Tax scams are on the rise, but victims couldn’t always quickly find scam and fraud information on the Internal Revenue Service website. I led an initiative to consolidate and standardize scattered content, helping victims recognize, report and recover from scams.

The year-long project required managing cross-functional teams from communications, legal, cybersecurity, top leadership, and other departments to create a clear, actionable hub, which helped reduce user friction during high-stress situations.

Challenge

Business problem: Internal analytics revealed that users searching for scam-related help were bouncing between multiple pages without finding clear next steps.

User problem: Scam victims needed immediate, trustworthy guidance but encountered:

• 100+ pages with overlapping, contradictory information
• Dense policy language during high-stress moments
• Buried reporting mechanisms
• Outdated content that didn’t reflect current scam tactics

Strategic challenge: How do you organize complex legal and procedural information for users in crisis, while satisfying multiple internal stakeholders with different priorities?

My role

I led the project, which involved more than 50 people from various departments across the IRS, including Communications, Legal, Cybersecurity, the Commissioner’s Office, the Small Business and Self-Employed division and others. My role included:

• Project management (Jira)
• Scheduling and leading meetings (Microsoft Teams, SharePoint)
• Creating user journey maps and page flows to document pain points (Figma)
• Creating and delivering presentations (PowerPoint)
• Managing user research and analytics reporting (Figjam, Google Analytics 4, Looker Studio)

My approach

1. Data-driven content audit I analyzed search behavior patterns and page performance to prioritize consolidation efforts:

• Mapped all scam-related pages and their traffic patterns
• Identified top user search queries driving scam-related traffic
• Discovered users were landing on outdated news releases instead of current guidance

2. User journey redesign 

Rather than organizing content by IRS department structure, I reorganized it around user journeys and page flows:

• Victim flow: “Am I being scammed?” → “What do I do now?” → “How do I report this?”
• Prevention flow: “What should I watch for?” → “How do I verify IRS contact?”
• Tax professional flow: “How do I help my client?” → “What documentation is needed?”

3. Stakeholder alignment strategy I facilitated cross-departmental alignment by framing content decisions around shared metrics:

• Legal team: Reduced liability through clearer warnings
• SEO team: Improved search rankings for high-value terms
• Public affairs: Consistent messaging across channels
• Call center: Reduced routine inquiry volume

Process

Research

• Conducted content inventory with traffic and engagement metrics
• Analyzed user search paths using Google Analytics heat mapping
• Met with communications and cybersecurity to review the most common scams

Content architecture

• Began identifying content blocks for reuse across related pages
• Developed plain-language framework for legal content translation
• Designed for future integration with an advanced reporting application

Collaborative reviews, testing and development

• Led weekly review cycles with legal, subject matter experts, IT and communications teams
• A/B tested different information hierarchy approaches with small user groups
• Iterated based on stakeholder feedback while maintaining user-centered design principles

Implementation & optimization 

• Launched the centralized Tax Scams hub page
• Implemented redirects and updated internal linking structure
• Created maintenance plan for regular content updates

Results and impact

UX improvements

• Reduced average time to find scam reporting information
• Improved page flows to increase scam report submissions
• Improved findability for scams and fraud in user testing sessions
• Addressed content gaps identified in the audit, such as what to do if you were scammed.

Business outcomes

• Consolidated duplicative content into 3 primary resources, reducing maintenance overhead
• Improved organic search rankings for key terms, including “report IRS scam” and tax scam.”

Lessons learned

Cross-functional collaboration insight: Legal teams are willing to accept plain language when you show them how it reduces legal risk through better user compliance.

Content strategy insight: During crisis moments, users need clear instructions on what to do next. Content addressing victims was created and designed to provide clear next steps.

Process insight: Modular content blocks that seem like extra work upfront will help quickly update information across multiple touchpoints.