Google Sprint for Tax Center Solutions

 
 

Scenario

Retiree It’s the middle of the year and I’m wondering whether I’m going to need to estimate taxes this quarter. I’d also like to see if there’s anything else I should be doing tax-wise.

Pre-retiree and accumulator It’s the beginning of the year, I’m preparing my taxes, and I have to figure out what I need to do regarding my investments for: A) Tax filing B) Tax optimization (asset location, maximizing contributions, etc...)

Sprint goal Redo the tax center to make the interface as intuitive, simple and easy as possible. We want investors to think “this looks easy” when arriving and “that was easy” after using it.

 

Sprint questions

  • How can we make the Tax Center easy to use for all clients, both complex and simple accounts?

  • How do we best organize content between Tax Center and My Accounts?

  • How effective is the “My Tasks” feature in terms organizing and consolidating tax content? Will it encourage better tax strategy?

  • Is it technically feasible to build the Tax Center?

  • Can we create usable pathways to PAS that produce quality leads?

 

Sprint Map

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Ask the Experts

We conduced interviews with Vanguard crew from Client Insight, IT, Client Experience and Personal Advisor Services. While conducing the interviews the sprint team captured notes in the form of “How Might We” questions that were later voted on based on relevance to our sprint goal and then applied to our sprint map.

 

Competitive Analysis Ideas

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Solution Sketches

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Prototype Storyboard

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Prototype for “Remind Me” Tax Forms

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User testing objective & methodology

The prototype included

  • “Dashboard” view, with links to forms and IRA contributions.

  • “My Tax Dates” showing important tax dates based on one’s accounts.

  • “Quarterly Summary” page.

Approach

  • One-on-one in-person 60-minute interviews. One session was conducted remotely via phone and Adobe Connect.

  • Ask user to explore the “Taxes” area on their own rst, followed by answering questions on what they thought of each feature.

User Characteristics

  • 5 clients were recruited, per Sprint book by Jake Knapp.

  • Ages 29, 52, 62, 72, and 73.

  • 2 women; 3 men.

  • All web-registered. Logged onto vanguard.com ranging from 1-2 times a month, to twice a day.

  • Had called Vanguard about a tax topic between January and April 2016.

  • 3 of 5 used a tax accountant to do their taxes.

 

The Result

Overall, clients liked the Tax Center because information appeared easier to understand and they liked seeing “everything at once.”

Client Feedback

“Keeping me up to date on what I’ve done tax-wise.”

“Gives me a lot of information right in front of me, without looking for it.”

“The different options, seeing everything on one screen. Knowing there are key dates for withdrawals.”

“Seems pretty easy to navigate.”

 

The new “tiled” dashboard was critical in supporting client needs to view critical information in one place. After launch client feedback was positive and phone reps were able to utilize the tax center during calls. Additional concepts for messaging and tax dates are in the backlog for future releases.

Having the sprints over a 4 week period instead of 5 days made the process longer but the results were still positive. And doing a majority of the user testing and activities remotely was a positive experience for the team.

While Google recommends all attendees work in person, our sprints were conducted remotely before remote work became common. The team found this approach successful, particularly in using tools like Jira and testing with a wide variety of clients.