Project Overview
June - August 2024Throughout my internship I worked on the Spend Management team to design an E2E user experience streamlining the reimbursement process for thousands of businesses in Quickbooks Online, enhancing efficiency and reducing administrative overhead. Team Members:
Me - Lead Product Designer Tina Chang - Design ManagerAlex Fong - Product ManagerTimeline:
10 weeksTasks:
Competitor Research, Cross Collaboration, Customer Interviews, Usability Testing, Wireframes, PrototypingProviding Context
What is Quickbooks Online?
QuickBooks Online (QBO) is a cloud-based accounting software developed by Intuit, designed to help small and medium-sized businesses manage their financial operations. It's widely used for tasks such as bookkeeping, invoicing, payroll, expense tracking, tax preparation, and financial reportingProviding Context…
What is Employee Expense management?
Expense Management within QuickBooks Online (QBO) is a feature designed to help businesses efficiently track, organize, and manage their spending. It provides users with the tools to monitor expenses, categorize transactions, manage receipts, and control budgets.
Lack of transaction context between Admin and employees
So what’s the problem?
Current State
Vision State
Understanding Our Competitors
Competitive Analysis
To begin my research, I conducted a competitive analysis of similar products, comparing their employee reimbursement processes and how they facilitate communication between employees and administrators. Over the course of one week, I conducted an in-depth analysis of four companies, aiming to use these findings to help finalize the initial concepts and ideas for my projectExpensify
Expensify Chat feature allows users to communicate directly within the app
Group chat can help discussions involving multiple stakeholdersAutomated reminders
Zoho
In context communication: Allows users to leave comments directly on expense reportsTagging and notifications: Users can tag colleagues in commentsThreaded discussions
Bill.com
Send reminder feature to ask about more information on expenseSMS and email notificationAdmin can add a reply when an employee requests for additional funds
Fyle.com
Send reminder feature to ask about more information on expenseSMS and email notificationAdmin can add a reply when an employee requests for additional funds
Initial Concepts
A Commenting System - This feature will allow users to add comments to specific expenses or reports. They will be threaded in order to facilitate conversations
Chat System - Communicating on expenses based off of people instead of expenseReal-time Notifications - Notifications to allow for new comments, rejections , approvals or other significant action to ensure a timely response - SMS/Push/Email/In-app notifications
Initial Concepts
1.
The first concept involves having the admin and employee communicate based on individual expenses. I’ve designed a 'chat drawer' that the admin opens after clicking 'request more info' in the footer of the expense form. The admin can then type what additional context they need regarding the expense. The employee can view this message in QuickBooks Workforce, and by clicking the chat icon in the footer of the expense, they can open the chat drawer to respond
2.
This second version is the same concept as the one above, but with a dropdown carrot style menu embedded within the form rather than having the chat experience be in a drawer to the side of the expense form. I plan on testing these two concepts with customers to see which user interface they prefer.
Initial Concepts
The second concept is more like an individual chat, similar to a messaging platform like Slack. The manager can open a pop-up in the bottom right corner and send a message to the employee, asking for more information on a specific expense.
Initial Concepts
Real-time notifications are crucial for tying everything together, as they are the key to enabling a faster reimbursement process. When the admin or employee sends a message, the recipient will receive a notification of their choice and can quickly respond directly from the notification
Push
SMS/Text
User Testing
Who I talked to
Interviewed 13 customers about their expense management process and asked for feedback on my designs
Participants included:10 Admin’s3 Employee’s
Lets make some Improvements…
Final Design
Comment Drawer
Comment Button
New Comment Alert
Final Design
Prototype Demo
Time to Reflect
As this was my first internship and my first time working at such a successful company, I initially felt a bit intimidated. I felt like a small speck in the vast world of Intuit and wondered how I could make an impact. However, as the weeks passed and I grew more comfortable with both my team and myself, I gained confidence. I began to feel like a seasoned employee who had been part of the company for years. With the support of my incredible manager, who believed in me every step of the way, I was able to deliver what I consider my best work and proudly present it to my team—and now, to everyone. It was so cool to see how such a large company works behind the scenes and to be part of it was something I will never forget. Here are a few takeaways from my 3 months at Intuit: Customer are valuable
Although this may seem obvious, as I progressed through my internship, I came to fully understand how crucial customer feedback is for a product’s success. Without customers, there wouldn’t be a product in the first place, so it’s vital to prioritize their opinions over personal design preferences. You can spend countless hours refining a small feature, but if the customer doesn’t find it useful, all that time is essentially wasted—no matter how good it looks to you as a designer. I experienced this firsthand when testing my ideas with customers. I had a design that I thought would be preferred because it was more aesthetically pleasing, but 90 percent of them chose the design that was easier to use. This proved that usability and functionality should always come before aesthetics. While creating visually appealing designs is important, true success lies in how well the product serves the customer’s needs.Communication is Key
A lot of my project required me to collaborate with other team members, whether it was asking for small things or working together on a specific design concept. This type of teamwork plays a major role in the overall work, and the more you keep your ideas and questions to yourself, the more you're holding yourself back. Getting critique and feedback on my work meant sharing my ideas with everyone and explaining my thought processes and rationale. Initially, I would just share my Figma file and talk through it, but my manager taught me that to be a good designer, you must also be an effective communicator. This means always providing clear context to your audience, even if they’re familiar with the project. By doing so, you'll keep them engaged and give them more reason to care about what you're presenting.
