My role & vision
As a Senior Product Designer at Project Management Institute, I had the opportunity to lead the redesign of the ATP platform, the central hub where partners manage their organizations, teams, and instructors. This transformative project challenged me to reimagine how our training partners interact with PMI's certification programs, serving over 1,000 active partners globally.
Throughout this initiative, I worked closely with cross-functional teams including finance, business stakeholders, product managers, UX researchers, and engineers to ensure we were building the right solution for both our partners and internal teams. My role encompassed the complete redesign process from wireframing and prototyping to research and implementation oversight.
The challenge
Our vision for the ATP platform centered on two key areas: revolutionizing the application process and transforming daily partner operations.
Application Experience:
Improve efficiency, accuracy, and usability of ATP and REP application workflows
Reduce application drop-off rates through streamlined experiences
Minimize application guidance requests to customer care
Decrease overall time to complete applications
Platform Management:
Enable partners to efficiently invite and manage instructors through self-service capabilities
Streamline end-to-end processes for partners managing their business operations
Reduce complexity in managing business information, users, and instructor details
Accelerate the instructor setup process to minimize time between onboarding and active teaching
The existing platform, while functional, had become dated both visually and technically. Partners frequently needed to contact support through email for what should have been simple tasks, creating unnecessary delays in their business operations. Additionally, our support team was handling numerous manual touchpoints that could be automated, indicating an opportunity to improve efficiency for all users of the platform.
This project represented more than just a visual refresh – it was an opportunity to fundamentally rethink how our partners interact with PMI and manage their certification programs effectively.
Strategic research & platform evaluation: Understanding user needs and pain points
In redesigning the ATP platform, I recognized that success hinged on balancing user needs with business requirements. Embracing a research-driven approach, I partnered closely with our UX research team to conduct thorough testing on the most critical elements of the platform: the application process, the hub (serving as the central dashboard for administrators), and instructor management. These areas represent both key monetizing touchpoints and the most frequently used sections of the platform.
My collaborative process began by working with our quantitative researcher to identify specific user journeys and opportunity areas. After analyzing the data, I collaborated with my product owner to define testing priorities and timelines. This strategic foundation allowed me to work hand-in-hand with our qualitative researcher, creating detailed prototypes that we could put directly in front of our users.
Through this comprehensive research, we synthesized valuable insights that informed our design decisions. By identifying key pain points before development began, we ensured a significantly improved user experience and generated substantial cost savings for the company by addressing potential issues proactively rather than retroactively after launch.
This research-led approach provided us with the confidence that our redesign would truly address the needs of our partners while supporting PMI's business objectives, creating a solid foundation for the entire redesign initiative.
The Application Experience
The existing application process was burdened with numerous manual steps, requiring partners to input excessive information and coordinate back and forth with client success teams. The interface was visually outdated and lacked user-friendly functionality, creating friction throughout the experience.
While we needed to maintain all the required content in the application due to compliance requirements, I focused on shifting complexity away from the user. By redesigning the information architecture and workflow, we allowed the software to assume that complexity behind the scenes. This strategic approach preserved all necessary information gathering while creating a more intuitive path for our partners.
Through thoughtful interface design and process refinement, we created a streamlined experience that we're confident will significantly reduce time to completion and decrease application abandonment rates. Partners can now focus on providing quality information rather than navigating a complicated system, ultimately helping them get certified and active more quickly.
The Hub
The hub prior to my redesigning was buried in the navigation and essentially functioned as a junk drawer. The home page for the platform displayed only basic account information, missing an opportunity to provide real value to users. I wanted to eliminate this junk drawer approach and ensure that anything we shipped would be genuinely useful to our partners.
Working with our quantitative researcher, I dug into platform analytics to understand where our users were going and what features they were actually using. This data revealed the need to completely rethink the current experience, transforming that junk drawer into an effective jump-off point that allows users to see high-level information and easily navigate to any other area of the platform.
Collaborating closely with my PO and other business stakeholders, I was able to truly transform this into a helpful central experience within the platform. From the redesigned hub, our users can now quickly manage their courses and instructors while having easy access to commonly used resources and links. Looking ahead, we've designed the foundation to eventually allow users to customize this page to best fit their specific needs and workflows.
User Management
User management was a net-new experience in this version of the platform. I prioritized giving more self-service options and flexibility back to our partners. Prior to this redesign, every time partners needed to make particular updates, it required an email or call to our support team to implement the changes.
With the new design, users can now set administrative access to add or remove users and change contact role designations independently. This particular experience required extensive collaboration with my PO and other business stakeholders, including important discussions about permission granularity. We carefully evaluated whether to create highly detailed permission settings, ultimately deciding against this approach after analyzing the typical use cases for this platform and the average number of users per account relative to the development and maintenance costs of multiple platform versions.
This strategic decision creates efficiencies and simplicity for both our technical team and our users. By providing just the right level of control without unnecessary complexity, we've empowered partners to manage their teams more effectively while reducing the maintenance burden on our development resources.
Instructor Management
Instructor management was totally overhauled, once again removing complexity from the user and letting the software do the work. Previously, it was a 3-step flow to get a future instructor registered for the training classes required to instruct future project managers. It also required the admins to contact and work with client success frequently, sharing that the instructor had achieved the requirements to be qualified then receive that qualification.
I streamlined the registration process to a single page within each instructor's profile page, which now shows all certifications and qualifications. This helps the Admins understand which instructors can teach specific classes without needing to search through multiple screens or contact support. This consolidated view also clearly displays what requirements need to be met by each instructor to teach for different certifications, eliminating confusion and reducing support requests.
The main instructor page has been simplified to show only the most important information upfront with easy one-click access to dive into their profile and make any needed changes. This focused approach ensures admins can quickly find the information they need.
We took all of the guesswork out of it, including the invitation process where we now check qualifications on the backend with just a simple email invite sent out. This allows the admins to focus on their business and reduces the amount of effort and time spent on a piece of software needed for compliance purposes.
Reflecting on this project
I'm confident that our thorough testing approach helped us get the redesign right. By validating our solutions early and often with actual users, we were able to create a platform that truly addresses their needs while meeting business requirements.
Throughout this project, we faced numerous challenges that ultimately created opportunities to completely retool the ATP platform. The result is a truly helpful and streamlined experience that allows our partners to focus on running their businesses while minimizing the time they need to spend on administrative tasks. By removing unnecessary complexity and putting more power in our users' hands, we've created a platform that works with them rather than against them.
This redesign should also yield significant efficiency gains internally. The upgraded technology stack paired with enhanced self-service capabilities will reduce the support burden on our teams. By enabling partners to manage their own accounts, users, and instructors, we're freeing up internal resources while providing a better experience for our partners.
Looking ahead, once we launch in May, we plan to immediately set KPIs, track user journeys through LogRocket, and begin iterating on the portions of the platform that serve as key monetizing touchpoints. This data-driven approach will ensure we're continuously improving the user experience while meeting the evolving needs of the business.
This project has reinforced my belief that good design isn't just about aesthetics—it's about creating experiences that empower users while driving business results. The new ATP platform represents a significant step forward for PMI and our partners, establishing a foundation that can grow and evolve with changing needs in the project management certification space.