Credit Karma Tax
Credit Karma to TurboTax
Overview
With the Department of Justice orders no longer in effect, tax filing through TurboTax will be available to all of Credit Karma's customers. The Credit Karma ecosystem offers a number of compelling locations for entry points to make customers aware of taxes on Credit Karma that could feel personalized for the customer. Our goal during this tax season was to enable customers to discover tax filing options, leading to increased tax filing starts and ultimately completed tax filings.
Team:
Content Design | Product Management | Engineering | Marketing | Analytics | Product Counsel
Role:
Product Designer — led Design strategy, research, visual design, and execution
Timeline:
5 months
Problem Definition
The Challenge
Ease the tax filing process for 449,000 Credit Karma customers, offering them seamless access to TurboTax during tax season.
Business Goal
Experimenting with numerous personalized and interactive TurboTax entry points within the Credit Karma platform would help us identify what resonates with our customers most. Ultimately, informing us about what resonates with our customers most and allowing us to create customer-focused designs.
Experimentation Strategy
- Strategically introduce additional entry points within the Credit Karma app
- Test initial variations vs. last year's successful design during Peak 1
- Evaluate the next set of designs vs. Peak 1 winners during Peak 2 to further refine our strategy
Baseline Metrics
During the previous tax season, CK customers' most successful entry points were through strategic product hooks. These hooks effectively directed significant traffic to TurboTax for tax filings while preserving cross-vertical revenues.
Tax Tile
- CTR- 1.6%
- Revenue contribution- 22%
More (Hamburger) Menu
- CTR- 12.8%
- Revenue contribution- 12%
User Journey Alignment
This alignment served two purposes. First, it allowed us to address any doubts about the relevance and user-friendliness of the flow for the entry points that would eventually navigate customers to TurboTax. We had a concept for the customer journey, but did it resonate with our customers? If not, why? Additionally, were there potential challenges with these entry points that warranted consideration before moving forward?
What We Know About Our Users
- First tax season that all customers have the opportunity to file with TurboTax
- Lack of trust in TurboTax and Intuit
- Overall worried about their finances and tax filing
Designs for Peak 1 Experimentation
Rank Boost Tax Tile
The rank boost tax tile component served as the primary entry point to the Credit Karma to TurboTax flow. Our goal is to identify what generates the most clicks by leveraging copy, color, and illustrations to see what resonates most with customers.
A number of iterations for experimentation were created for the Take action entry point. Thinking through ways to iterate on the design that emphasizes and primes customers for taxes, while still allowing customers to recognize its former designs and help them navigate to a page they're familiar with.
More (Hamburger) Menu
The goal for this entry point into the Credit Karma to TurboTax flow is to identify abandonment rates from split traffic to the Income & Taxes page and TurboTax. Measuring success by tracking filing starts per impression and abandonment rates. The title and badge copy were designed to be as user-friendly as possible.
I decided to retain the first split that navigated to the Income and Taxes section, and align it with the Tax tile title. For the split that directed customers to TurboTax, I created designs that primed customers on where they would be taken and what they would be doing, hypothesizing that this would better prepare them for tax filing.
Income & Taxes Components
Coming from either the tile or more menu entry point, the Income & Taxes component serves as the final touchpoint for customers before being directed to TurboTax. The goal for these designs was to identify which approach generated the most tax filing starts per impression. We leveraged TurboTax's benefits to entice customers to file with TurboTax.
I decided to retain the first split that navigated to the Income and Taxes section, and align it with the Tax tile title. For the split that directed customers to TurboTax, I created designs that primed customers on where they would be taken and what they would be doing, hypothesizing that this would better prepare them for tax filing.
Tax Intent Page
In addition to the in-product flow, I was tasked with designing a landing page to support Marketing’s message. This landing page was meant to complement Marketing's channels by providing additional explanations of TurboTax's benefits, while also including the necessary legal disclosures. The goal was to drive offering clicks and achieve a 20% CTR.
Similar to the Income & Taxes component, the Tax Intent Page was designed to further promote TurboTax's benefits. These designs followed the same approach as the Income & Taxes component, experimenting with messaging, illustrations, and background colors to determine what would resonate most with our customers. This strategy ensured the designs effectively highlighted the benefits customers could receive by filing with TurboTax, enhancing engagement and conversion rates.
Peak 1 Learnings
Mid-way through tax season. We assumed that a lot of our users have not completed their taxes due to the stress and anxiety surrounded by tax filing.
Though it wasn’t our primary objective, we were pressured to drive more tax filing starts. With the hopes that they would be more filing completions.
Winning Variations
Tax Tile
- Yellow tile with 17% higher CTR
More (Hamburger) Menu
- Yellow tile with 17% higher CTR
- No badge with 8.9% higher CTR
- Badge provided marginal benefits with additional ~2% filing starts
Income & Taxes Component
- Inconclusive results; similar results across all variants
Quick Wins!
Shortly after the starting of tax season we were tracking 2x of our projected goals for the Tax Intent Page.
This success was particularly notable for us as it marked the first time we extended the Refund Advance and 5 Days Early promotions to all customers following the acquisition by Intuit.
Tax Intent Page
- 44% CTR vs projected 21%
Peak 2 Experimentation
Learnings from our Peak 1 experimentations, would be used to inform our experimentation approach for Peak 2. Though it wasn’t our primary objective for the tax season, we were encouraged to drive more tax filing starts. With the hopes that they would be more filing completions.
Tax Tile
- Test yellow tile only
- Router position 2 vs position 3
- Newness, variation of location
More (Hamburger) Menu
- Ramp blue badge variant 100%
- Remove any mention of taxes in the badge; taxes in the title should be sufficient
Income & Insights Component
- Continue same experiment
- We assumed that our users were indifferent of getting their tax refund faster
Tax Intent Page
- Test CTA: Continue vs File with TurboTax
- Hypothesis: CTA copy could impact CTR
Impact- Post Tax Filing Season
Learnings from our Peak 1 experimentations, would be used to inform our experimentation approach for Peak 2. Though it wasn’t our primary objective for the tax season, we were encouraged to drive more tax filing starts. With the hopes that they would be more filing completions.
Tax Tile
- Position 2 drove +1.4% to filing completes with no negative statistical signal results for all Credit Karma Revenue
More (Hamburger) Menu
- With a badge had less CTR but more filing starts compared to no badge
Income & Taxes Component
- Difficult to analyze results due to the complexity of Refund Advance and 5 Days Early experimentation
Tax Intent Page
- “Continue” drove 10% more filing starts. Recommend not to test TurboTax language for next season.
Exceeding Overall Team Goals
We exceeded our overall team goals well before the end of tax season. Predominantly with the winning variants and experimentation approaches from Peak 1.
- 840k in-product clicks to TurboTax
- 336K Tax filings; $23.6 million revenue
The Seamless Journey to TurboTax
Takeaways
Conclusion
This project highlighted the importance of strategic design and cross-functional collaboration. The experiments conducted provided valuable insights into what resonated with our customers, leading to improved user engagement and conversion rates. Continuous improvement and experimentation in design are crucial for creating user-centric experiences that drive business goals.
What Went Well
Consistent communication and collaboration amongst all key stakeholder enabled us to stay on track to reach our goals.
Leveraging existing Figma components and their architecture allowed for more efficient rapid iterations, and therefore allows us to learn from our users faster.
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