Drake Web Pilot Program

My role Sole designer and researcher, responsible for defining the research plan, facilitating participant feedback sessions, and shaping early UX direction for Drake’s first web pilot

Challenges and constraints Highly change-averse user base, a new web product running alongside a mature desktop workflow, and the need to validate interoperability behaviors during an active tax season

Impact Established a structured research approach, gathered direct feedback through office hours, and informed early product decisions around interoperability and return-locking behavior to reduce confusion and prevent errors

Skills demonstrated Research planning, moderated qualitative sessions, rapid synthesis, cross-platform workflow reasoning, error prevention UX, stakeholder alignment

Working with a large cohort of Drake users to craft the next generation of tax prep software.

I owned the research plan for Drake’s first web pilot, using mixed methods across the season and lightweight touchpoints to stay close to users. We ran two drop-in office hours sessions to capture issues and questions in real time. A key focus was interoperability: starting a return on the web and continuing it in the desktop product without losing momentum.

The first feature we were researching and ideating on was whether to "lock" a return when opened. This is what I'm able to show in the images below.