Consistency at scale: Unified digital experiences through governance, standards and communities of practice

Higher education is messy by design. Decentralized structures, autonomous units, constant change and years of one-off projects can leave institutions with sprawling digital ecosystems, duplicated content, uneven quality and fragmented user experiences. And as AI becomes more deeply integrated into our work, digital inconsistency isn't just a UX problem. It can weaken governance, degrade the quality of the information our systems rely on and make it harder to deliver trustworthy digital experiences.

Drawing on McGill's multi-year effort to bring greater alignment to a large, decentralized digital ecosystem, this session will share a practical, people-first approach to building consistency at scale. We'll look at how standards, governance, shared tools and communities of practice can create a common language across distributed teams, while still respecting the autonomy and realities of individual units.

This presentation explores:

• Why digital consistency is so difficult in large, decentralized institutions, and where fragmentation tends to take root.
• How McGill has used digital standards, governance and a community of practice to build alignment and strengthen collaboration across teams.
• What we've learned about the limits of standards alone, and the structural challenges that remain.
• How foundational practices such as content models, journey maps, governance monitoring and web registries can help institutions create more cohesive, AI-ready digital ecosystems.
• Lessons learned about building trust, creating shared ownership and using community to turn institutional standards into everyday practice.

You will leave with practical ideas for creating greater alignment across your own digital ecosystems, whether you're responsible for one site, a portfolio of sites or institution-wide digital strategy, and a framework for thinking about why the foundational work of governance and consistency matters even more in an AI-enabled future.