Role
Timeline
8 Months
COMPANY
Talend → Qlik (Acquisition)
SCOPE
LOGGED-OUT HOMEPAGE · ONBOARDING EXPERIENCE · COURSE CATALOG · FULL PLATFORM CONTINUITY THROUGH ACQUISITION
Collaborators
PRINCIPAL INSTRUCTIONAL DESIGNER · SENIOR LEARNING PROJECTS MANAGER · DIRECTOR OF LEARNING PLATFORMS · DIRECTOR OF ENABLEMENT & CERTIFICATION · DEVOPS ENGINEER · INTELLUM (CSM)
Tools
Figma · Figma make · LOVABLE · Codia · Adobe Illustrator · Miro
IMPACt
KEY DECISION
increase in learner engagement
(target +10%)
Reduced bounce on the logged-out homepage and increased entry into certifications and learning paths.
program bookings
Exceeded $500K target, driven by increased certification enrollment.
certifications completed
Surpassed 3K target through improved progression clarity.
academic program growth
Exceeded 95% target as structured paths increased program visibility.
hands-on cloud training
More than doubled the 8-hour target through labs integration.
The two platforms merged without a shared architecture, leaving navigation inconsistent across the product, discovery driven by system structure rather than learner goals, and no clear entry point for first-time users. Progress tracking was only available in native LMS sections. Custom pages were essentially static. The platform constrained what was possible before design even started
Intellum's templated layouts offered limited customization. Navigation was constrained by LMS architecture, custom pages couldn't inherit progress states, and catalog filtering was restricted by system logic with no native onboarding flows.
Pushed engineering to build workarounds for progress tracking on custom pages. Advocated for a platform migration. Designed the ideal experience and handed the constraints problem to someone else.
I designed toward where the LMS was reliable, not where I wished it would be. That meant guiding learners into native sections where progress state actually worked. It was a constraint that became a structural principle: every design decision had to function within the system as it existed, not as I wanted it to be.
Navigation Variant A organized around LMS product categories. Variant B organized around learner intent. Stakeholders pushed for A because it mapped to how the platform was structured internally. I pushed for B because testing showed learners browsed by topic, not by product. I won that argument with behavior, not opinion. The logged-out homepage was the first thing a prospective learner saw. It needed to do two things: communicate value and guide someone to take action, without overwhelming them with platform complexity.
Variant A would have been easier to maintain as the product catalog grew. Product-forward navigation meant content teams could update it without design involvement. Choosing learner-led navigation meant we took on more IA responsibility long term. That was the right tradeoff.
Reduce anxiety, show first steps, and introduce guided starter content.
Reinforce habit and relevance while surfacing personalized next actions.
Support deeper exploration and clarify paths and progression.
Align certifications to readiness and signal proof of expertise.
After the logged-out homepage launched, it became clear that solving entry clarity was not enough. The logged-in experience needed to prioritize guidance over available progress states, surface the right next action at the right time, and support learner maturity through structured onboarding, personalization logic, and measurable activation signals.
One key technical limitation of Intellum was that course completion couldn't be surfaced in custom-built sections like the catalog or homepage. Progress was only visible through Intellum's native Continue Learning section. This constraint directly shaped the onboarding strategy. Rather than fighting the platform, we designed the logged-in homepage flows to guide learners toward native sections where progress state was reliable.
A single improved homepage would have been faster to ship and easier to maintain. I deprioritized that in favor of a more complex system because the data was clear: generic experiences were failing returning learners. Simple wasn't the right answer here.
To validate direction, I ran 10+ moderated sessions across first-time and returning learners, testing clarity of onboarding and first action, confidence in progression and next steps, understanding of certification pathways, and perceived value within the first five minutes. Findings informed the 10-day onboarding model, modular grouping strategy, and findings directly shaped the 4-stage learner model.
Navigation direction shifted from product-forward to learner-led after I presented behavioral testing data
Intellum escalation resulted in a new CSM and a feature request now on their roadmap
The 4-stage learner model was adopted as the framework for all future logged-in experience decisions
No filtering or sorting controls
No distinction between free vs subscription content
No product-level organization
Increasing content volume made discovery progressively harder
Rather than accept the native catalog, I built a custom discovery layer in HTML and CSS only, no backend access, no platform rebuild. Structured filtering, product-based grouping, and free vs subscription segmentation, all inside LMS constraints. Every other Intellum customer had accepted the native experience. We didn't.
modules completed
(↑ from 840K year over year)
Improved discovery and clearer learning paths increased module visibility and completion at scale.
increase in learner engagement
(target +10%)
Reduced bounce on the logged-out homepage and increased entry into certifications and learning paths.
program bookings
Exceeded $500K target, driven by increased certification enrollment.
certifications completed
Surpassed 3K target through improved progression clarity.
academic program growth
Exceeded 95% target as structured paths increased program visibility.
hands-on cloud training
More than doubled the 8-hour target through labs integration.
The AI Academy needed to feel like a distinct experience within Qlik Learning, not just another page. I had a clear concept but iterating on layout manually was slowing me down. Instead of continuing in Figma the traditional way, I prompted Figma Make with my existing design, the color system, and the logic of the learning path. It took 6 iterations to get to something usable.
What it got right: the content format. The hero with a video placeholder, the left-aligned headline, the course row structure with progress states. It solved the layout faster than I would have manually.
What I changed on top: the journey structure. Figma Make didn't know what data we could actually track yet, so it included progress logic we couldn't support. I stripped that out, restructured the step sequence to reflect what would actually ship, and added a richer background to push the AI Academy aesthetic further away from the standard Qlik Learning pages. The goal was always for this to feel like you had entered a different space.
Mobile was deprioritized at launch because learner data showed no meaningful mobile usage on the platform. I pushed back on one exception: the logged-out page. That surface is not a product page, it is a marketing page. The people seeing it on mobile are prospects, not existing users. First impressions matter regardless of what the internal analytics say. I made the case, then built it myself using AI.
