Architecture & navigation
Structured learning so employees could more easily understand what was available, what was relevant, and where to go next.
02
LEARNING ECOSYSTEM · CASE STUDY
AQUENT
LEARN
Designing a global learning environment as both an employee experience and an operating system.
OVERVIEW
A learning platform can hold hundreds of resources and still make learning harder than it needs to be.
I architected and governed Aquent Learn, a Docebo-based global learning environment supporting approximately 1,500 employees and project-dedicated staff. My role extended well beyond LMS administration: I shaped the learning architecture, user experience, audience logic, governance, reporting, automation, integrations, content migration, and vendor relationship.
I approached the platform as a product: something that had to work for learners, managers, content owners, administrators, and the systems around it.
THE CHALLENGE
Make learning easier to find, use, and manage.
Enterprise learning platforms have competing demands. Employees need a clear experience. Managers need useful visibility. Content owners need standards. Administrators need workflows that scale. And the platform has to fit into a larger technology ecosystem with identity, employee data, permissions, and reporting.
How do you design a learning environment that feels simple to the user without making the operating model simplistic?
MY APPROACH
Treat the LMS as an ecosystem, not a course repository.
Audience logic
Built audience, permission, and learning-plan logic around employee attributes and business needs rather than relying on manual enrollment.
Governance
Established practical standards for content ownership, organization, migration decisions, access, and ongoing maintenance.
Automation
Reduced repetitive administration through rules, data-driven enrollment, and workflows that could scale with the organization.
Reporting
Used platform data to support compliance, participation monitoring, adoption analysis, and program improvement.
Experience design
Used visual design and custom HTML/CSS where useful to make the platform feel intentional and easier to navigate.
SYSTEMS PARTNERSHIP
The learner experience depended on what happened behind the screen.
I partnered with Enterprise Information Systems on the technical foundations that made scalable access possible, including Active Directory structure, custom employee fields, automated audience logic, Okta integration, and employee-data feeds.
This work connected learning design to systems design. A clean learner experience required reliable data, thoughtful permission logic, and clear ownership across teams.
OPERATING MODEL
Governance mattered as much as configuration.
I owned the platform's day-to-day administration while also making longer-term decisions about structure, content lifecycle, reporting, migration, standards, and vendor partnership.
That meant balancing immediate requests with the health of the whole ecosystem: deciding when something belonged in the LMS, how it should be organized, which audiences needed it, how it would be maintained, and whether the administrative burden was justified.
PLATFORM STRATEGY
Sometimes the right way to improve a platform is to replace it.
As organizational needs changed, I led an evaluation of learning-platform alternatives rather than assuming the existing system should remain in place. I compared options against business and operational requirements and selected Articulate Reach 360 as the replacement platform.
~$30K
projected annual platform savings
I initiated the transition with an emphasis on reducing ongoing platform cost while limiting unnecessary overlap during migration.
WHY IT MATTERED
A learning ecosystem is both a people system and a business system.
The visible experience was only one part of the work. The platform also had to support compliance, onboarding, capability development, reporting, employee access, content governance, and operational efficiency across a distributed workforce.
The result was a learning environment designed around both sides of that equation: make it easier for employees to learn, and make it sustainable for the organization to operate.
WHAT THIS DEMONSTRATES
Strategy and implementation have to meet somewhere.
Learning ecosystem strategy
Connecting learner experience, content, technology, governance, and operations rather than optimizing each in isolation.
Build / buy judgment
Translating business needs into platform requirements and making a recommendation grounded in value, fit, and operating cost.
Cross-functional implementation
Working across L&D, enterprise systems, vendors, and business stakeholders to move from concept into functioning infrastructure.
Sustainable ownership
Designing for what happens after launch: governance, maintenance, reporting, permissions, migration, and continuous improvement.