Vinny Allen
Product Designer in Columbus, OH
About
I’m a product designer with over 11 years of experience bringing products from zero to millions of people. I'm a builder at heart, a generalist, and driven by data-informed decisions. I thrive on solving complex, meaningful problems and often step beyond design into product management, research, or writing code to bring clarity and momentum to a project.
Currently, I’m at Acorns, focused on growth and retention, helping people invest in their future. Previously, I was at Shopify, where I contributed to building the first native returns solution and one of the largest logistics platforms.
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Projects
I designed and launched Shopify’s customer self-serve returns feature, enabling merchants to streamline the returns process, enhance customer satisfaction, and drive repeat purchases.
This tool allows customers to easily request returns directly through a merchant’s online store, receive real-time updates on their request, and follow clear return instructions—all without additional friction.
I led design for SFN Returns where our team built a simple, reliable returns solution that offers inspection, restocking, and real-time updates to merchants and customers.
I designed and launched Workflows, enabling merchants to fully customize and automate their return processes, improving efficiency and customer satisfaction.
Workflows empower merchants to set tailored conditions and actions, seamlessly routing returns to various destinations such as stores, resale channels, or donation centers. The feature also allows merchants to offer personalized return options, like extended windows for VIPs or free returns for loyalty members, driving loyalty and operational excellence.
Side Projects
I designed and built an iOS app for creating beer recipes and fermentation tracking using Swift and Node.js that serves as the backend for 3rd party hardware integrations (Tilt Hydrometer, Plaato Airlock etc.)