Case Study: Reducing Churn in a B2B Analytics Dashboard by Simplifying Hierarchies

Tech · 5 min read

Velocity Insights, a mid-stage B2B analytics startup, found that power users spent time hunting for reports and struggled to create dashboards that colleagues could reuse. The existing interface leaned heavily on nested folders and a dual navigation bar that reflected engineering categories rather than user tasks.

The product design team started with contextual interviews and session playback analysis to map common workflows. They introduced a task-first taxonomy: Explore, Dashboards, Alerts, and Library. Folders were flattened into tags and saved searches, and the left rail became a mix of recent objects and suggested templates based on role. Importantly, they introduced a top-level Quick Create that limited options to three highest-value report templates.

In two months following rollout, task completion for common flows rose by 22% and average time-to-create-report dropped 35%. Support tickets asking 'where do I save a template' fell by half, and internal NPS improved among customer teams. Data quality issues persisted, but the clearer hierarchy made it easier to onboard junior analysts and reduced training time.

Design trade-offs included losing some precision for engineering power users who previously relied on deep folder structures. Velocity mitigated this by keeping an advanced toggle that restored the original hierarchy for admins. The broader takeaway: aligning information architecture with user intent can have outsized effects on retention and support load for B2B products.