product · technologist

ZACHARY
STEDT_

role
Building digital banking products at scale in Chicago.
before
Journalist. Started in network infrastructure.
now
shipping banking products · reading “Goodbye to All That”
view work →resume.txt
live readout● rec
flights
135
miles flown
175,996
countries
10
books read
60
yrs in fintech: 10+ · airports: 36 · rev 2026.05

01 / work

6 entries
001
Access & Authentication
FintechMobileAccess Control
Manages financial account access, feature entitlements, and function-level controls — ensuring the right users have the right capabilities at every level of a financial platform.
↳ Serves millions of daily active banking customers across web and mobile.
2019 – present
002
Onboarding & Activation
FintechOnboardingPayments
Guides new financial institution users through discovering, setting up, and activating their accounts, features, and functions — reducing friction at the most critical stage of the customer journey.
↳ Led payment setup redesign targeting 15%+ increase in hardware order conversion.
2014 – present
003
Digital Strategy & Publishing
Content StrategyDigital PublishingUX
Led digital content strategy and web presence for a 400,000-member national professional association — including a full site redesign, eBook publishing, and tablet magazine channel.
↳ Redesigned site improved user experience and measurably increased engagement.
2011 – 2014
Earlier
004
ASCIIboard
iOSSwift
An iOS keyboard extension that lets users browse, create, and paste ASCII art anywhere a keyboard appears. Built for the joy of text-based creativity on mobile.
↳ A personal experiment in text-based creativity on iOS.
personal
Side project
005
Bruh
iOSSwiftADHD
An iOS app for people with ADHD and time blindness. Instead of a single reminder that's easy to ignore, Bruh sends an escalating series of nudges that grow harder to dismiss — meeting you where your attention actually is.
↳ A practical tool, not a novelty.
personal
Side project
006
Trvl
watchOSSwiftTravel
An Apple Watch app and complication for travelers. A modernized take on the classic GMT complication — shows your home time and local time at a glance, designed for the wrist without the fuss of traditional world clock apps.
↳ A cleaner way to stay grounded across time zones.
personal
Side project

02 / about

I'm a product leader based in Chicago with 10+ years in financial services. At U.S. Bank, I lead multiple journey teams distributed across the US and India — responsible for payment activation, customer onboarding, and business banking engagement on the digital platform.

My path here is unconventional. I spent years as a network engineer before earning a master's in journalism from Northwestern and reporting for Chicago Public Radio. That arc — infrastructure, storytelling, digital strategy — is what shaped how I think about product. The clearest systems thinking I know came from newsrooms; the most useful communication skills I have came from being a network engineer who had to explain things to non-engineers.

Outside of work, I read widely and travel when I can. I keep a full reading list and a record of every flight I've taken.

03 / contact