Product and Experience Transformation
H&R Block Canada
Carrying a broker-led service into consumer software
Redesigned the sign-up and onboarding for consumer tax software so it kept the reassurance of a broker-led service, splitting the path early to meet each filer where they stood.
- Role
- Strategy and UX Lead
- Focus
- Information architecture, Journeys, Onboarding design, Customer research
Context
H&R Block built its reputation on broker-led, in-person tax service. Moving to consumer software meant carrying that reassurance into a self-serve flow that millions of Canadians could complete on their own, on time, and with confidence. I led strategy and UX on the sign-up and account-creation experience.
The challenge
The reassurance of sitting across from a broker is hard to replicate in software, and the legacy flow made it worse: it asked the most personal questions first, treated first-time and returning filers identically, and gave no sense of progress through a high-stakes task.
My role
Strategy and UX lead on the sign-up and onboarding experience, from information architecture through the high-fidelity flow handed to engineering.
Approach
- Reframed sign-up as the first step of tax, not a gate, front-loading reassurance and back-loading sensitive data.
- Split the path early: returning filers got continuity with prior-year data carried forward, first-time filers got guided onboarding.
- Made progress visible with a persistent model that reduced anxiety, particularly for first-time filers.
- Rewrote form labels in plain language, which was both a UX improvement and an accuracy improvement on the returns themselves.
Outcome
The redesign made onboarding feel like a beginning rather than an interrogation, and met returning and first-time filers on their own terms inside CRA-compliant constraints.
What I learned
Most abandonment happens before a user feels committed. Front-loading trust and continuity, and treating plain language as compliance work, mattered more than any single screen.
Work with me