Transforming Taxpayer Experience: Insights from the IRS Content Strategy

In the world of government services, the IRS plays a critical role in ensuring the smooth collection of 96% of the country's revenue—funding everything from infrastructure to social services. Yet, as Angela Render, the Branch Chief for IRS Content Strategy, points out, it's also a space where innovation can thrive. Recently featured on the CX Tipping Point Podcast, Angela shared insights into how her team is reshaping the way taxpayers interact with irs.gov, making it more intuitive, accessible, and efficient.

A Journey of Innovation and Leadership

Angela's career path is itself an inspiring journey. With a background in web development, she transitioned to public service nine years ago, starting as a senior web analyst. Today, she leads a team dedicated to optimizing the IRS's digital content strategy—a crucial task for a site that hosts over 37,000 pages and garners 3 billion annual page views.

Her team’s mission? To ensure content is easy to find, use, and understand. Through data-driven strategies and a commitment to user-centered design, they've tackled the challenges of modernizing a legacy system while maintaining seamless service for taxpayers.

Rewriting the Taxpayer Experience

One of the most impactful projects led by Angela’s team focused on the experience of first-time filers. Using data analytics, they identified a glaring gap: the absence of clear, step-by-step guidance for individuals new to the tax filing process. This realization sparked the creation of a targeted user journey centered around a persona they named "Leslie," representing a first-time filer.

Key highlights of the project included:

• Focused Improvements: The team revamped 11 high-traffic pages and introduced 9 new ones, addressing significant content gaps.

• Data-Driven Decisions: Google Analytics and user research informed every step, ensuring changes were backed by clear insights.

• Immediate Results: Within a month, the updated pages received over 103.7 million views, accounting for 28% of the site’s monthly traffic. Six new pages even ranked among the top 500 most-visited pages.

  
  

These changes didn’t just improve navigation—they also reduced the need for internal searches on the site by 35%, highlighting the success of the new content in addressing user needs directly.

Collaboration and Human-Centered Design

Angela credits much of the project's success to her team’s collaboration and the agency’s embrace of human-centered design principles. By combining insights from user research, customer feedback, and internal partnerships (like those with call centers), her team ensured their content was both accessible and empathetic to users’ needs.

Moreover, she emphasized the importance of mentorship and skills-sharing within her team. From leveraging free training opportunities to fostering a culture of collaboration, Angela’s leadership style exemplifies how to build and sustain a high-performing team.

Lessons for Government and Beyond

Angela’s work offers several lessons for agencies and organizations:

1. Leverage Data: Let analytics guide decisions but supplement them with qualitative insights from real users.

2. Start Small, Think Big: Focus on high-impact areas first to demonstrate success and build momentum.

3. Prioritize Accessibility: Plain language and intuitive design aren’t just best practices—they’re necessities.

4. Foster Collaboration: Strong relationships, both internal and external, are the foundation of effective change.

Looking Ahead

The success of this project is a testament to the IRS's commitment to serving the public. It’s also a reminder that even in traditionally bureaucratic spaces, innovation and user-centered thinking can make a meaningful difference.

As Angela puts it, "Putting the people we're serving first is never going to meet resistance." Her team's efforts are a shining example of how the government can lead the way in transforming customer experiences.

Check out the podcast at the following link: https://bit.ly/3DRz0iJ