Interview Excerpt: "MFA Adoption is Not Just Technical — It's Behavioral"

We spoke with three security leaders about the human factors impacting MFA adoption and how product teams can increase adoption without degrading user experience.

On the human side of MFA

"MFA adoption isn't a checkbox. It's a trust-building exercise. Users will reject flows that feel invasive or fragile. We focus on seamless fallbacks and clear education."

Designing for adoption

Product teams emphasized progressive enhancement: start by offering easy options (authenticator apps, SMS fallback), then incentivize more secure options (hardware keys) with better UX or features that require higher assurance.

"We saw a big jump when we made hardware keys simpler to register and provided a lightweight migration path with backup codes."

Operational considerations

Security leaders recommended instrumenting abandonment points in the MFA flow and running small A/B tests to see how messaging affects completion. Provide clear support channels and auto-recovery for lost devices.

"Education matters. A short modal explaining why MFA protects their account increased completions by 12%."

Closing remarks

All interviewees agreed: to increase MFA adoption, treat it as product work — measure, iterate, and make security the least disruptive path for users.