Building a UX Center of Excellence at Comcast ULearn

The content was technically fine: instructional designers had built it carefully, compliance had approved it. But fewer than one in five employees who started a course finished it, and nobody could say why, because nobody was measuring the experience. ULearn was Comcast’s bet on replacing a legacy SAP system during the Great Resignation. The new UX function had to prove, quickly, that it was worth keeping.

I was brought in to help structure and operationalize that function. Over time, that work evolved into a recognized UX Center of Excellence: a team that could deliver UX work directly, introduce user-centered methods, and teach the broader organization how to apply them.

Using measurement to make UX credible

Completion on started content was below 20%, but completion alone was not enough to win over skeptics. I introduced SUS as a usability benchmark to make UX more measurable and defensible. Untouched products typically scored in the 40s to 50s, while products we directly iterated on could reach 68+ within two to three sprint cycles.

Structuring the function to scale

The UX team had mixed seniority and limited maturity, with six designers total: two senior and four much more junior practitioners. I helped define the function as a Center of Excellence and introduced a tiered engagement model so teams could get the right level of UX support without every request becoming a full redesign effort.

UX Center of Excellence framework — four core focus areas defining how the function partnered with the business. — The CoE framework. Four focus areas that gave stakeholders a shared language for what UX was for, how it partnered, and where it invested.

Reducing UX drag and expanding capability

Early on, UX could add a full sprint to delivery timelines. By reshaping the service model, bringing in stronger external talent, and building enablement paths for lower-complexity work, we reduced that burden to roughly two to three days over six months, a 33% reduction from peak. I also helped extend UX capability beyond the core team through coaching, facilitation, and a move from Adobe XD to Figma.

UX drag: the net delivery time UX added to sprints. Started at a full sprint. Halved by week six. Down to a couple of days by month six, and by then fully absorbed into sprint planning and metrics.

Phased UX enablement plan — building shared UX capability across instructional design and adjacent teams. — Phased enablement plan for extending UX thinking into instructional design and adjacent teams. Shared methods, frameworks, facilitation paths.

Results and impact

Helped establish Comcast ULearn’s UX function as a recognized Center of Excellence
Introduced usability measurement through SUS baselines and iterative testing
Improved touched products from typical SUS baselines in the 40s–50s to 68+
Reduced UX drag from roughly one sprint to two to three days over six months
Reduced UX drag by 33% from peak while the function continued to grow
Expanded UX capability beyond the core team through coaching, facilitation, and shared methods

Reflection

This work taught me that early-stage UX functions in enterprise environments earn trust by becoming measurable, understandable, and sustainable. At Comcast ULearn, I helped make UX legible to the business: first through evidence, then through service design, and finally through enablement that let the function scale beyond the boundaries of the team itself.