UX Design Optimization
Goal: Improve graduation rates, student pace, portfolio quality, and hired rates within constraints of existing resources
Outcomes: Increased graduation and hiring rates, improved student pace, and elevated portfolio quality, as well as improved satisfaction of students and educators
PROJECT SNAPSHOT
Role
Lead Instructional Designer, Project Manager, Product Manager, Editor
Project
UX Design Program Optimization
Program Length
6-9 months
Program Goal
Reskill beginners into job-ready UX Design professionals
Project Duration
6 months (across two phases)
Stakeholders
VP of Education Operations, Director of Program Operations, Head of Instructional Design, Program Manager, Immersion Program Manager, Career Services
Tools & Platforms
Custom LMS (GitHub), Looker, Slack, Zoom, Microsoft Office Suite, SharePoint, Atlassian Confluence, Jira
Job Guarantee
Students would receive a tuition reimbursement if they did not get a job within six months of graduating
PROBLEM
The original program was high-touch, but as it scaled 3X+, the support model and curriculum lagged behind. Graduation rates were down, students stalled at the portfolio section, and hiring outcomes were suffering. My research uncovered several key problems:
Curriculum was bloated from years of piecemeal edits
Poor portfolio quality made it difficult for students to graduate and get hired
Students weren’t taught visual design but portfolios required it
Students lacked strong coding skills, and were required to code their portfolio
Grading standards were inconsistent, leading to:
Long grading cycles (often 10+ rounds)
Conflicting, subjective feedback
A high volume of grading disputes (20+ per month)
Educator training did not scale with enrollment growth so support was inconsistent
There weren’t enough resources for a full redesign
The result: portfolio bottlenecks, student dropouts, lost revenue, and growing dissatisfaction—all while we operated under a job guarantee that required high standards.
PROCESS
Reviewed entire curriculum to focus on high-impact incremental improvements
Interviewed internal stakeholders and educators to understand grading and training inconsistencies
Drew on experience to advocate for foundational changes to educator operations
Used the RICE method to prioritize changes into two implementation phases
Managed the project end-to-end, including editing, proofing, and uploading directly to GitHub
SOLUTIONS
Phase 1: Fast Fixes Within Existing Resources
Removed outdated topics and bloat from years of edits
Cut the requirement for HTML/CSS/JavaScript portfolio coding
Secured free student access to a leading portfolio platform
Created a 75-item rubric to align student and grader expectations
Phase 2: Structural Curriculum Upgrades
Introduced visual design training to address core skills gap
Allowed students to begin building their portfolios earlier in the program
Gave students the freedom to choose any portfolio platform
Added exemplars and trained a dedicated grading team to ensure consistent portfolio evaluation
OUTCOMES
Portfolio grading disputes dropped from 20/month to 0
Grading rounds reduced from 10+ to just 3
Student pace increased by 10% after Phase 1
Graduation and hiring rates improved by 20%
Portfolio quality and student satisfaction improved significantly
Over time, leadership allocated resources for the full program redesign I had been advocating for.