Redesigning app IA is alignment

When I joined Trustpilot, the product organization was struggling with a key challenge: a fragmented B2B app experience caused by autonomous teams working each on their own roadmap. Each team had its own menu item, each item screaming for attention. This created a confusing user journey, especially during onboarding, a key challenge for growth.

Too many first level items in the old IA

To solve this, I partnered with a product manager and their team to lead an information architecture project focused on redesigning the main menu.

Preparing with card sorting to understand function groups across the app

Our core principle was simple: a better information architecture requires both a better understanding of our organization and its users. To get everyone on the same page, we designed a strategic process with four parallel tracks, ensuring our solution would be both user-centered and internally aligned.

• User research track: We wanted to understand how current users perceived the app and intended to continuously test versions via usability testing, card sorting, and tree testing. This was our core discovery track.
• Alignment track: We did workshops with all product teams and key stakeholders over several weeks, understanding key concerns, ambitions, and expectations towards the new IA while also getting buy-in. With some groups, we set up further workshops to understand how the new menus would impact their work.
• Design track: We involved the entire design team to widen our solution space, proving that great ideas come from a collaborative culture.
• Prototype track: We used a running prototype from day one to test our vision, turning abstract concepts into a tangible experience we could validate and refine.

I was working within each of these tracks both as coach and the occasional player in various ways to enable and support the individual contributors driving them.

What we delivered: clearer menu, transparent workflow to follow

After three months, we had a solution that was agreed upon by everyone, a testament to the power of our collaborative process. Our success was not just in improving traffic to key tasks, but in proving that internal alignment through along a coherent user journey is a strategic business driver. This project was core to my belief that design leadership is about building the systems and teams that enable a product to scale effectively.