Al Hertz is a Design Manager at Plaid, the technology company that allows users to connect their bank accounts to the apps they love (like Venmo, Coinbase, and hundreds more). His focus is primarily on Plaid's digital experience for consumers and developers alike. He works cross functionally to evaluate business needs from a design perspective and deliver better experiences for their customers. Alongside the legal, product, engineering, and design teams, Al most recently focused on Plaid's authentication experience for end-users.

Today, tens of millions of people in North America (and counting) have successfully used Plaid to connect their bank accounts to the apps they choose. But with privacy and consumers’ data constantly in the spotlight, Plaid recognized that the end-users of apps that used Plaid's technology needed to clearly understand how their data was being used and who had access to it. Al's team took on the challenge of doing right by their end-users and made their privacy policy more accessible—even at the cost of adding friction to an onboarding flow.

In this talk, Al shares how his team balanced customer loyalty with conversion, advocated for transparency, and worked within constraints to design a new user onboarding flow. Ultimately, Plaid found that it pays—quite literally—to make business choices that are in line with your mission and values.