Bringing clarity
to tax owed
I originated QuickBooks' pay-what-you-owe income tax concept to cut through IRS' complexity, so business owners can confidently manage their cash flow. I oversaw the feature's launch, swiftly resolving quality challenges.
4×
Prospective increase in tax engagement
$7B
of tax penalties to prevent (!)
2
Calculation errors caught before launch
Helping business owners decide what to pay, minus the penalty risk or the year-end surprises
Drive year-round engagement with taxes solving a deep customer pain
Quarterly estimated tax provides the opportunity to address SMB anxieties about tax liabilities and create deeper engagement throughout the year.
Team: up to 3 product managers, 1 senior designer, 1 content designer, up to 12 engineers.
Originated the concept, and resolved launch challenges
- 01
Originated the concept
Based on preliminary research I framed the core idea: show owners what they owe in real time, not a guess pulled from last year's return. The project was then handed over to another designer.
- 02
Addressed design changes & gaps
Stepped back in two weeks before the first alpha to close the gap on new scope requirements and simplify the user experience.
- 03
Led launch user research for fast quality improvements
Set research plan & tools to validate the shipped experience, as well as proposed design changes, with speed to iterate before the tax payment deadline.
Quality & speed
-
Enabled faster delivery
Coaching and tax + AI subject matter expertise kept the team moving through a tight pre-alpha window.
-
Simplified the experience
I reworked the payment choice around outcomes instead of formulas, and made the recommended path unmissable.
-
Two calculation errors stopped
Spotted and stopped two errors pre-launch, critical for a feature SMBs trust with their money.
Making 'what should I pay?' answerable
When I stepped back in, the main screen asked owners to choose between two payment amounts, labelled by how we calculated them. The research sessions confirmed the difficulty in grasping what it actually meant and in actioning this. So I rebuilt the moment around the outcome and showing exactly what each choice leaves owing on April 15. I tested the option at the same time to accelerate the project.
Before
After
- 01
Recommend, don't just present
Gave the AI's suggested option clear visual primacy, so owners aren't left to adjudicate two options on their own.
- 02
Label by outcome, not by formula
I renamed the two paths from how we calculated them (last year's tax, or this year's projection) to what they mean: 'pay the penalty-safe minimum' and 'pay what you owe'.
- 03
Show the April 15 consequence
I surfaced each choice's trade-off as a projected balance due on April 15 — so the decision carries its future with it.
- 04
Tabbing rather than stacking
With the progressive launch of features, the page became a stack disconnecting the information. I integrated related information to support quick and layered secondary information in tabs.