Growth @ CloudBees
Improving User Adoption & Activation
We redesigned the platform's information architecture around user goals and jobs-to-be-done, creating clearer navigation pathways and more logical content groupings. This improved discoverability, reduced friction, and enabled users to complete tasks more efficiently.
Part I Onboarding · Part II: Modular Activation · Part III Improved Navigation
Agentic Onboarding
Onboarding or migrating an enterprise DevOps organisation is a complex and often time-consuming process. It requires teams to understand their existing technology stack, map dependencies, and adapt workflows to the target platform. This complexity creates significant onboarding friction and can delay user activation and adoption.
To reduce onboarding friction, we proposed an AI-assisted setup experience capable of analysing a customer’s technology stack and recommending the most relevant integrations, plugins, and workflows.
This approach helps users establish a functional DevOps environment more quickly, improving activation rates and accelerating time-to-value.
Part II: Modular Activation
CloudBees modules required independent activation, creating friction and limiting adoption. We designed a modular activation journey that guides users from discovery to activation, improving visibility of available capabilities and increasing module uptake.
Part III: Navigation improvements
#01 Navigation Built Around User Goals
Users were struggling with a flat navigation mixing concepts, the logic wasn’t clear and it was causing friction and frustration for users tracked by metric frustration signals. We studied and improved the information architecture to group navigation items with logical coherence to linking navigation to larger user goals.
#02 Standardising Core User Workflows
As the platform evolved, Create, Read, Update, and Delete workflows had diverged across different object types, leading to inconsistent experiences and increased cognitive load for users. We addressed this by establishing a shared interaction model and applying consistent CRUD patterns across key objects, creating a more predictable experience that reduced confusion and improved efficiency.
#03 Creating Predictable User Experiences
To improve consistency across the platform, we introduced a shared Summary and Settings pattern for all core object types. This gave users a familiar structure for understanding, managing, and configuring objects, reducing cognitive load and making common tasks easier to complete with confidence. (Inset - Summary page iteration)
#04 Separating Global and Local Settings
Users were frequently confused by the different settings levels across Users, Organisations, and Accounts. We addressed this by moving global settings into a lightweight overlay that can be opened and dismissed quickly, helping users stay focused on their current task.
#05 Simplifying Enterprise Administration
Organisations are the primary way enterprise customers structure teams, services, and permissions. However, the experience lacked visibility and cohesion, making it difficult to manage effectively. We addressed this by consolidating related services and controls into a single, centralised view, improving discoverability and reducing complexity.
#05 Universal search and action bar
As the platform expanded, users struggled to find pages, services, and actions buried within the often deep navigation layers. We addressed this by introducing a Universal Search and Action Bar—a command-palette experience that allows users to quickly navigate, search, and execute actions from anywhere in the application. This reduced navigation friction, improved discoverability, and enabled users to complete tasks more efficiently.
#06 Easier Context Switching
Enterprise customers use organisations to structure teams, services, and permissions across their DevOps ecosystem. We improved visibility of the user’s current context and streamlined organisation switching, making it easier to navigate between environments and reducing the risk of errors.