Advisor portal new navigation system
Designing a new global navigation system and product page structure for a growing enterprise platform.
Problems
For years, Flourish’s advisor platform relied on a top navigation built for a single product (Cash) and smaller firms. As the platform expanded—adding Lending, supporting a new Home Office firm model (onboarding 'whale firms' that manage numerous 'child' firms), and introducing a 'Super Admin' role that could switch across firms—the horizontal nav no longer scaled.
Outcomes
As phase 1 of the Home Office roadmap, we shipped a new side navigation system, standardized product landing-page structure, and a navigation framework to clarify when to use primary vs. secondary navigation across deeper product areas. V1 intentionally focused on a low-disruption migration to preserve existing advisor workflows while laying the foundation for future expansion.
My contributions
I took over the project midstream and owned the final design and implementation of the nav migration through launch. I also led usability testing to validate the new navigation and firm-switching mental model, prototyped future-state Home Office concepts, and created feature highlights to support rollout.
Before
Original navigation was built around a single-product view (Flourish Cash). When Annuities launched later, it felt bolted on—and the horizontal layout left little room to scale.
After
Shipped a new side nav which restructured the platform around products and workflows, creating room for expansion beyond Cash. Standardized product landing pages with reusable components (e.g. the Action Strip).
Previously, 'Annuities' tab was hidden for firms without access. I designed a new “not enabled” state that acts as a lightweight lead-gen page—educating advisors on the product, linking to our marketing site, and providing a direct contact path to request access.
Translating complexity into structure
The Home Office model introduced parent/child firms, new roles, and permission boundaries that significantly increased IA complexity. When I inherited the project, I worked with PM and backend engineering to map the system—creating a sitemap and relationship diagram that informed the final navigation model.
We initially explored a double-stacked side nav structure, separating enterprise and firm views into two tabs. I led usability testing and found the view switch wasn't comprehended well, the firm switcher also was hard to discover. I then explored alternative models and prototyped a unified navigation structure with collapse/expand interactions to support both contexts.
Side nav evolution for scalability
It wasn’t just about designing a sidebar. With new products, a Home Office firm mode, and new roles on the roadmap, the design needed to become a flexible foundation that could accommodate future expansion.
Standardizing action patterns across products
I introduced a reusable “Action Strip” component to surface the most common advisor next steps—such as jumping to a client list or viewing Annuities application progress. Drawing on my prior work on the Annuities experience, I refined the pattern and aligned with the Annuities team to reuse existing logic rather than reinventing it.
Driving adoption post-launch
To ensure a smooth rollout, I designed a feedback collection panel and feature highlight carousel—helping advisors understand what changed while giving the team a direct channel for early feedback.