Intelligence
Research Repository / Atlas
How the enterprise learnsIRS · ENTERPRISE EXPERIENCE · DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION
Transforming digital experience at enterprise scale.
Building the systems, standards, and shared understanding that make better digital experiences possible across a complex federal enterprise.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Six years, one enterprise, and a repeatable way to improve experiences.
At the IRS, I worked across shared design standards, taxpayer-facing experiences, research infrastructure, and enterprise governance, treating experience as a connected operating system rather than a collection of interfaces.
THE BODY OF WORK, AT A GLANCE
One connected system of enterprise capabilities.
Strategy
IRS.gov Homepage
How the enterprise defines experienceExperience
Tax Professional Account
How the enterprise solves complex journeysFoundation
Digital Design System
How the enterprise builds and scalesScale
Across the body of work
How practices become repeatable01 · THE CHALLENGE & OPPORTUNITY
From disconnected projects to an enterprise capability.
Different products, teams, standards, and sources of information created friction for users and made quality difficult to repeat across the enterprise. Fragmentation was the experience problem.
Research in silos
Inconsistent standards
Distributed knowledge
Competing priorities
Complex journeys
02 · THE EXPERIENCE MODEL
From understanding people to scaling what works.
Research informs strategy
Strategy informs experience
Experience creates reusable patterns
Patterns become standards
Governance enables adoption
Learning begins the next cycle
The work connected research, experience strategy, shared infrastructure, and adoption into a repeatable transformation pattern. Learning from each cycle informs the next, and that feedback loop is the capability, not any one deliverable.
03 · THE ROLE
Leading across strategy, experience, and enterprise capability.
My role extended beyond interface design. Across these initiatives, I operated where experience strategy, organizational alignment, human-centered design, and enterprise capability building meet.
Strategy – Atlas gameboard
Strategy – Atlas research views
Tax Pro – Concept sketches
Tax Pro – Desktop design
Results – Tax Pro user feedback
Workshop – 2-day IRS.gov visioning
IRS.gov – Homepage concepts
Design System – Online Design Guide
Discovery – Branding ecosystem
Process – Digital product lifecycle
Measurement – KPI framework
Reporting – Design System progress
04 · DIGITAL DESIGN SYSTEM
Build a system teams can participate in, not just a library they consume.
The Design System evolved from reusable assets into a shared operational capability, supported by standards, accessibility guidance, governance, communication, and adoption mechanisms.
Mapped product needs, repeated patterns, accessibility requirements, and the gaps creating inconsistency.
Established foundations, reusable components, and practical guidance that teams could apply.
Used Design Council, Brown Bags, and priority tracking to make governance operational.
Connected reuse and stakeholder feedback to the next cycle of improvement.
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IRS digital products aligned to the Design System
Every product below was built or redesigned on the Online Design Guide (ODG), sharing one set of components, patterns and standards across planning, accounts, filing, payments and mobile.
Accounts & records
- Online Account
- TaxPro Account
- Business Online Account
- Get Transcript
Filing & refunds
- Free File
- Where’s My Refund?
- Where’s My Amended Return?
Payments & debt
- Direct Pay
- Online Payment Agreement
- Tax Debt Help
Planning & self-help
- Tax Withholding Estimator
- EITC Assistant
- Interactive Tax Assistant
- IRS2Go
The Design System served IRS.gov, which has approximately 37,200 web pages. My direct contributions are highlighted in Section 3.
05 · RESEARCH REPOSITORY / ATLAS
Turn fragmented findings into enterprise intelligence.
Atlas centralized research artifacts, taxonomy, governance, and discovery practices so teams could build on prior learning rather than repeat it.
Studies→Taxonomy→Shared evidence→Better decisions
06 · IRS.GOV & ACCOUNT EXPERIENCE
Designing cohesive taxpayer experiences across IRS.gov, supporting applications, and authenticated accounts.
The digital home of the IRS, giving individuals, businesses, tax-exempt organizations, and tax professionals the tools and resources to manage their federal tax obligations. Used audience models, visioning, and evaluation to explore clearer pathways across that complex taxpayer ecosystem.
Strategy → ExperienceThe Tax Pro Account is a secure digital self-service portal that enables qualified tax professionals to manage client authorizations and view taxpayer information, replacing tasks that once required paper forms, faxing, or mail. The work progressed from research and workflow insights through prototyping, testing, stakeholder alignment, and prioritization of an investable MVP.
Evidence → Adoption07 · WHEN SPEED MATTERED · 2020
The foundation was already in place.
In April 2020, Treasury and the IRS launched two public tools, five days apart, to help deliver COVID-19 Economic Impact Payments to tens of millions of Americans. The teams standing up those products didn't start from zero. They drew on research and design standards our team had already built.
Existing research gave teams a head start on understanding users and a shared evidence base for aligning internal stakeholders quickly.
Understand → AlignEstablished standards gave designers a foundation for building models to review, and gave developers reusable components to build from.
Model → BuildFigures reflect the scale of public demand and the speed of the federal response in 2020. They do not attribute these outcomes to any single initiative. Sources: IRS Commissioner testimony to the Senate Finance Committee, June 30, 2020; IRS.gov.
08 · THE SHIFT
From fragmented practices toward an emerging enterprise capability.
Before
- Research difficult to find and reuse
- Inconsistent experience patterns
- Methods applied project by project
- Limited mechanisms for adoption
Moving toward
- Shared research intelligence
- Reusable standards and accessibility guidance
- Repeatable human-centered practices
- Governance and adoption mechanisms
09 · TAKEAWAY
Experience transformation is an organizational capability.
It is how an enterprise learns, aligns, defines experiences, transforms complex journeys, builds reusable infrastructure, governs adoption, and uses evidence to determine what comes next.