Intuit // Reuse Connections

IDX Reuse Connections

Who Is This For?

This initiative targets Intuit product users who connect their bank accounts across products like QuickBooks, Credit Karma, TurboTax, and Mailchimp. Users include solopreneurs, small business owners, and individuals who want financial data integration with minimal friction. 

What & Why

The goal: Enable seamless 1-click reuse of bank account connections across all Intuit products—moving from a siloed QuickBooks-only feature to an ecosystem-wide capability, aiming for a leap in adoption from baseline to 90%.

Why It Matters

• Ideal State: Users securely leverage existing credentials for effortless cross-product linking, removing the hassle of repetitive setup and strengthening user trust in data exchange.

• Impact: If successful, users experience lower onboarding friction, greater control, and transparency, boosting engagement and product stickiness across the suite.

Context & Process

• Where/When: Design research and prototyping conducted in Q1–Q2 2025, covering Credit Karma, TurboTax, and QuickBooks Payroll use cases.

• Before: Manual, repetitive account linking per product. Limited reuse, only within QB Payroll.

• After: Prototyped scalable flows for TT2CK, QB2CK, and QB2QB connection reuse. Designs now allow bulk actions, error resolution, and selection between new and previously linked accounts.

Research Setup

Moderated user testing, split by product cohorts:

• CK users (full-time, self-employed)

• TT users (annual tax filers)

• QB users (business/accounting needs—Payroll/non-Payroll)
  
  

Testing focused on three design variations:

1. Fixing errors in the reuse flow (Phase 1, launched)

2. Bulk flow connections (Phase 2, roadmapped)

3. Ability to choose new or reused connections (Phase 3, roadmapped)
   
   

What We Changed

Designs used familiar Intuit patterns, adapted for cross-product utility:

• Clearer language replacing ambiguous "reuse" wording

• Specific product branding for the origin of connections

• Clickable, selectable account tiles with clear identifiers

• Flexibility for users to choose specific accounts to reuse

• Inline error resolution for connection issues
  
  
  

Insights & Measures of Success

Key Learnings

• Convenience is appreciated, but not essential—users want flexibility over which accounts to reuse.

• Trust in Intuit is strong, but transparency on connection source and improved terminology boost adoption.

• All users expected control, clear selection, and the ability to resolve issues instantly.
  
  

Success Metrics

• Likert ratings for perceived value and likelihood to reuse: Average score of 4/5 across cohorts.

• Qualitative feedback indicated less friction, more confidence, and a preference for clear, product-specific guidance.

• Adoption target: Move from the existing baseline to 90% reuse, measured post-launch via analytics and follow-up studies.
  
  

Reflection

This project scaled a high-friction, multi-product touchpoint into a zero-friction, transparent, and customizable experience. Iterative, insight-driven design validated key flows, language, and controls—enabling Intuit users to confidently manage their data sharing across products at scale. 

Future State

Leadership asked how to balance user autonomy with effective design—specifically, when to let users choose between creating new connections and reusing existing ones versus guiding them toward reuse. In this phase, I evaluated options through experimentation and user validation to determine solutions that best address user needs.