October 26, 2026
October 26, 2026
Taxwell’s product designers run up to 10 AI-moderated customer conversations in a day or two, then use what they learn to shape the next iteration. It’s a way to keep customer feedback close to the work, even as the team moves quickly from one product idea to the next.
“The research process for teams that are moving fast can be either an accelerant or a speed bump... Dscout’s MCP and AI-moderated studies are accelerating what we're doing.”
The company makes tax software for two very different audiences: everyday DIY tax filers using TaxAct software, and tax professionals using Drake Software. Their work runs on a calendar. Consumer season peaks from January through April 15, and then extension deadlines on September 15 and October 15 keep the pressure on.
The windows are short, and the team doesn’t have dedicated researchers. Andy Vitale, VP of Product Design, leads full-stack product designers who handle content, design, and research themselves. Spending eight hours on customer calls for every idea wasn’t an option.
“The research process for teams that are moving fast can be either an accelerant or a speed bump... Dscout’s MCP and AI-moderated studies are accelerating what we're doing.”
Andy Vitale, VP of Product Design, Taxwell
Meanwhile, Taxwell is releasing zero-to-one products and updates at a steady pace. The team needed a way to keep learning from customers without slowing down.
Taxwell’s product designers build mostly in Cursor, and those Cursor prototypes are what they test with. “We’re prototyping with HTML, not Figma files,” Andy says, “so we just have to give a link.”
With Dscout’s MCP, designers can set up studies within their existing workflow.
“We rely on the AI-moderated research so that our product designers can stay heads down, while we're still getting feedback and doing interviews with users.”
Andy Vitale, VP of Product Design, Taxwell
“We were really on a mission to get our team as AI-native as possible. So having the ability to fit tools like Dscout into our AI workflow was a lot more helpful.”
The team uses the MCP for AI-moderated user testing, study planning, and screeners. For professional audiences, they work with Dscout to make participants “prove they use the software.” The team also relies on Dscout’s AI-powered Draft Your Study feature.
“We rely on the AI-moderated research so that our product designers can stay heads down, while we're still getting feedback and doing interviews with users.”
Because the designers manage research alongside their other responsibilities, having studies reviewed before launch adds another layer of confidence.
Andy’s team had spent more than a year experimenting with AI moderation through another vendor. When Dscout’s AI-moderated studies went into beta, they decided to bring that work onto one platform.
With AI Moderator and the MCP, Taxwell gets customer feedback within a day or two and keeps conversations flowing even in the off-season, when their hard-to-reach professional audiences are harder to reach.
AI moderation has surfaced insights the team might otherwise miss. Some participants feel more comfortable sharing sensitive experiences with an AI moderator than with another person.
“We’ve found in some cases that people are a little bit more embarrassed to share things person-to-person than they are person-to-AI moderator,” Andy says. “So that’s helped us uncover some interesting insights.”
The conversations themselves have also been smooth. Follow-up questions can become a pain point when tools keep probing beyond what participants are comfortable sharing. Taxwell hasn’t seen that problem with Dscout.
“With us, the follow-ups have been really, really smooth,” Andy says. “We’ve gotten no complaints, which is ideal.”
For Taxwell, AI-powered research helps product designers keep building while continuing to learn from customers. Each round of feedback informs the next iteration, making research part of the team’s pace rather than a barrier to it.
“It’s a lot of little feedback loops,” Andy says, “and Dscout’s at the heart of that for us.”