4 years
Product evolution
RetireUS
RetireUS is a retirement planning platform that helps people understand their financial situation, identify risks, and build a personalized path toward retirement.
I worked on the product from scratch for four years as the only dedicated Product Designer, evolving it from early concepts and wireframes into a shipped web and mobile product.
What I did
I owned the product design end-to-end, from defining the initial experience to continuously evolving the product as new features and requirements emerged.
- Worked directly with the founder on product direction
- Researched the market and competing retirement products
- Defined key journeys, flows, and product architecture
- Created wireframes and designed the complete web application
- Built the design system and adapted the experience for mobile
- Designed new functionality, improved existing flows, and created the public website
1 Product Designer
End-to-end ownership
Product Discovery
Because RetireUS was built from scratch, the first step was understanding how a complex retirement service should translate into a digital product.
I combined regular conversations with the founder with market, competitor, and retirement-planning research to define the initial structure and core experience.
Audience & User Jobs
There were no formal user interviews, so I used hypothesis-based audience segments informed by market research, product requirements, and ongoing conversations with the founder.
The experience centered around three main jobs.
Job 1
Understand where I stand
Evaluate the current financial situation.
Job 2
Understand what needs attention
Identify risks, gaps, and priorities.
Job 3
Know what to do next
Turn insights into a clear retirement plan.
Experience Architecture
I structured the product around a progression from understanding the user's current situation to managing their retirement plan over time.
From Flows to Wireframes
Once the main experience was defined, I mapped the core flows and translated them into wireframes before moving into visual design.
The focus was on breaking complex financial processes into smaller, understandable steps and creating clear transitions between assessment, results, plans, and ongoing management.
Key Product Decisions
The main challenge was making complex financial planning understandable without removing the information users needed to make important decisions.
Turning assessment into a guided experience
I broke a long financial assessment into smaller steps with clear progress and focused questions, making a complex process feel more manageable.
Turning financial complexity into clear risks
Instead of showing users raw financial data, RetireUS translates assessment results into clear red flags and explains why each issue matters.
Connecting insight with action
The experience connects identified risks with personalized plans, professional support, and clear next steps rather than leaving users with a diagnosis alone.
Building for an ongoing relationship
Retirement planning continues after onboarding, so the product brings progress, accounts, documents, tasks, and professional support into one ongoing experience.
Design System
As the product grew, I created a design system from scratch to keep the experience consistent and make new functionality easier to design and implement.
It covered reusable components, forms, states, navigation, financial data patterns, and responsive behavior across the product.
Expanding the Product
Over four years, RetireUS continued evolving beyond the original web application.
I adapted the experience for mobile, designed the public website, added new product functionality, and regularly reworked existing flows as the business and product requirements changed.
Web App
Desktop product experience
Mobile
Responsive / mobile product experience
Website
Public RetireUS website
Validation & Iteration
The product evolved through continuous collaboration with the founder, Product Manager, development team, and internal design leadership.
Feedback and technical discussions helped refine product logic, interactions, and new functionality throughout the four-year development of the product.
Final Experience & Outcome
RetireUS grew from an early concept into a shipped platform supporting the full retirement-planning journey:
Understand → Identify → Plan → Act → Manage
Over four years, I helped shape both the initial product and its continued evolution across web, mobile, the design system, and the public website.
Shipped Product
Built from zero to production
4 Years
Continuous product evolution
Design System
Created from scratch
Web + Mobile
Expanded across multiple platforms