Creating a product-first shopping experience
decathlon
To support Decathlon’s vision of making sport accessible to everyone, we redesigned the navigation from a gender-first to a product-first model. The new information architecture helped customers browse by sport or product before refining by attributes such as gender, size, or fit.
Challenge
The existing navigation required customers to choose a gender before browsing products. We needed to redesign the information architecture to better reflect customer intent while balancing discoverability, SEO, and the scale of Decathlon’s global catalogue.
Team
Sports and catalogue teams, country leaders, product design, research, product managers, engineering, localisation and program managers.
Approach
Defined the information architecture
Designed a product-first navigation that aligned with customer mental models and simplified product discovery.
Developed a scalable taxonomy
Partnered with cross-functional teams to create a taxonomy that reduced duplication, supported localisation, and scaled across product categories.
Validated the navigation strategy
Combined tree testing with live experimentation to evaluate discoverability, customer behaviour, and business impact.
Aligned teams around a shared vision
Facilitated workshops and decision-making across multiple disciplines to align on strategy, delivery phases, and success metrics.
Work
Outcome
The first iteration maintained conversion while improving secondary engagement metrics such as add-to-cart and product exploration. We are now iterating on a second version informed by the learnings.
What I learned
Transforming large-scale experiences requires patience, evidence, and alignment. This project reinforced that content design isn’t just about words - it’s about shaping the systems that help people find what they need.
