Clarifying Data Transparency in Bank Connections
Summary
In 6 weeks time, I led the user research, high fidelity design, and concept testing on this project, collaborating closely with a PM and Content Designer, and successfully streamlined a data connection experience in QuickBooks and TurboTax, allowing multiple financial data connection in a single flow between Intuit and major financial institutes such as BMO, Fidelity, Robinhood, Charles Schwab.
My Team
1x Product Manager,
1x Content Designer
My Role
Lead Product Designer
Stakeholders
QuickBooks Product Team
TurboTax Product team
Tools
Figma
Amplitude
UserTesting
HeyMarvin
Project Timeline
First Phase: 6 Weeks (Completed)
Final Phase: Ongoing
Background
Due to secure banking regulations, major banks and financial platforms establish different authentication channels (e.g., OAuth, Simple Auth, MFA) for various types of financial data. For example, an accountant using QuickBooks or TurboTax may need to authenticate via OAuth to access account transactions, then authenticate again via Simple Auth for monthly statements or tax forms. While some banks use the same credentials across data types, others require different ones—like login info for balances, and document IDs for tax forms. But even if the credentials are the same, due to the distinct secure channel requirement, each authentication must be explicitly requested.
The Challenge
Many Intuit users did not understand why they need to authenticate a second time. On top of that, if the bank uses the same credentials to access both account info and tax forms, users especially found it odd that “they have to login twice in a roll”. This causes major drop-off in the second authentication screen in the bank connection flow across platform.
My Role
As a designer on the Platform team, I conducted design audits, design concepts, and iterative testing through this project cross functionally. I also actively socialized insights and feedback from various stakeholders across TurboTax and QuickBooks product teams.
I delivered a set of high fidelity design proposals and research findings to org leadership, and various stakeholders across org 1 week ahead of timeline, successfully completing design exploration phase of the ongoing project.
My Contribution
I led the design strategy across this project, collaborating closely with a PM and Content Designer on the platform team.
Conducted audits to identify pain points in the current connection flows in QuickBooks and TurboTax
Researched industry standards to understand how other financial platforms addressed data variability
Interviewed 12 users to understand their mental models, misconceptions, and frustrations
Ran 3 sets of usability testing on prototypes to validate new connection flows and messaging