User-Based Solution View Switching

Some proofs of concept exist to ship — others to start conversations.
This one was about exploring a bold idea: what if each user could select their own solution view without affecting others in the same space?

Challenge

Through research and observation, we suspected that user-based solution views could improve adoption by reducing friction when navigating across Kibana’s various solutions. However, the concept was controversial — Spaces are intentionally configured by admins, and changing that relationship risked introducing confusion or permission issues.

The challenge was to explore personalization while preserving existing admin behavior. Specifically, could we offer flexibility for individual users without disrupting how Spaces fundamentally work?

Idea

Prototype a way for users to choose their own solution view within a shared Space — keeping the Space-level setting intact, but allowing temporary, user-specific overrides. This would make it easier for users who work across solutions (like Observability or Security) to jump into their preferred view without needing admin changes.

Knowing the potential complexity, I designed the POC to use existing capabilities — leveraging the same mechanisms behind “Update space” to avoid reinventing how the UI reloads or re-renders navigation. The result was surprisingly lightweight: a thin logic layer that handled the view switch - and reloading navigation - while leaving the Space configuration untouched.

AI Workflow

• ChatGPT helped me reason through potential architectural conflicts and identify safe integration points within Kibana’s routing and Space management layers.
• Cursor scaffolded the implementation — a small React hook to handle the view override and trigger a targeted UI reload when the user switched views.
• I built and tested directly inside a local Kibana instance, validating that admin settings remained unchanged and that view switching felt seamless.
• Recorded a short demo and shared it internally to show how this could work in practice — complete with live toggling between solution views.

Outcome

• Working POC allowing user-based solution view switching within existing Spaces
• Preserved admin-defined Space settings while enabling user personalization
• Leveraged existing update-space logic, keeping the implementation thin and maintainable
• Demonstrated that a seemingly complex feature could be achieved with minimal overhead
• Sparked deeper discussion about personalization, adoption, and long-term architecture
• Now considered a candidate for further research and validation

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Reflection

This experiment wasn’t about shipping code — it was about proving possibility. By approaching the problem with curiosity and respect for existing architecture, I showed that personalization doesn’t have to mean upheaval.

The POC opened minds and conversations that hadn’t been possible before — a reminder that sometimes, design progress starts with showing that an idea can work.