Core Navigation & Product Switcher
Product design — navigation architecture, product switcher, and header instrumentation
product-design
CloudBees had grown into a multi-product platform but the navigation header still reflected a single-product era — users who entered via CI had no clear path to discover or switch to Analytics or CD.
Mapped the full navigation architecture before any UI work, proposed a product switcher for the header, and defined a complete instrumentation plan to track every interaction from menu open through to product landing pages and sales conversion. Baseline data showing a 60% menu bounce rate shaped the design and gave the team a quantified target to improve against.
01 Navigation architecture
CloudBees had expanded from a single CI product to a platform — CI, Analytics, and CD/ARO — but the navigation hadn't kept pace. Before any redesign work, mapped the full site-level architecture: every surface the header touched, what was established, what was new, and what needed re-evaluating. This gave the team a shared model before any switcher design began.
02 Product switcher
The central proposal was a product switcher in the header: a single control that let users jump between CI, Analytics, and CD/ARO from anywhere in the platform. The switcher needed to serve two goals simultaneously — orientation (where am I?) and discovery (what else can I access?). Designed the dropdown and iterated on it with the team, tracking every interaction from menu open through to product landing.
03 Instrumentation
Produced the instrumentation specification before the tracking build — mapping every event from menu shown through to product landing pages and downstream sales conversion. Baseline data showing a 60% menu bounce rate made the case for a full funnel view rather than a single engagement metric, and shaped what the engineering team would build.
