Three brands, one house

H&R Block’s A Fair Shot program returned in 2023 with Fabletics and Jambys to champion gender equity in NIL deals. After its debut, the program celebrated 50 athletes across 13 sports and expanded into NCAA Divisions II and III and historically Black colleges and universities.

Inside the consumer brand, the job was a campaign site that could amplify the athletes, not bury them under a corporate landing page.

Female student-athletes face unequal NIL sponsorships, which limits both income and professional growth. The program’s outcome was equity in opportunity plus a working understanding of the taxes that follow a deal.

Interviews and market research showed many athletes lacked both the visibility to secure deals and the resources to manage them. That gap defined the product: a place to be seen, and a place to learn.

A clear digital platform could raise visibility, teach NIL and tax basics, and give the equity story somewhere durable to live.

The page had three jobs: introduce the selected athletes, tell their stories without flattening them, and send engagement out through social and the athletes’ own channels.

The solution showcased achievements, held educational resources on NIL and taxes, and used social to extend each athlete’s own brand. Feedback and engagement metrics showed higher awareness and more traffic to the site and social channels.

The lasting lesson was pace: equity work needs continuous feedback, not a single launch. The consumer site beside the campaign still had to explain filing, from AI Tax Assist to the choice of a tax pro.

The site had to communicate expertise and approachability, especially in high-traffic seasonal moments. Pages worked, but storytelling and visual consistency shifted from section to section. People could not quickly tell how Block Advisors would help with their specific tax problem.

The constraints were real: an existing system, engineering limits, and a calendar that does not slip.

Inconsistent visual language, limited flexibility for promotional content, and narratives that did not walk someone through a complex service. The goals were consistency, campaign flexibility, new components worth adding to the system, and a hierarchy that tells a story of guidance.

I worked with product, marketing, content, and engineering. We aligned seasonal priorities and user intent first, framing Block Advisors as a partner who simplifies tax complexity for individuals and small businesses.

From the existing system I explored service-overview layouts, modules that could swap seasonal messages without breaking the page, and type, spacing, and hierarchy aimed at scanning. Reviews checked brand, accessibility, clarity, and breakpoints. Approved concepts launched.

The refreshed sections present a more cohesive Block Advisors, guide people through tax solutions with a clearer hierarchy, and support campaigns without throwing consistency away.

Reusable patterns shortened the path from brief to live page. Held next to Spruce and the consumer brand, this was the system the house could borrow from without making the other two look like tax software.

In early 2023 the team was asked to remake the homepage of Spruce, a mobile bank built by H&R Block. The page had to show the product’s core features and point people toward opening an account.

We studied behavior on the live homepage, designed multiple directions, ran moderated tests, then A/B tested on the site. The work ran for six months of continuous refinement.

Prospective customers needed a plain account of Spruce’s features and why those features mattered to their money. Research, user tests plus behavior on the current page, showed they were stuck before that understanding ever formed.

We ranked what to fix using feedback, engagement, and conversion, not a feature wishlist. Spruce could hint at H&R Block. It could not look like a tax form.

The hypothesis was simple: a homepage organized around the user, with features and benefits in view, would raise both engagement and sign-ups.

We rebuilt the information architecture so essential information came first, mapped the path from landing to account creation, and wireframed until the story held together. Three distinct versions went into moderated testing. A fourth, the existing default, stayed in the experiment as the control.

From May 30 to July 20 the live test read: Default 22%, Budget Tracking 21%, Relationship 22%, All-in-One 25%. All-in-One performed best. People responded to features they could name, especially automation.

Qualitative notes matched the numbers. Clear messaging and a visible hierarchy did more than a louder brand moment. Of the three brands, Spruce was the one we could prove in market.