H&R Block, moving the service into software.

Executive summary

H&R Block built its reputation on broker-led, in-person tax service. The shift 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 for the consumer tax software, including IA, end-to-end user journeys, wireframes, and the high-fidelity flow handed to engineering. The work was grounded in customer research and tested across both novice and returning tax filers.

The problem.

The reassurance customers got from sitting across from a broker is hard to replicate in software. The legacy sign-up flow added to the problem: it asked the most personal questions early, treated first-time users and returning users identically, and offered no visible sense of progress through what is, for most people, a high-stakes task.

The redesign had to do two jobs at once. Make sign-up feel like a beginning rather than an interrogation, and split the path early so the product met the customer where they actually stood.

My role.

Strategy and UX lead on the sign-up and account-creation experience for consumer tax software.

1. Reframed sign-up as the first step of tax, not a gate.

   The flow began with the simplest, lowest-stakes questions: name, basic situation, prior-year status, and only escalated once the user had enough context to answer.

2. Split the path early.

   Two clear branches by the second screen: returning filers got a continuity flow with prior-year data carried forward, first-time filers got a guided onboarding that explained the road ahead.

3. Made progress visible.

   A persistent progress model that showed how far the user had come, what was next, and how much remained. Calmness, not just chrome.

4. Closed the loop with research.

   Customer research with both audiences validated the split path and shaped the language at every decision point. Less jargon, more plain answers.

Unique challenges.

1. Brand expectation, software medium.

   The brand promise was human reassurance; the product was a form. The interface had to do the emotional work the broker used to do.

2. Two audiences, one product.

   A returning filer wanted speed. A first-time filer wanted hand-holding. Both arrived at the same homepage.

3. Regulatory accuracy.

   Every screen lived inside CRA-compliant constraints. The work had to remove friction without removing the rules.

My process, highlights and takeaways.

1. The first three questions matter most.

   Most sign-up abandonment happens before the user feels they've committed. The redesign front-loaded reassurance and back-loaded sensitive data.

2. Continuity earns trust.

   Carrying forward prior-year information for returning filers removed a small thing that had a disproportionate emotional weight: the feeling of starting over.

3. Progress as a calming feature.

   The persistent progress model wasn't decorative. It directly reduced anxiety in usability testing, particularly among first-time filers.

4. Plain language as compliance work.

   Rewriting form labels in plain language wasn't only a UX move, it improved accuracy on the actual returns being filed.

Selected artifacts.

Final thoughts.

What worked well. Splitting the path by the second screen was the highest-leverage decision in the project. It removed an entire class of friction for returning users and replaced it with a feeling of being remembered.

What I would change. I would have pushed earlier for a true broker-handoff inside the software, not as a marketing claim. The work shipped with that capability scoped but not built, and that's where I'd invest first if I returned to the project.