User Experience with a Capital YOU: Kirsten Thulborn

Alicia sits down with Kirsten Thulborn, Group Design Manager at Intuit, for a rare look at how QuickBooks' user interface actually gets built — from the research behind terminology changes like "post" replacing "add," to why some friction in the UI is intentional. Kirsten pulls back the curtain on how her team balances the needs of power users (accountants and bookkeepers) with small business owners who just want to send an invoice, and what she'd redesign from scratch if she could. Plus: why UI changes feel so disruptive, the technology adoption curve, and the story behind the QuickBooks feature you've probably never noticed.SponsorsWurthy - https://uqb.promo/wurthy(00:00) - Meet Kirsten From Intuit (02:41) - Her Role And Products (03:38) - Career Path At QuickBooks (10:18) - Designing For Power Users (11:52) - Sharing New Features Better (18:05) - Where Feedback Goes (21:06) - Writing Great Feedback (24:08) - Balancing Beginners And Pros (26:34) - Business View War Story (28:51) - Designing Shared Interfaces (29:25) - Why We Say Post (31:39) - Testing UI Changes (35:55) - Why Updates Feel Emotional (39:08) - AI and Future Workflows (43:04) - AI Adoption Curve Explained (48:26) - Redesigning Setup Onboarding (51:43) - A Customer Delight Moment (53:25) - Closing Thanks and Signoff LINKSAlicia’s Upcoming Classes4/28/26: Converting from QBDT to QBO: http://royl.ws/QBDT2QBO?affiliate=5393907We want to hear from you!Send your questions and comments to us at unofficialquickbookspodcast@gmail.com.Join our LinkedIn community at https://www.linkedin.com/groups/14630719/Visit our YouTube Channel at https://www.youtube.com/@UnofficialQuickQBOPodcast?sub_confirmation=1Sign up to Earmark to earn free CPE for listening to this podcasthttps://www.earmark.app/onboarding