A white board with yellow sticky notes after a data synthesis session.
Project overview
GetYourRefund (also known as "GYR") serves as a digital intake form for VITA (Volunteer Income Tax Assistance) sites across the country to provide a virtual option for taxpayers to submit and file their tax returns. Based on previous research, providing virtual services is critical to closing the participation gap for clients to receive the tax credits they are entitled to.
After three years of delivery and refinement, GetYourRefund is in a position to scale its services to VITA sites who want to improve or implement a virtual process using our product.
Project goals
In order to conduct a landscape analysis, we must understand the current landscape by exploring two groups of interest:
1.) Sites who've adopted a virtual VITA process that currently is not GYR.
2.) Sites that don't have a virtual VITA process but are interested in one.
Research goals
1.) Identify the current virtual processes being used by VITA sites and how they are employed to solve for pain points that prevent accepted returns.
2.) Identify existing gaps in service delivery that could be met by implementing a virtual process.
3.) Understand the primary motivators and barriers to virtual process adoption by VITA sites.
Project impact for 2023-2024
We anticipate the findings of this landscape analysis to:
1.) Inform the long-term roadmap for GetYourRefund to better prioritize features that will drive the adoption of virtual VITA services.
2.) Improve the success rate of accepted returns for each VITA site.
Research methods: Stakeholder interviews and surveys
This project was designed to be broken down into two phases starting Fall 2023 and to be completed by Spring 2024. Each phase would have collected data from a sample of VITA sites who meet our criteria.
Phase 1
Key Activities & Deliverables (September to December 2023)
Phase 2
Key Activities & Deliverables (January to April 2024)
Graphic representation of proposed work plan
Tools used
1.) Zoom - To conduct and record interviews, meetings with team members.
2.) Slack - Communicate instantly with team members, gather team members for meetings,
3.) Google Slides - To present final deliverable.
