TIMELINE
June – September 2025
ROLE
Product Design Intern
TEAM
Virtual Expert Platform – Digital Help
SKILLS
Product Strategy
Interaction Design
Usability Testing
Context
Contributions
INTRO / TEAM
What does the VEP Digital Help Team do?
WHAT WE DO
We're an AI-driven expert platform, connecting customers to product support agents + experts
We use Intuit Assist + product support agents to connect end-customers with digital help.
Imagine: A TurboTax user who runs into issues while doing taxes + wants to connect with a live tax expert for help.
WHO WE SERVE
We offer product support + expert services in TurboTax, QuickBooks, + Intuit Enterprise Suite
Although Intuit owns Mailchimp + Credit Karma, right now VEP functionalities only exist in TurboTax, QuickBooks, and Intuit's newest product for large and complex businesses: Intuit Enterprise Suite.
LIVE TAX EXPERTS
LIVE BOOKKEEPING EXPERTS
LIVE BOOKKEEPING EXPERTS
CHAPTER 1 / PROJECT 1
But now we're introducing VEP to Credit Karma—which I led!
GOAL
An MVP first appearance in Credit Karma Money mobile
As a soft introduction, the MVP will be born within the Credit Karma mobile app—specifically within Credit Karma Money—before expanding to the rest of the product.
Credit Karma Money offers banking services, allowing users to open spending + checking accounts.
WHAT I CONTRIBUTED
A lot of what I did was align stakeholders + think with a service design lens
Crafting service design maps
Bridging Credit Karma + Intuit stakeholders into alignment
Delivering MVP + target state prototypes
CHAPTER 2 / PROJECT 2
I also guided businesses to the right experts in Intuit Enterprise Suite.
THE PROBLEM
IES customers get confused on which expert to contact for help
Customers contact customer success managers for product support, but CSMs are not trained to deal with those issues—resulting in costly & wasted conversations. How might we ensure customers are appropriately routed & connected to CSMs or product support?
CUSTOMER SUCCESS MANAGERS
PRODUCT SUPPORT AGENT + EXPERTS
WHAT I CONTRIBUTED
Presented a prototyped solution approved by the IES team
Auditing AI agent + expert entry points, organized by global vs. local context
Delivered prototyped flows to reach alignment
CHAPTER 3 / PROJECT 3
Finally, I designed + tested contextually-relevant upsells within Intuit Assist.
GOAL
Design upsells to be the preferred solution to a customer's problem
When customers are seeking digital help, we want to offer upsells as an alternative solution to their problem.
How might we design contextually-relevant "smart digital recommendations" to encourage this?
WHAT I CONTRIBUTED
Designed, tested, + synthesized insights for product-scalable solutions
Explored iterations based on scales
Led a workshop for strategic usability testing
Designed + synthesized insights from 32 A/B tests
CONCLUSION / IMPACT
"A significant positive impact in a short amount of time."
OVERALL IMPACT
I delivered valuable work for crucial initiatives
These projects, especially the Credit Karma initiative, were not the most ideal for an intern. With countless blockers + stakeholders, there were never-ending obstacles for me to navigate.
A huge shout-out to my manager + team for entrusting me with projects of this scope + importance—I've grown so much within just a summer!
My team's Spotify work session :)
TESTIMONIALS
"Kaitlyn…
AFTERWORD / LEARNINGS
Real-world product design is more like solving a puzzle.
MAIN TAKEAWAYS
It's not always about designing something new
I went into my internship expecting to ship something new + shiny at the end of the summer. Instead, it was mainly fitting existing designs or flows to see what fits, + new ideas that may fit even better, all while navigating constraints. Here are some of my other learnings:
INSIGHT #1
Sometimes you won't be delivering work you're proud of due to shifting needs + constraints. But this is not about giving up—it’s about prioritization.
INSIGHT #2
Product design is more thinking, storytelling, documenting, + aligning. Have empathy for stakeholders who are trying to understand your designs—not just users.
INSIGHT #3
Utilize ambiguity to fuel exploration. What you don’t know can be the guiding questions that lead you to deeper explorations.
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