A redesign that turned a certification into a career engine.
I led the research and design of My PMI, the member home for the world's top project-management credentials, and introduced a social credential badge. The work supported double-digit annual growth in PMP credential holders.
Role
Product Research & Design Lead
Organization
Project Management Institute
Product
My PMI
Focus
Research · Focus Groups · UX · Feasibility
+16.9%
Average annual growth in PMP credential holders
+8.1%
Average annual growth in PMI membership
Focus groups
Ranked redesign features by member value, run with a business analyst
Social badge
New shareable credential identity built to drive career opportunity
★ The shipped design
Certification status, PDU progress, and a shareable credential, in one scannable home.
My PMI is where millions of certified professionals manage their credentials after they earn them. The redesign pulls renewal, PDU tracking, and a new social credential badge into a single member dashboard. Swipe through the full-size screens below.
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Fig. 1–3 Final design: dashboard, profile, and live production view.
“What if your certification could promote you, the way a game or social profile shows off everything you've earned?
The bet behind My PMI's social credential badge
02 Process
Research first, then design, then a feasibility check before launch.
PMI members earn a hard credential, then go quiet. My PMI was meant to be their home base, but it had grown into a dense grid of widgets with no evidence behind it: renewals and PDUs were scattered, the credential had no outward proof, and a long wish-list of features competed for space. I made the redesign evidence-led instead of opinion-led.
Friction A
Maintenance was scattered
Renewals, PDUs, and standing lived across separate flows, so staying certified took more effort than it should.
Friction B
No outward proof
A hard-won credential stayed locked inside PMI.org with no easy way to broadcast it where careers are made.
Friction C
No priority signal
A long list of dashboard ideas competed for space with no evidence for what members actually valued.
A
Focus groups, run with a business analyst
Built a testable feature set. Turned a sprawling wish-list into discrete concepts members could react to.
Co-ran focus groups. Partnered with a business analyst so findings were captured rigorously and tied to business outcomes, not preferences.
Ranked by member value. Sequenced features by real impact, which surfaced the social credential badge as a standout.
B
The idea: a social credential identity
I proposed social-media profile integration: a credential badge that promotes a member's achievements the way a PlayStation Network card, a LinkedIn signature, or a Facebook badge shows who you are. It follows the member onto the platforms where professional reputation is built. I worked the concept out in wireframes before committing any visual design.
From sketch: the wireframes
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Fig. 4–6 Wireframes for the registered-user and member dashboards, and the social badge concept.
C
From wireframe to a working mockup
I applied the concept to the full dashboard in a rough mockup, the bridge between the wireframes above and the final screens at the top of the page.
Fig. 7 Rough mockup: the bridge from wireframe to the shipped design.
D
A feasibility check against the launch date
To protect a fixed launch date, we brought in Intuitive Company to run an independent usability analysis and deliver visual-design recommendations. Their interviews confirmed the direction, found what to refine, and set a prioritized post-launch roadmap. Their report is below.
A certification home that helped PMI's most valuable audience keep growing.
Credential holders
▲16.9%
Average annual growth in PMP credential holders over the period the work supported
Membership growth
▲8.1%
Average annual growth in PMI membership over the same period
New capability
Social credential badge
A shareable identity that opens career doors instead of sitting on file.
Research rigor
Focus groups + IC validation
Member focus groups, then an independent usability analysis by Intuitive Company.
Roadmap
Post-launch enhancements
A clear set of visual-design next steps drawn from IC's interviews.
Why it mattered
Grounding the redesign in member focus groups, and treating a certification as something to show off rather than store, gave members a reason to stay engaged among the audience most invested in the brand.
