At a Glance
The Challenge: With 40+ companies and 45,000 staff, fostering community had always been challenging for NBCU. The existing platform MyNBC (launched 2004) was generating 500+ daily support calls, indicating fundamental usability failures that required a complete strategic rethink to build culture, improve self-sufficiency, and create a modern, scalable design system.
The Solution: NBCU Now: A multifunctional internal professional network featuring customizable news feeds, comprehensive employee directory, intuitive search capabilities, and scalable content architecture supporting 65,000+ unique items across global offices in a responsive, mobile-first design system.
The Problem
My Role
Head of UX
I led planning, research and design of the next generation of NBCUNow. As the project leader I was also responsible for both client and project management throughout the 5 month engagement. The team I oversaw included a senior UX designer, technical director, art director and UI designer. Development of the project was handled by the client.
Primary deliverables for which I was responsible included:
Project planning and scoping.
Content audit
Information architecture
Literature review
User interviews
User personas
User stories
Wireframes
Prototype development
User testing
Art direction (oversight)
QA (oversight)
Research & Discovery
Global Stakeholder Study
With analytical data unavailable from the existing platform, we conducted extensive qualitative research interviewing employees across the United States, London, Japan, and Australia.
Content Audit
At the time of our investigation the platform had 26,000+ pieces of content. A sizable number that was growing daily.
During our contextual inquiry we discovered that the navigation of the current platform was so confusing that employee groups had created workaround spreadsheets.
There was a very obvious disconnect across global offices even though they were all dependent on each other.
Key Discovery - Universal Patterns
Contrary to expectations of highly diverse needs across business units, we discovered remarkable commonalities. All NBCU employees could be categorized using three characteristics:
Employment Lifecycle: Orientation (1st month), Established (2-6 months), Advancement (>6 months).
Work Environment: Desk-based, on-set production, or mobile/traveling.
Location Context: Country, city, and building variations
These insights enabled us to construct 8 user personas representing unique NBCU employee archetypes, which became the framework for design studios and feature prioritization.
Strategic Approach
Dual-Stream Methodology: For efficiency’s sake we divided work into two streams: Information Architecture and Design.
Six Focal Needs Framework: Based on persona research, we defined critical feature areas:
Search: Single-tool access to resources and staff profiles.
Content: Up-to-date, reliable information with intuitive UI.
Mobility: Universal access regardless of employee location.
Employee Directory: Comprehensive global staff connection system.
Personalization: Both business and individual-level customization.
Social: Internal professional networking capabilities.
Navigation System Challenge: The content audit revealed the existing navigation was "highly confusing." We conducted three weeks of card sorting workshops with senior stakeholders and regional staff to align on problems and solutions.
Key Innovations
Scalable Content Architecture
We developed a category and tagging matrix that users intuitively understood while supporting 65,000+ unique items and future growth.
Global Dashboard
The dashboard gives everyone a reason to check in daily, serving up company news and updates that can be tailored to each person or team. With quick links for favorite tools and panels for announcements and promos, it keeps important info front and center and reduces the need for all-company emails.
Responsive Design System + Global Employee Network
Connected all 40+ businesses under unified directory for the first time in company history. Created multi-purpose content templates that improved usability while reducing future development costs.
Results and Impact
Engagement Transformation
657% increase in platform engagement within first 6 months.
1,000 average weekly interactions with global employee directory.
Successful transition from burden to essential daily tool.
Operational Efficiency
50% reduction in calls to NBCUniversal's support center.
Eliminated need for workaround spreadsheets through intuitive navigation.
Improved employee self-sufficiency across all global locations.
Cultural Impact
Connected 45,000 employees across 40+ businesses for first time.
Established foundation for true internal professional networking.
Created sense of unified community across diverse business units.
Business Value
Reduced support costs through decreased call volume.
Improved productivity through faster resource access.
Enhanced employee satisfaction and engagement.
Established scalable platform for future organizational growth.
Key Learnings
Global Commonalities Over Differences
Our assumption of highly diverse needs across business units proved incorrect. Finding universal patterns enabled more effective, unified solutions rather than fragmented approaches for each division.
Sprint Methodology Effectiveness
The 5-day sprint approach with daily stakeholder engagement dramatically reduced traditional review cycles and accelerated decision-making across global teams.
Scope Management Challenges
With finite timeline, some desired features (co-branding, live chat support) couldn't be implemented initially. Earlier feature prioritization discussions would have improved final scope alignment.
Scalability Planning Success
The category and tagging matrix architecture proved successful in supporting rapid content growth post-launch, validating our scalable design approach.