Authentication - Northern Trust (IC + Managing 6 - Legacy Redesign)
Northern Trust – Private Passport Redesign
When Northern Trust set out to modernize its core authentication experience, the stakes were high: Private Passport is the front door to billions in client assets across wealth and institutional accounts. As Product Design Lead, I was tasked with leading the end-to-end redesign of this enterprise-critical flow—from audit and discovery to implementation and delivery.
The Challenge
The existing authentication flow had grown brittle—technically outdated, inconsistent across channels, and friction-heavy for users. The brief was clear: create a filly responsive seamless, secure login experience that reflects the sophistication of Northern Trust’s brand, while aligning with evolving compliance, risk, and user expectations.
But redesigning a secure access system in a global bank is never just a UX challenge—it’s a deeply cross-functional initiative that requires navigating legacy infrastructure, regulatory nuance, and competing business priorities.
My Role
As the product design lead, I drove:
Strategy and discovery: Led deep audits of legacy flows, conducted competitive benchmarking, and facilitated workshops with legal, compliance, engineering, and client services teams to define user and business needs.
Product ownership: Defined and prioritized user stories, shaped the product backlog, and helped drive roadmap alignment across stakeholders.
Agile delivery leadership: Guided multiple cross-functional squads through sprint planning, daily ceremonies, and retrospectives, ensuring design remained grounded in real constraints while upholding high standards.
Design systems and craft: Championed the adoption of a modern design language system and contributed directly to its evolution, improving visual consistency and reducing design debt across journeys.
Highlights & Results
Reduced friction in the authentication journey by simplifying credential handling and improving clarity of error states and MFA prompts.
Aligned cross-functional teams around a shared vision and delivery plan—bridging communication between design, engineering, and business leads across global time zones.
Established new ways of working, bringing agile discipline to fragmented teams and introducing rituals that improved collaboration, morale, and delivery velocity.
Pushed quality upstream, ensuring security and UX were seen not as trade-offs, but as joint outcomes of good design.
Why It Matters
Authentication is more than a gateway—it’s a moment of truth for trust, confidence, and brand. Redesigning it required not just UX skill, but leadership across ambiguity, alignment across silos, and a clear sense of responsibility for both end-users and internal stakeholders.
This project reflects how I lead: with a balance of strategic thinking and hands-on delivery; with empathy for both users and teammates; and with a commitment to elevating design to a first-class citizen in financial product development.
