Tara Williams

Plaid Link (the bank connection widget) had a 58% completion rate, meaning 42% of users abandoned during the bank linking process. Each percentage point of abandonment cost Plaid's customers an estimated $120M in aggregate annual revenue. The main drop-off points were institution search (18% drop) and credential entry (14% drop).

Redesigned the Link flow based on analysis of 50M+ connection attempts. Introduced predictive institution search using fuzzy matching and user geography. Replaced the credential form with a step-by-step wizard with inline validation and biometric auth options. Added a "connection health" indicator to build user trust. Ran A/B tests across 500+ fintech apps over 12 weeks.

Link completion rate improved from 58% to 74%. Institution search drop-off decreased from 18% to 6%. Credential entry abandonment dropped from 14% to 5%. Estimated $1.9B in annual revenue recovered for Plaid's customer ecosystem. Design was adopted as the new default across all Link implementations.

User research showed 67% of Plaid Link users felt "nervous" sharing bank credentials with third-party apps. This anxiety was the leading cause of abandonment after the credential step.

Designed a "trust framework" with progressive information disclosure, security badge animations, real-time encryption indicators, and a plain-language permissions summary.

Post-credential abandonment decreased 31%. User trust scores (measured via exit surveys) improved from 3.2 to 4.4/5.

Brex's expense management had inconsistent iconography and color coding across 40+ expense categories. Users frequently miscategorized expenses because visual cues were ambiguous.

Created a semantic design system for financial categories with distinct iconography, color coding, and motion patterns. Each category has a unique visual fingerprint that's consistent across cards, reports, and mobile.

Miscategorization rate dropped 45%. User-reported "easy to understand" scores improved from 3.1 to 4.6 out of 5.