Experience Design at Intuit // San Diego, CA

I spent seven and a half months at Intuit, and I appreciated every moment of my time there. Prior to the co-op, I had limited professional experience with UX design, wireframing and prototyping, working in sprints, and collaborating with other designers. I left with not only seven months of experience with these skills but also amazing memories of a fantastic company and a beautiful West Coast city.

For my co-op reflection, I created a video that you can watch above or on YouTube here! Below is an adapted script if you prefer to read through it.

Hello! I’m Anisa and I just finished a seven and a half month co-op as an experience designer at Intuit in San Diego, California. I completed and learned so much during my time there and I’m hoping to summarize my experience in the next few minutes. Let’s get started!

Part one: summary

So, just to give y’all some background, I just finished my third year at Northeastern University in Boston. My first co-op was as a design coordinator at Nokia Technologies in Cambridge.

At Intuit, I worked within the Consumer Group as part of the Live Domain Expert Engagement Team. I reported directly to the amazing Christine Morrison alongside Christine Vorac, Iva Coll, Nick Testone, and Angel Roy.

Part two: job overview

What I do at Intuit

At Intuit, my responsibility was to design and help launch an interactive, multi-platform online community focused on tax professionals based on customer insights and business requirements.

The on-boarding experience

In terms of training, I had help from a Senior Product Designer, Juan Hernandez, who introduced me to the role, company, brand, and pace of everything.

My manager, Christine, was essential to onboarding me and getting me accustomed to the culture at Intuit. She showed me what I needed to get around the company, get comfortable talking to coworkers, and present myself to company leaders. She had been a wonderful manager since the beginning of my time there and continued to regularly check in with me and make sure that I was getting the learning experience that I had come to Intuit for.

Company culture and team dynamic

Intuit has an awesome company culture. The workplace is diverse, inviting, accepting. I attended leadership roundtables and panels, I raced in the San Diego Dragon Boat Festival as part of Intuit’s team, I worked with Intuit developers for a small “personal” project as part of a company-wide event we call Global Engineering Days... there’s so much more to the company than the work experience and I was constantly surprised and excited by what Intuit has to offer.

My team dynamic was similar in that we all came from such different backgrounds. None of us had the exact same skill set and we each brought so much to the table. Because of that, I was exposed to data analytics, cross-platform and external communications, content designing, and project management on a weekly to daily basis.

Skills needed to excel at this job

The hard skills are straightforward. It helped that I had experience with wireframing and prototyping and I needed to be comfortable with designing in sprints and occasionally working at a very fast pace.

For me, the soft skills were more important than anything else. I had to have empathy. At Intuit, the work is driven by the customers, so being able to listen to someone and really understand their problem is one of the most valuable skills you can have.

Attributes of a successful employee at this company Get involved. Talk to people. I joined so many communities just to gain exposure to new people and skills. Growth and prosperity are highly valued at Intuit and to be successful, you need to make these opportunities appear for yourself and take full advantage of them.

Skills developed during the co-op experience

I think the biggest skill that I developed at this co-op was the ability to step outside of my comfort zone. It was important for me to try new things, both being on a completely different coast and being in such a big company. I also got more comfortable with turning my thoughts and ideas into words. At Intuit, people were always sharing their work and giving feedback to one another.

Advice for future applicants

Apply. Just… believe in yourself. Know what you are capable of and can bring to the company. Talk to past co-ops, such as myself. Reach out to a handful of people. Ask questions. Learn about the company and your prospective role.

Part three: personal development

Professional growth

In addition to going outside of my comfort zone, and getting better at presenting myself, I have a much richer portfolio and better understanding of my own work ethic.

Intuit’s impact on my career goals

Working at Intuit was a unique and completely rewarding experience. Thanks to my manager, I had many opportunities to meet other designers-- product designers, visual designers, experience designers like myself, and design technologists. Meeting them gave me a better idea of design in the workplace and as a full-time career. I understand more of what I’m looking for in terms of company culture and post-grad employment. I still don’t fully know what I want to do with my life yet, but the past seven and a half months have definitely given me a much better idea.