Delivering the Paycheck Protection Program in 18 Days

Context

In 2020, the CARES Act created the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) to provide emergency funding for small businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic.

For Intuit's payroll customers, speed was critical. Businesses needed immediate access to PPP-related capabilities while regulatory guidance continued to evolve.

Challenge

The team had approximately 18 days from legislation to delivery.

Requirements were changing rapidly, multiple stakeholders were involved, and the solution needed to support compliance across federal, state, and local jurisdictions.

My Role

As Senior Technical Program Manager for Intuit Payroll, I coordinated delivery efforts across engineering, product, operations, and tax teams.

I managed dependencies, tracked delivery risks, coordinated stakeholder communication, and helped drive execution under an extremely compressed timeline.

Execution

• Coordinated cross-functional teams to align on scope and delivery priorities.
• Worked with Tax Operations teams to understand jurisdiction-specific requirements.
• Managed delivery risks and dependencies throughout implementation.
• Supported rapid post-launch response, including six hotfix releases over a two-week period.

Outcome

• Delivered PPP capabilities within 18 days of the legislation becoming law.
• Helped enable more than $10B in loans.
• Supported more than 100,000 small-business jobs during a period of significant economic uncertainty.

Lessons Learned

High-velocity programs succeed when communication, risk management, and decision-making mechanisms are established before they are needed. Under extreme time pressure, execution discipline becomes even more important than process.