Tax Innovation

TaxPad: The Birth of Question Engineering

Note: The TaxPad case study reflects an analytical response produced independently by Bright Chinule during a Deloitte innovation assessment. It uses publicly available data and does not represent Deloitte’s internal strategies, systems, or intellectual property. The Question Engineering™ methodology demonstrated here is an original framework solely authored and owned by Bright Chinule.

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Application of Question Engineering

This project became the first live instance of what would later be formalized as the Question Engineering (QE) Framework.

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The Challenge

Deloitte issued a brief during an interview for the role of a senior innovation consultant: 'Expats living abroad aren't able to digitally file UK tax returns with HMRC (and many aren't even aware they have to). We'd like to assess whether it's worthwhile to pursue. Our internal tax specialists have proposed automating the preparation of tax returns and possibly scaling this globally.' The brief already contained a predefined answer — automation — before validating the real question.

QE Approach

This project became the first live instance of what would later be formalized as the Question Engineering (QE) Framework. Rather than accept the premise, the QE process challenged the assumptions and interrogated whether digital filing was truly unavailable and if automation was the right intervention.

The Discovery

Data showed HMRC had already invested £650 million in a digital portal used by over 10 million taxpayers. Therefore, the issue was not infrastructure, but interpretation. Digital ethnography revealed the real issue: information ambiguity and navigational complexity, not lack of automation.

Process Details

1. Interrogate

Rather than accept the premise, the QE process challenged the assumptions: Was digital filing truly unavailable? Was automation the right intervention, or was the bottleneck elsewhere? What evidence exists that ‘inability to file’ is caused by lack of technology? Data showed HMRC had already invested £650 million in a digital portal used by over 10 million taxpayers. Therefore, the issue was not infrastructure, but interpretation.

2. Deconstruct

The brief was broken down into its atomic components: Actors (Expats, HMRC, Deloitte specialists), Actions (Filing, automation, awareness), Pain points (Uncertainty, confusion, policy navigation). Digital ethnography (expat forums and Q&A platforms) revealed three distinct user groups: Those unaware they needed to file, those aware but unsure how, and those unable to find credible help.

3. Reconstruct

Synthesizing this data revealed the real issue: not lack of automation, but information ambiguity and navigational complexity. Users were overwhelmed by unclear rules and technical language. The refined problem statement became: ‘How might we make the process of filing tax returns easier for expats to understand and navigate digitally?’

4. Design

This question led to the creation of TaxPad — a conceptual prototype for a guided, community-based interface simplifying tax filing through contextual education rather than automation. TaxPad positioned itself as a clarity tool, not a processing tool.

Significance to QE

This case became the prototype for Question Engineering itself. It validated three founding insights: Most briefs begin with answers masquerading as questions. Innovation only succeeds when we interrogate the assumption before designing the solution. The true value of inquiry is not direction — it is clarity. From this case, QE was born — not as an academic concept, but as a forensic, evidence-based method for engineering the right question and powering innovation.

Impact

The original question ‘How might we automate tax filing?’ was replaced by ‘How might we clarify tax filing so people can do it confidently?’ This single reframing redirected the entire innovation trajectory, demonstrating that when assumptions are interrogated before investment, solutions become leaner, truer, and more valuable.