Gabriel Valdivia

Online Retirement

This project is part of a presidential initiative to modernize the federal government’s digital infrastructure. Before the initiative, federal employees had to navigate complex paper forms to receive their benefits, which could take up to 7 months. The system now helps 2.3 million federal employees get their first paycheck approved in under 7 days, with no paperwork.

The large majority of this work was led by Marimar Cabrero under the Designer in Residence program at Valdivia Works.

Team
1699457670782
Marimar Cabrero
1517285137475
Yat Choi
1608410307561
Jordan Samson
Services
Product DesignDesign SystemsStrategyWeb DesignMobile
Date

2026

Retire Ready

A pre-retirement tool that gives employees agency to prepare documents early, understand their options, and test decisions before anything is official, while giving HR a clear, low-noise way to stay in the loop.

Self-service retirement calculator using service history, retirement date, and High-3 salary

A self-service estimate built from real service history and salary data.

Retire Ready service history review with employment records and confirmation actions

Reviewing service history in Retire Ready.

Retire Ready correction flow for suggesting an update to an employment record

Suggesting a correction without leaving the review flow.

Retire Ready retirement resources library with guides, FAQs, videos, and calculators

A dedicated resource library explains retirement concepts through guides, FAQs, videos, and calculators.

Retirement simulator comparing three retirement-age scenarios

Employees can create and compare retirement-age scenarios.

Retirement calculator comparing three scenarios with detailed employee data

A detailed comparison shows the effect of each scenario.

ORA

The platform federal employees use to officially retire. It replaces a complex obstacle course of paper forms with a guided application that walks employees through retirement in plain steps.

ORA PIN setup screen for securely signing retirement documents

A secure PIN lets employees certify their retirement documents.

ORA retirement type selection with voluntary, disability, and other options

Employees start with the retirement path that fits their situation.

ORA survivor benefit election with plain-language options and a live annuity estimate

Survivor benefit choices show their effect on the monthly estimate.

ORA health insurance election with coverage details and a live annuity estimate

Health insurance elections explain coverage and monthly impact.

Employee service-history review with the connected HR decision surface

The employee review and HR decision surface share the same underlying case data.

Four states in the HR suggestion review workflow

Suggestion states

ORA family details step with guided questions, spouse information, and an instant retirement estimate

ORA guides employees through retirement step by step while keeping a live estimate in view.

ORA life-insurance election step written in plain language with an instant annuity estimate

Insurance elections pair plain-language choices with their estimated monthly impact.

ORA application status page showing each step from HR review through the first retirement payment

ORA walks employees through retirement in plain steps, on desktop or mobile.

ORA has an employee-facing side and an HR-facing side. The same information needed to feel interactive, guided, and never overwhelming for employees, then translate into a fast, scannable workspace for HR without becoming two separate products.

HR service-history review showing a pending employee suggestion

HR sees what changed, why it matters, and the action required.