HI, I'M PHIL
Aka the guy who made your life easier via the TurboTax Mobile App. I have over 25 years experience in the Human Factors / UX (User Experience) industry (some of that in hardware / AI design) and while I can’t make taxes go away, I at least made doing them as painless as possible.
My superpower is collaborating with Engineers to design, develop, and launch the best product. I may be the only Designer you meet that has 2 engineering degrees and I possess a deep technical understanding which is very much appreciated by Developers who greatly enjoy working with me.
I commenced my career in the auto industry at GM and Ford where I designed the first ever in-dash MP3 player and early navigation systems before we all had them in our pockets. I eventually migrated to FinTech and Tech. Most recently, I have been focused on UX Design working for Wells Fargo, before landing at Brain Corp where I designed both the touchscreen UI and the behaviour of robots that scrub the floors of Walmart and grocery stores.
And as I mentioned at the beginning, my work at Intuit. Before the launch of the TurboTax app, over 1M people attempted to file their taxes on their phone. Only approximately 300,000 were successful due to the complexity of their income situation which could not be adequately handled by the prior app, SnapTax, as well as “flow-breaking” web pages with buttons off the screen to which one could not scroll. I personally led Intuit’s Design team which brought the TurboTax mobile app to life, and by the 2nd year after the product’s launch, 2M people filed their taxes with the app which grew to over 4M in year 3!
I WAS A LEAD ACTOR FOR A UX AD!
Somehow I wound up as a lead actor in this fun little video. Explore what it is like to work for a design-first company where the customer is at the heart of all we do. User experience (UX) jobs are here:
jobs.intuit.com/search-jobs/ux
4 June 2013
INTERVIEW PRIOR TO SPEAKING AT CONFERENCE
I spoke at the 2015 UXSTRAT conference in Athens, GA. Read the pre-conference interview.
THIS WAS AN ORIGINAL FORAY INTO MOBILE OCR
"WHAT IF...?" VIDEO PRODUCTION
This was my first forae into video production, in 2008. Produced this video to play at the Intuit XD Forum (XD = eXperience Design). The theme was "Outside-In" and answering the question, "What if...?" Much of this quasi-came true during the early days of the pandemic when most were remote "teleporting" into meetings. Soundtrack is a personal trance remix of CL0CKS by C0LDPLAY.
STUDENT PHIL
Phil went to Sacred Heart School for primary (Grades 1-8) school, and was the lead producer on the only Video Yearbook ever made by the school when, in 1990 funds ran out to print the traditional print yearbook. Phil attended the now defunct St. Pius X High School in Pottstown, PA (it merged with other schools in the area to form Pope John Paul II High).
Phil then did his undergrad at RIT in Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering, specializing in Human Factors and Ergonomics with a focus on Psychology. His Advanced Degree is a Masters of Science in Industrial and Systems Engineering at the University of Iowa with his thesis, "Enhancing Nighttime Pavement Marking Visibility for Older Drivers".
Currently Phil is a student of Scripture and takes on Contract and Consulting roles as needed. He has focused on Event Logistics and Security for the last 2 years at the World's Largest Carshows in Carlisle, Pennsylvania where he manages everything from crowd control to ticket sales (pre-paid scan and cash on the spot) to security at Armory Gate.
