Discovery Research Parameters

The discovery research phase was comprised of 5 parts:

• Audit the previous 2 years of tax preparation for Sole Proprietor and S-corporation customers. This encompassed looking at retros, notes and ZenDesk support tickets.

• Interview churned and current customers who participated in the 2022 annual tax year.

• Interview stakeholders and supporting tax preparation departments. 

• Create a customer journey map and a service blueprint outlining all customer/Heardian touchpoints.

• Generate a research report highlighting areas of success, opportunities for improvements and customer-focused experience recommendations.

Discovery Research Learnings

Using the Validation, Education and Transparency framework, here were the actionable insights that were shared with the Tax and Executive Leadership Teams:

• Validation

  • Therapists aren’t trained businesspeople. They seek expert guidance from accounting and tax professionals. They’re focused on providing the best possible mental health therapy for their clients, not becoming CPAs. We should tailor the tax experience to meet their needs, not our own KPIs. 

  • Therapists are seekers of knowledge. They want to understand the whys behind decisions and the importance of the steps they have to take. 

  • Close the loop. Therapists want to see how the tasks we ask them to complete lead to outcomes. 

    • What is the point of uploading monthly statements?

    • Why do you need my spouse’s W2? 

      
      

• Education

  • Make things easy to understand. Customers want to understand what is needed for a successful tax filing.

  • It’s important that we connect the dots for customers. We need to explain how the specific steps they take lead to desired outcomes and demonstrate that we’re in this process together. 

  • Humanize complexity. We need to replace complex tax-code language with simple human language.

    • File Tax Form 1120S → File Your Business Tax Form (1120S)

    • Complete your reconciliation → Review Your Expenses

      
      

• Transparency

  • Taxes are a scary and uncertain process, so customers want assurances that they’re private practice and their individual needs are maximized.

  • Because of their academic background, customers wanted a way to follow the progress and complete all necessary tasks.

  • Therapists approach their private practice’s tasks in 50-minute blocks of time. It is important that customers are informed of how long a given task will take so they can accommodate the necessary time. The most ideal is to break down tasks to fit within the 50-minute time frame. 

  • We want customers to analyze their data in Heard to make the right choices for their private practice.

  • There was a lack of awareness of the next steps. Customers felt uncertain of what else they needed to do to help complete their annual tax filings by the deadline.

  
  

Tax Team Delivery

Once the discovery research was completed and the team was walked through the learnings, I moved to a consult and support role. During the transition, I met with the Staff Product Designer, Product Manager, ENG Lead, and Senior Manager, Tax, to do deep dives into the discovery research. The team took the learnings and implemented them into four tax features. 

The tax team delivered four experiences that focused on guiding, informing, and collecting customers' business and individual tax-related information to provide a seamless, low-anxiety annual tax experience.

All workflows maintained their focus on communicating with customers while providing our internal team with the necessary documents for tax preparation. These experiences ensured to answer these set of questions: 

• How long does a workflow take to complete?

• What can a customer expect? 

• What is needed from a customer?  

• What is the next step?  

Tax Season Kick-off (TSK)

• This workflow focused on confirming their tax filing needs, checking for life event changes and providing customers with an overview of the 2023 tax season: 

  • 98% of customers signed up for Heard to complete their taxes

  • 96% of our customer completed all tax forms

  • The average TSK was completed in less than 90 seconds
    
    

Year-End Review (YER):

• This workflow was an opportunity for customers to close their books and provide insight on any pending income and/or expense transactions that needed clarification

1099-NEC

• This workflow helped customers complete 1099’s for contractors they paid more than $600 in 2023

Tax Checklist (TC)

• This workflow is the “turbo-tax” like feature that helped customers identify tax deductions, provide tax forms and other tax-related materials