INTRODUCTION: As an early adopter of competency-based medical education (CBME) our postgraduate institution was uniquely positioned to analyze implementation experience data across programs, while keeping institutional factors constant. We described participants' experiences related to CBME implementation across programs derived from early program evaluation efforts within our setting. METHODS: This evaluation focused on eight residency programs at a medium-sized academic institution in Canada. Participants ( RESULTS: Six themes were identified. All groups emphasized the need for ongoing refinement of CBME resulting from shared tensions such as increased assessment burden. However, there were some disparate CBME-related experiences between programs such as the experience with entrustable professional activities, the interpretation of retrospective entrustment anchors, and quality of feedback. CONCLUSION: We detected several cross-program successes and important challenges related to CBME. Our experience can inform other programs engaging in implementation and evaluation of CBME.