On 26 June 2025, I ran a live session at Campfield with about twenty-five founders from the Exchange programme.
Why we met
On 26 June 2025, I ran a live session at Campfield with about twenty-five founders from the Exchange programme. Many of us have worked together for years, so it felt more like catching up with friends than a formal workshop.
Department offers flexible workspaces, mentoring, and tailored support for start-ups and scale-ups. It’s a place where you can test ideas quickly and lean on people who’ve been through it, and their new location Campfield, is just stunning, you have to come here, if you're a tech/creative business based in central Manchester.
Special thanks
Big thanks to Rosemary and Rich for helping organise this session for all the Exchange founders.
https://departmentuk.com/exchange
Five lessons you can use today
Measure reading before sign-ups, Aim for 70% scroll depth. If people don’t read, nothing else matters.
Write for one reader, I keep a detailed note on my ideal customer and build every headline for that person.
Tiny tweaks, big jumps, Small changes like a clearer hero or button colour lifted clicks by 40%.
Speed over polish, Pages should load in under three seconds.
Own your stack, Tools like Webflow or Framer mean you can launch fast and adjust anytime.
Positioning & segmentation
The first job isn’t picking colours—it’s clarity. I start by mapping who the page is for and why they should care. To speed things up, I sometimes feed my discovery notes into a custom GPT, but pen and paper work just as well.
Listen first, A recorded founder chat to catch every detail.
Draft the ICP, List pains, goals, objections, and phrases your audience actually uses.
Segment on purpose, Decide which audiences need their own page.
Harvest copy, Pull headlines straight from those conversations.
Once the skeleton is there, design becomes much easier. If I skip this step, I end up with pretty pages that don’t convert and lots of rework.
Quick wins we tried in the room
Fix | Why it works |
---|---|
Replace stock photo with product shot | Builds trust |
Embed interactive Figma | Lets visitors “try” the app |
Install Microsoft Clarity | Watch real users |
Trim form fields | More leads |
Common pitfalls we saw
Pitfall | Quick fix |
Generic headlines | Lead with outcomes: “Cut churn by 30%” |
Eight-field forms | Start with three fields, ask more later |
Slow hero videos | Compress or replace with a static image |
One page for many audiences | Make separate, focused pages |
Ignoring mobile | Test every breakpoint before launch |
Tools & resources that help
Google PageSpeed Insights, check load time
Microsoft Clarity, free heat maps and replays
Dribbble, find niche designers
Rive + Figma, convert prototypes into interactive headers
Webflow or Framer, website builders
Extra insights from the discussion
Keeping data capture human, Personal emails often work better than chatbots.
Making interactive demos feel real, Even if your product isn’t finished, showing something clickable builds trust.
Testing headlines in small batches, Instead of split tests, watch recordings to see if people pause. look at 70% scroll depth.
Q&A notes
Chatbots?, Wait until traffic grows, personal replies work best early on.
Multiple audiences?, Separate pages for each segment
Low-volume testing? Watch recordings instead of running A/B tests.
Feedback from the group
“I’m heading home seriously inspired.”
"The session was incredibly informative and provided a solid foundation of theory with real world examples. Some information was familiar but positioned in way more context. The deck is a goldmine of support in itself."
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If you’d like to join our next workshop just drop me a message.
artur@scale-wise.com
Let’s keep in touch.
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