelling skills to paint a vivid education path for potential technicians.
Non-Tech Careers Stakeholders
The most obvious stakeholders for the technician recruiting campaigns are prospective technicians and the managers at dealerships who may potentially employ them in the future. However, we wanted to make sure that non-technician applicants were not alienated as they also apply through this page.
Previous Information Architecture
The previous IA structured Dealer Sponsorship, Program & Coursework, and Admission Requirements on the same level. Not only should they not be on the same level, they were in the wrong order. Another issue was the info was hidden and expandable. Our data showed that a large amount of our users did not even expand that info. As a result, my team organized a chronological story that was simple for the users to follow through.
Impact
We saw an over 1000% increase in web visits! In 2024, there were less than 3000 visitors a month. In 2025, there were over 33,000 monthly visitors to this page. Data from colleges’ training programs are seeing a significant spike in enrollment. One school in Georgia reported going from 50% to 100% capacity.
