Richard Blitz Email & Phone Number

Mountain View, California, Us

Transforming Intuit's ability to understand our customers and what information about their finances benefits them through improved clickstream and segmentation data, rapid progress from promise to payoff, and financial insights based on business industry, business operating model, user role, in-product behaviour, and stated intents and goals.

Mountain View, California, Us

Researched, planned, and led a major x-functional effort to transform QuickBooks Online from an after-the-fact accounting product to a business-centric product that delivers real, rapid value to business owners. This project set the strategic direction for QuickBooks Online for the next three years.

Mountain View, California, Us

Leading a team of four to seven product managers in reimagining and automating the core customer workflows of Intuit’s flagship "QuickBooks Online"​ financial management software. Delivered Intuit's foundation of “accounting without typing” via data feeds from financial institutions, apps, OCR, and other data sources; in-product automation; and machine learning. Working across five business units to build a scalable platform that makes connectivity and data transformation drop-dead easy for both customers and developers. Sharing responsibility for ensuring QBO meets worldwide compliance requirements and accounting standards. Leading a major effort to fully automate sales tax handling.Led the project to move QBO’s entire customer base from the previous user interface to a modern, much improved one. Achieved attrition of <3% (typical: >10%), maintained customer satisfaction, and minimized negativity in social networks and calls to customer support.ICAgile certified professional.Responsibilities:present business cases to secure leadership buy-in and resources, and lead a team of product managers to deliver great results. • Ensure all work ladders up to divisional goals, partner with XD and PD to develop innovative customer-backed solutions, and measure outcomes in all geographies.• Foster professional growth in direct reports and remove roadblocks to their desired career advancement.• Prioritize projects between workstreams to deliver the most customer and business benefit, and make tradeoffs when needed.• Lead through Agile methodology, and create op mechs and processes to improve team and organizational efficiency.• Identify success metrics and drive progress towards them.• Manage partnerships with key internal and external stakeholders and executives.• Plan and execute customer-facing messaging, technical process improvements, and Care support strategies.

Mountain View, California, Us

Led the effort to open new markets for Intuit by globalizing the flagship "QuickBooks Online" SaaS financial management app for small businesses, both on the Web and for iPhone. I lived in three countries while researching small business needs in key markets. I developed and prioritized requirements for redeveloping a US-centric product into a global platform that supports non-US workflows, accounting, tax, terminology, and billing, and coordinated the efforts of eight teams in four countries to deliver the offering.I partnered with Marketing and Customer Care teams to rethink our go-to-market and customer support strategies, and managed relationships with key external partners including a major bank and telecom.Intuit now has customers paying for the globalized edition of QuickBooks Online in 100+ countries. From Aug. 2012 to Aug. 2013, I partnered with US product managers to deliver a major redesign of the QuickBooks Online user experience, and managed the globalization, staged rollout, and in-product assistance workstreams. This year-long effort led to a product that has been recognized as one of Intuit’s most important launches and one of its first to support both US and global customers out of the gate.Responsibilities:• Envision the global offering end-to-end and develop the business case• Analyze the global accounting software market and competing offerings, and the needs of small business customers in key countries • Develop and prioritize user stories and requirements• Manage product managers and compliance analysts• Quarterback a cross-functional team to develop and launch an innovative offering on time and on budget• Articulate the offering’s value proposition and partner with Marketing and Customer Care to develop go-to-market plans• Identify success metrics and report progress towards them • Drive the product strategy and three-year road map• Manage partnerships with key external companies, including a major telecom

Mountain View, California, Us

Member of the QuickBooks 2010 team, which raised the product’s customer approval rating by more than 30 points. Responsible for globalizing QuickBooks US software for use by small businesses in Canada, the UK, and South Africa. Brought significant new functionality from the US to the global editions such as an Enterprise-level offering, integrated Payment Solutions, and enhanced Online Banking. Partnered with engineering leadership as part of the effort to transition the organization from waterfall development methodology to Agile. Responsibilities:• End-to-end management of the desktop editions of QuickBooks, one of Canada’s best-selling financial management software solutions for small businesses. o Identified and researched customers, competitors, and the market o Built business cases that secured project investment o Developed and prioritized UML use cases and requirements o Partnered with user experience design, product development, customer care, and marketing to create the offering and end-to-end launch plan o Iterated prototypes with customers o Managed priorities for the implementation team o Reported progress and business results to senior management.• Drove the project to offer payment card processing through QuickBooks Canada and develop a new revenue stream.• Expanded the QuickBooks Canada product line up-market by proposing that we bring the US's Enterprise-level offering to the Canadian market and then managed the localization project.• Part of the team that delivered QuickBooks 2008 for Canada and the UK. This two-year effort included a major redesign of the product’s user interface, an enhanced tax model, and a database replacement and data migration.

Mountain View, California, Us

Worked with, then led, a team of three to six technical writers and contractors creating self-help solutions for Canadian and UK editions of QuickBooks, best-selling business management software. Jointly responsible (with Product Management and Customer Experience Design) for creating software that was easy-to-use, learn, and troubleshoot.This work involved collecting and analyzing feedback from customers to understand the problems they encountered while using our software; developing approaches to proactively answer or eliminate customer questions; managing more than 1.2 million words of documentation in more than 6,000 files; repurposing content so that customers could quickly find answers in their preferred learning style; creating and managing project plans that balanced project timelines, resources, and quality; driving implementation; and liaising with product and project management to ensure smooth delivery.

Managed a team of technical writers that documented industrial software products. Worked with customers to determine needs and set priorities; redeveloped existing documentation to be more user-friendly and effective; produced online help systems, manuals, press releases, and marketing materials; and ensured that all documentation met ISO 9000 specifications.

Toronto, Ontario, Ca

Associate producer for the CBC Radio shows "The Morning Edition" and "The Afternoon Edition," and a reporter for the CBC Radio News. Generated story ideas, researched and fact-checked them, interviewed guests, wrote scripts, and produced on-air segments.

M.B.A., General

M.A., English

B.A., Journalism

B.A., English