James Hardie
2024
Unlocking Contractor Alliance Network
Transforming James Hardie's Contractor Alliance experience.
Overview
Context
James Hardie — a global building products manufacturer is growing one of its core business driver: Repair and Remodel through contractor partners. The Contractor Alliance Program is central to how James Hardie managed its network of 6,000+ contractors, but the existing experience had significant gaps between current state and the desired future state. The program relied heavily on reps serving as the "central gear," creating a natural operational limit. I was brought in to lead an end-to-end experience design engagement transforming Contractor experience through digital transformation of the Hardie Alliance platform.
Goal
Revitalize loyalty & create brand advocates
Revitalize the Contractor Alliance Program to enable contractors to receive leads, sell and win a Hardie Job, defend established promoters through unrivaled enablement resources, and support the business objectives of promoters in growth mode, all while providing the consumer with a great reside experience that leads to brand advocacy.
As Lead Designer on a this project, I was responsible for the full design lifecycle — from problem validation through to dev-ready handoff.
Challenge
Deliver clarity to the loyalty program
How might we translate business process complexity into a cohesive, branded digital experience that contractors understand, and actually want to use?
How might we empower contractors to effectively sell, price, install, and market James Hardie products to homeowners and grow their businesses through the Hardie Alliance Program portal?
Key design requirements included:
Strict brand alignment — All designs must adhere to James Hardie’s established website guidelines and visual identity standards. The Contractor portal must integrate seamlessly with the main website experience.
Five distinct contractor personas — Principal (Owner), Partner, Sales/Marketing, Operations, and Team Member — each requiring specific permission levels and functionality tailored to their distinct operational requirements and user experience needs.
Tiered loyalty benefits — Users advance through loyalty tiers based on completed jobs and learning modules. Benefits are unlocked according to their designated persona and achieved tier level.
Solution
My Approach
Design-Led Discovery
I opened the engagement with a structured research process — conducting 5 one-on-one user interviews and reviewing 19 pre-recorded contractor interviews (24 total participants across 6 states). Key findings shaped every design decision that followed:
Contractors prioritize leads above all else — lead quality and distribution were top pain points
Job logging was universally cumbersome — fragmented, manual, no save-for-later, no step validation
Points and rewards were poorly understood — contractors valued them but couldn’t navigate the system
Personalization was highly desired — tailored training, not generic content
Mobile experience was broken — key pages inaccessible, responsive layouts failing
Trust signals were weak — inconsistent branding, unclear value proposition, poor onboarding
"Anderson Windows sends lead to one contractor at a time. If you don't contact lead within 72 hours it gets passed to someone else. There's a different sense of loyalty, less contractor infighting like Hardie."
Vicky & Patrick
Owners, Home Exterior System
Persona & Journey Definition
Moving into define, I contributed to the development of 5 validated contractor personas — built through stakeholder interviews and collaboration with business stakeholders:
Jim (Principal) — business owner; full portal access; drives job pitching and promoter growth
Brian (Partner) — day-to-day operations; mirrors owner permissions; manages leads and jobs
Judy (Sales/Marketing) — focused on lead conversion, marketing materials, and tier points
Taylor (Operations) — logs jobs, reviews leads, opens support cases; frustrated by cumbersome processes
Sam (Team Member/Learner) — access to training and resources
These personas directly shaped permission structures, navigation hierarchies, and task flows across all 8 epics.
Design
Shipped Branded and Functional Design
Research-grounded decisions at every step: Every UX decision was traceable back to the contractor voice — from the job logging flow redesign to the rewards experience, each design choice was anchored in findings from real contractor interviews.
Modular dashboard shows most pertinent information based on each persona's priority. Here, the Principal see how his business is progressing with Hardie. For personas with less permissions, cards are hidden.
Receiving leads is one of the most important motivators for Contractors to participate. Leads are now prequalified with contact details and job location. If lead isn't updated within 72 hours, contact details are hidden and given to another contractor.
Rewards Manager clearly shows loyalty tier, requirements to level up and current benefits with their expiry dates.
For job logging, users are able to carry over job details from leads, and save progress anytime. This feature addressed a big painpoint from our research.
Over the course of the project, I built and delivered:
A custom Figma component library aligned to James Hardie’s visual brand guidelines and website design language
Desktop and mobile designs across all 8 epics: Lead Management, Job Logging, Dashboard, Registration, Accounts, Rewards Manager, Contact Support, and Contractor Pathing.
Dev-ready mockups designed for direct handoff to the engineering team.
Visual QA — verified that implemented designs matched specifications to ensure visual quality.
Stakeholder guidance throughout — clarifying pros and cons when platform limitations arose to keep the project moving forward.
Impact
Results
Day 1 adoption: On launch day, the platform recorded 1,100+ individual logins from 900+ companies — all 5 persona types logged in, confirming that Principals immediately granted team members access. Within 24 hours: 70+ jobs were logged, 50 contractors updated their profiles. Contractors could find value from the moment they logged in.
Shipped to production at scale: The platform now serves 8,500+ contractors (+41%) with a redesigned, modern experience covering rewards, lead access, job logging, IDR document upload, business profile management, and training modules.
Reduced friction at scale: By redesigning the Job Logging feature, the portal decreasing support case volume by 35% and increasing contractor portal adoption.
Business alignment achieved: Successfully aligned the outcome with James Hardie's 2035 growth targets of 20K new contractors— shifting the program from a rep-dependent model to a self-service, high-growth digital ecosystem.
41%
Increase in new contractor membership in the first 6 months
28%
Increase in engagement (completed jobs logged) and rewards earned.
-35%
Eliminated job submission via email, reducing ticket volume by 35%
