CASE STUDY

P2 Sphere

Decoupling Enterprise Construction Finance to Scale 115,000 Users and Slash Licensing Overhead

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

At Comcast, the legacy Salesforce-based P2 platform managed core planning, construction, and finance workflows for the Next Generation Access Network (NGAN). However, ballooning third-party seat-license costs, fragmented cross-divisional processes, and heavy workflow friction created a massive operational bottleneck.

As Senior Information Architect and Design Lead, I spearheaded the end-to-end service design strategy to deconstruct P2 and architect Sphere—a bespoke, scalable internal platform. By separating data providers from reporting users, establishing a governed semantic design system, and running quantitative UX benchmarks across 3 national divisions, we offloaded thousands of users from seat-license costs while building a unified, WCAG compliant foundation for 115,000+ downstream field techs and support engineers.

Key Impact Highlights

  • 8,000+ Initial Onboarded Users: Enabled immediate report generation and construction tracking at zero third-party license cost.

  • 115,000 Total User Roadmap: Established the core React/Clojure front-end design foundation for the broader NGAN tool ecosystem.

  • Streamlined Task Efficiency: Benchmarked and reduced critical reporting workflows from multi-tab Salesforce navigation down to streamlined, single-dashboard actions.

  • Governed Semantic Design System: Built a tokenized design system with formal contribution guidelines and a component governance model to prevent design debt across future NGAN apps.

  • 3 National Divisions Aligned: Unlocked cross-functional consensus through live co-design sessions, field shadowing, and rapid SME focus groups.

 

The Challenge: Enterprise Scale, Siloed Users, & Skyrocketing Costs
1. The Financial & Technical Overhead

The legacy Salesforce P2 instance was overloaded. Hundreds of internal stakeholders who only needed to view construction progress or generate reports were forced onto expensive third-party seat licenses.

2. Scope & Transition Friction

Moving users off a tool they had relied on for over 5 years required a seamless cutover. Any gap in data availability or usability threatened to stall critical network deployment infrastructure across three distinct national divisions.

3. Organizational Bottlenecks & Silos

Pulling subject matter experts (SMEs) and field users away from daily operations caused scheduling deadlocks. Furthermore, prior software rollouts had operated as “black boxes,” leaving leadership skeptical of design changes and hesitant to grant early buy-in.

 

The Strategy & Execution
1. Service Design & Licensing Strategy

To eliminate unnecessary licensing overhead, I mapped the entire P2 user ecosystem and split the user base into two core cohorts:

  • Power Users & Data Providers: Maintained within specialized data entry layers supported by a new custom two-way API.

  • Reporting & Viewing Users: Migrated onto the new, custom Sphere platform.

To streamline access, I designed an Azure-integrated User Access Management Dashboard, embedding enterprise security compliance and WCAG accessibility standards directly into the onboarding flow.

2. Quantitative UX Benchmarking & Field Shadowing

To ensure Sphere wasn’t just cheaper, but genuinely more usable than Salesforce, I established a rigorous UX validation framework prior to launch:

  • Quantitative Task Benchmarking: Audited legacy Salesforce workflows to capture baseline metrics on task completion times, click depth, and error rates—setting target benchmarks for the Sphere MVP.

  • Live Field Shadowing & Phased Pilots: Conducted side-by-side observation sessions with real-world users in field environments. This uncovered latent workflow dependencies and edge cases before rolling out to the broader organization.

3. Cultivating Alignment Across 3 Divisions

To overcome stakeholder availability constraints, I worked with regional leaders to establish dedicated, rapid-response focus groups. We shifted from isolated design iterations to transparent, live co-design sessions. This established a shared design vocabulary, provided executive leaders with clear decision provenance, and proved we were streamlining workflows rather than making users “jump through hoops.”

4. Design System Architecture & Governance

To transition the engineering team from a backend-centric mindset to a UX-centered approach:

  • Semantic Design System: Advocated for an upfront tokenized design system to reduce long-term technical debt and guarantee cross-app UI consistency across future NGAN modules.

  • System Governance: Authored contribution guidelines, versioning protocols, and documentation (via Vox) so downstream engineering teams could extend components without component drift.

  • “Build Fast, Ship Small, Fix Now”: Established a high-velocity triad cadence between Design, Engineering, and QA.

  • The Error Dictionary: Folded QA members into design reviews to catch visual fidelity issues early, document edge cases, and maintain high release quality.

5. Executive ROI & Budget Cadence

I instituted a recurring internal demo cadence for budget and funding committees. By demonstrating how early user buy-in and quantitative task efficiency directly reduced post-launch support tickets and license overhead, design was elevated from a service function to a strategic growth engine for the department.

 

Leadership Retrospective

“Big ships turn slowly and require incredible amounts of clear communication.”

“Hold the stakeholders’ hand, walk with them.”

“Keep track of who and why makes key decisions—as large-scale consensus requires accountability for trust.”

Building the foundation for Sphere reinforced that technical architecture is only half the battle in enterprise product design. True scale happens when you combine quantitative rigor with organizational empathy—translating complex business logic into accessible, high-performance systems that teams actually trust.

When I joined the project, I was the sole designer tasked with deconstructing Salesforce P2 and establishing the architectural foundation for Sphere. Recognizing that a 115,000-user platform couldn’t rely on a single point of failure long-term, I laid the operational groundwork to build and scale a dedicated design capability: 

Phase 1 — Solo Foundations:

 Executed end-to-end service design, conducted live field shadowing, built the Azure IAM interface, and authored the initial tokenized design system solo while embedding directly with engineering.

Phase 2 — Systemizing Onboarding:

Developed comprehensive design documentation (via Vox) and component guidelines so new design hires could onboard in days rather than weeks. 

Phase 3 — Team Integration & Direction:

Recruited and onboarded specialized designers, transitioning my role into Design Lead. I established a formal design critique cadence, folded QA directly into our workflows, and governed the design system as our footprint expanded across the NGAN ecosystem.