CompTIA

An editorial answer to a technical category.

Client: CompTIA
Discipline: Learning platform
Role: Design Director
Year: 2025
Platform: Web, Learning platform
Responsibilities: Strategy, IA, design system, UI direction, design and development alignment

Problem: A learning platform transformation had stalled. The CEO’s vision for it existed on a whiteboard and challenged the direction the previous design team had taken.
My role: Design Director. We joined as a development partner; as the design problems surfaced I embedded with CompTIA’s team, then we took over the design work entirely.
Key decisions: Commit to an editorial direction that broke with the conventions of IT certification, and turn the CEO’s instinct into something concrete, defensible and buildable rather than a mood.
Result: A live digital experience that helps students access CompTIA’s services and earn IT certifications, carried by a design system the development team could build against.

22components in the design system
10–12page templates
Livein production

Overview

CompTIA is a large-scale learning platform transformation, rescued mid-flight and rebuilt around an editorial direction that broke from every convention in IT certification. The CEO had a clear vision that challenged the direction of the previous design team. We were brought in to decipher that vision, translate it into a cohesive experience, and bring it to life.

The challenge

A stalled transformation, and a vision that only existed on a whiteboard.

We joined as a development partner. As the design problems surfaced, I embedded with CompTIA’s team, then we took over the design work entirely.

What was difficult. The vision lived on a whiteboard and in the CEO’s head, and the previous direction had already been rejected. What we decided. Treat the sketches as a brief rather than a mandate, and rebuild from the intent underneath them. Why it mattered. It gave the team something to agree or disagree with, which is what had been missing.

Interpreting the vision

Turning sketches into a direction the whole team could build against.

The CEO had a clear instinct for what the experience should feel like. Our job was to make it concrete, defensible and buildable.

What I led

Executive translation. Worked directly from the CEO’s sketches and intent, and turned them into a direction the whole team could argue with and build against.
Design direction. Set the editorial visual language and held it across the homepage, Explore Careers, certifications, AutoOps+, enterprise and academic.
Information architecture. Restructured the certification and careers content so a student could find a path rather than a catalogue.
Design system. Built the component set and page templates that let the work scale past the screens we designed.
Delivery alignment. Embedded with CompTIA’s team and worked to development-ready, approved files rather than handing over mockups.

What was difficult. IT certification sites look like catalogues, and the category expects that. What we decided. Lead editorially, giving each audience its own entry point rather than a filter on one list. Why it mattered. It separated the student, enterprise and academic journeys instead of making everyone share one.

The outcome

We quickly translated CEO Todd Thibodeaux’s vision into a live digital experience that helps thousands of students access CompTIA’s services and earn IT certifications.

What was difficult. A stalled programme cannot afford another round of interpretation between design and build. What we decided. Ship an approved, development-ready system rather than a set of screens. Why it mattered. Development worked from components and templates, so the pages we never drew still came out right.

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