Engineering visibility, redesigned

Cortex is the Engineering Operations Platform that helps teams improve their operational maturity and reduce developer friction. We partnered on product design, brand identity, website and marketing visuals to scale their visual language across surfaces.

LocationUSA, San Francisco
DurationOngoing Cooperation
TeamDesign DirectorLead Product DesignerProduct DesignerBrand DesignerFront-end developer
ActivitiesProduct DesignMarketing DesignBrand IdentityDesign System
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The Context

We kicked off a deep UX revamp in 2024 to prepare the platform for scale and respond to customer feedback. The refreshed UI and initial design direction were built on the lean improvements we shipped first — so customers saw early wins without waiting for the major design effort to land. The major product, brand, and marketing revamp was next.

97+countries with teams running on Cortex
41,286engineering teams onboarded
1,524days saved for customer teams (across all workflow runs)
10,040,203entities managed
20%Avg. PRs per dev increase (across customers)
64%Avg. deployment frequency increase (across customers)

Main Product Design Challenge

Cortex is a data-heavy product, and the hardest part is making the data useful. As Cortex scaled, the platform needed to surface insights faster, give engineering leaders the right view at the right altitude, and evolve a brand that could carry the company from technical early adopters into a broader market — all while agentic workflows were rewriting what a product surface should even look like.

Initiatives view that aligns engineering goals with execution

Initiatives view that aligns engineering goals with execution

Commit dashboard for shipping clarity. Dark mode available for late night sessions

Commit dashboard for shipping clarity. Dark mode available for late night sessions

Anish Dhar

working with your team is one of the highest ROI decisions we ever made

Anish Dhar

CEO

Cortex 2025 Wrapped – Major achievements across customers

Entities management available both manually and in an automated way

Entities management available both manually and in an automated way

Overview Dashboard - the essential data, drilldowns for ownership, on-call, and impact

Overview Dashboard - the essential data, drilldowns for ownership, on-call, and impact

Executive view that surfaces what matters across the org

Executive view that surfaces what matters across the org

Scorecards across teams for accountability and benchmarking

Scorecards across teams for accountability and benchmarking

PRs overview and insights

PRs overview and insights

Zac Halbert

The quality of the design work, paired with the speed and reliability of deliverables, has been impressive.

Zac Halbert

Head of Design

Brand Direction & Marketing.

In 2025 we began evolving the brand identity and marketing visual language across every touchpoint: marketing, employer branding, and Cortex's own community conferences. Social media graphics, out-of-home in Times Square, educational videos, product tutorials, and quick update reels.

Marketing visual system tuned for technical crowd, good friends and those who just explore Cortex

Marketing visual system tuned for technical crowd, good friends and those who just explore Cortex

The website – infinite A/B testing surface for visuals, layouts and copies.

The website – infinite A/B testing surface for visuals, layouts and copies.

Event identity for IDPCON – Cortex's very own IDP conference happening in New York.

Event identity for IDPCON – Cortex's very own IDP conference happening in New York.

Evolve – the next generation for Cortex's events series.

Evolve – the next generation for Cortex's events series.

Why It Worked

Two years and counting. The partnership has produced a redesigned product — rebuilt dashboards that surface insights faster for engineering leaders — a brand system that runs from social tiles to Times Square, identities for two flagship conferences (IDPCON and Evolve), and an ongoing marketing site improving every cycle. It held together because one team contributed into product design, brand, marketing, and events — so every surface reads as one Cortex, not four. Leadership called it "one of the highest ROI decisions we ever made."

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