Owning an end-to-end international payroll system
Regulated payroll system
2018
Intuit
Project context
Customer problem
Small business employers in the UK struggled to set up and run payroll correctly, leading to compliance errors, fines, and low confidence.
Objective
Improve payroll setup and first-run completion while repositioning QuickBooks UK payroll as a trusted, core product within QuickBooks.
My role
Senior product designer driving the end-to-end process from customer insight through experience strategy and execution.
From
A 40+ step, compliance-heavy payroll setup that required high effort before delivering value—resulting in 30% completion, low customer confidence, and costly HMRC filing errors.
To
A streamlined first-time payroll experience that delivered a first payslip in 19 clicks—raising completion to 70%, increasing ease and recommendation scores, and eliminating reported compliance fines.
Key decisions made
Design as product driver
Led product definition and sequencing of work through crafting and driving a x-functional product strategy sprint. Influenced and aligned strategy with regional leadership.
Outcome
Durable 2-year product roadmap starting with first time use improvements. Influenced global payroll vision, even outside of UK.
Complexity to guided correctness
I reframed payroll setup from a form-driven configuration task into a guided, step-by-step experience that helped employers make compliant decisions with confidence.
Outcome
Customers were able to complete payroll setup accurately, reducing errors and regulatory risk while improving first-run success.
Reduce friction to enable completion
I led the simplification of payroll setup by identifying and removing unnecessary steps, collapsing decisions, and sequencing information to match employer mental models.
Outcome
Setup completion increased from ~30% to ~70%, with fewer drop-offs and support escalations.
Design for trust under regulation
I prioritized clarity, reassurance, and visibility into outcomes so employers could trust the system to calculate and submit payroll correctly.
Outcome
Payroll achieved the highest product recommendation score across QuickBooks global products and eliminated reported HMRC fines post-launch.
