Salary Schedules Redesign
A redesigned workflow that gives HR teams a faster, more transparent way to manage grades and steps.
View project →
About
Resume
65% agency adoption and improved year-end accuracy for W-2 reporting
Unified year-end reporting into one trusted workflow, replacing fragmented processes and reducing compliance risk for more than 200 public sector agencies.
Role
Lead Product Designer
Team
Project Manager, Dev Lead, QA
Project Duration
12 weeks
Product Context
SaaS platform for government HR and payroll teams
KPI Highlights
65%
Overall adoption of the redesigned W-2 workflow as agencies transitioned from fragmented year-end reporting to a unified experience
$4M+
Influenced Payroll bookings driven by improved filing accuracy, compliance confidence, and workflow trust
15%
Reduction in payroll-related support load during peak filing season through proactive validation and clearer status visibility
The Problem
Payroll teams relied on disconnected screens and spreadsheets to validate data before filing W-2s. This created unnecessary cognitive load, manual rework, and accuracy risks during the most time-sensitive period of the year.
Project Goal
Create a unified, reliable experience for year-end reporting that:
Reduce Manual Work
Eliminate cross-system navigation and disconnected spreadsheets through a single integrated workflow.
Improve Clarity
Provide clear totals, jurisdiction-level breakdowns, and transparent validation so teams can trust what they see.
Increase Filing Confidence
Surface issues early with guided steps and inline alerts, reducing errors during the busiest reporting period.
Foundational Learning: Understanding the Payroll Compliance Ecosystem
I began by grounding the work in the compliance ecosystem and real workflows:
IRS W-2 Requirements
key fields, rules, and deadlines
W-2c Correction Logic
triggers and sequencing for revisions
Payroll Data Structures
earnings, deductions, taxable wages
Legacy Workflow Audit
manual checks and reconciliation points
From Context to Discovery
With the compliance basics in place, I moved into structured discovery to understand how year-end reporting actually works in practice.
4 weeks research
(2-week sprint)
Week 1
- Recruited participants using Calendly
- Set up the pre-interview survey
- Drafted and finalized the mod guide
Weeks 2–4
- Conducted interviews
- Synthesized early themes
12 participants
Payroll admins and HR specialists with hands-on W-2, ACA, and 1099 reporting responsibilities.
User interviews
- Sessions held over Google Meet (1 hour each)
- Pre-interview survey shaped tailored question paths
- Discovery supported by structured mod guides and iterative adjustments
What the Research Revealed
Over 12 user interviews (payroll admins across multiple agencies) validated the core problems:
Too many disconnected screens
“Nothing is connected, and there’s no single place to confirm what changed before filing. It slows us down and increases the risk of missing something important.”
Renne Hotz, Mohave Community College
Manual spreadsheet work
“I always end up exporting spreadsheets because I don’t trust what the system shows me.”
Tiffany Alsdorf, City of Durango
High cognitive load during deadlines
“W-2c corrections and multi-EIN filings feel impossible to manage in the current workflow. We handle most of it manually just to avoid errors.”
Ashli Perez, City of Arizona
Unclear state and local filing paths
“There’s no visibility into changes or pending updates. I shouldn’t have to drill through multiple menus just to confirm what’s going out on a W-2.”
Emily Wolf, City of Wildomar
Mapping the real workflow exposed where reporting breaks down
From Insights to Requirements
Once we synthesized what we heard, we shifted into weekly working sessions with PM, engineering, and payroll SMEs. The goal was to align on what the product should support immediately and what should wait, so we could reduce risk and increase clarity for both users and delivery teams.
We translated the findings into a shared problem statement and high level MoSCoW priorities that guided scope across the first release.
What we prioritized
These priorities gave us a confident foundation for sprint planning, requirement writing, and discussions about tradeoffs.
Must Have
- Single reporting workflow
- In-system totals preview
- Inline validation & alerts
- Status visibility across EINs
Nice to Have
- Guided setup steps
- Clear state/local grouping
- Bulk reporting actions
Could Have
- Audit trail for imports
- Progress indicators
- Role-based visibility refinements
Won’t Have
- 1099 automation
- Historical analytics
- Custom filing templates
How might we create a unified reporting experience that supports real year-end complexity while reducing the manual checks, fragmented steps, and risks payroll teams face today?
Rapid Low Fidelity Exploration
With the scope aligned, the first sprint focused on fast iteration. I explored multiple layout patterns, workflow sequences, and validation approaches at a fidelity that encouraged honest critique.
SME Alignment and Domain Validation
Internal HR and payroll experts pressure tested early thinking. Their experience validated the problem and exposed gaps that users expect systems to solve.
“I need clear state and local filing paths.”
— Payroll Compliance SME
“Totals don’t matter unless I can see how they were calculated.”
— HRIS SME
“We get the same questions every year because the workflow doesn’t guide them.”
— Implementation Consultant
Mid Fidelity Refinement and Visual Direction
By sprint five, the workflow, logic, and dependencies were defined. This was the moment to clarify how the experience should feel in practice.
That meant:
- Visualizing totals and breakdowns
- Designing clearer error surfacing
- Removing unnecessary clicks
- Aligning hierarchy and states across the full flow
Where We Are At Now
Alignment
Shared understanding of workflow logic, compliance rules, dependencies, and what scenarios were in or out of scope.
Confidence
Validated workflow sequencing and visibility improvements through SME feedback and internal testing.
Momentum
Requirements locked, handoff underway, and engineering ready with clear technical acceptance criteria.
What We Delivered
A unified Payroll Compliance Hub that brings year-end tasks into one workflow, provides real-time validation, and gives agencies full visibility from generation to submission.
Centralizing a Fragmented Workflow
Teams bounced between screens and external spreadsheets to complete a single W-2 cycle.
Consolidated the full process into one guided flow with clear hierarchy, predictable steps, and unified status visibility.
Impact: Reduced cross-system switching, fewer EIN-selection mistakes, and higher completion confidence across agencies, contributing to strong early adoption.
Reducing Errors Through Proactive Guidance
Critical configuration issues weren’t surfaced until late in the process.
Introduced setup guidance, inline validation, and time-sensitive alerts to catch issues earlier.
Impact: Fewer late-stage corrections and improved on-time submissions across multi-EIN agencies.
Strengthening Data Visibility and Trust
Payroll admins exported data to validate totals and verify wage breakdowns.
Designed a transparent totals view with rollups, jurisdiction-level detail, and contextual breakdowns.
Impact: Teams validated data in-system, decreasing reliance on spreadsheets and improving trust in calculated values.
Learnings
What this project taught me about designing for complex, high-stakes workflows:
Start with Real Workflows
Grounding the project in actual year-end processes and constraints helped prevent rework and made every design choice more credible.
Share Early, Share Rough
Early low-fidelity reviews with engineering surfaced technical considerations before they became blockers, keeping the solution feasible and scalable.
Align Through Collaboration
Weekly working sessions with PM and engineering clarified open questions, strengthened requirements, and ensured the team shared a unified understanding of what we were building.
Other Projects 👇
Historical Document Import
A new import workflow that gives HR teams a clear, guided way to validate and upload historical documents.
View project →
Julio Ramirez
Home
About
Resume
65% agency adoption and improved year-end accuracy for W-2 reporting
Unified year-end reporting into one trusted workflow, replacing fragmented processes and reducing compliance risk for more than 200 public sector agencies.
Role
Lead Product Designer
Team
Project Manager, Dev Lead, QA
Project Duration
12 weeks
Product Context
SaaS platform for government HR and payroll teams
KPI Highlights
65%
Overall adoption of the redesigned W-2 workflow as agencies transitioned from fragmented year-end reporting to a unified experience
$4M+
Influenced Payroll bookings driven by improved filing accuracy, compliance confidence, and workflow trust
15%
Reduction in payroll-related support load during peak filing season through proactive validation and clearer status visibility
The Problem
Payroll teams relied on disconnected screens and spreadsheets to validate data before filing W-2s. This created unnecessary cognitive load, manual rework, and accuracy risks during the most time-sensitive period of the year.
Project Goal
Create a unified, reliable experience for year-end reporting that:
Reduce Manual Work
Eliminate cross-system navigation and disconnected spreadsheets through a single integrated workflow.
Improve Clarity
Provide clear totals, jurisdiction-level breakdowns, and transparent validation so teams can trust what they see.
Increase Filing Confidence
Surface issues early with guided steps and inline alerts, reducing errors during the busiest reporting period.
Foundational Learning: Understanding the Payroll Compliance Ecosystem
I began by grounding the work in the compliance ecosystem and real workflows:
IRS W-2 Requirements
key fields, rules, and deadlines
W-2c Correction Logic
triggers and sequencing for revisions
Payroll Data Structures
earnings, deductions, taxable wages
Legacy Workflow Audit
manual checks and reconciliation points
From Context to Discovery
With the compliance basics in place, I moved into structured discovery to understand how year-end reporting actually works in practice.
4 weeks research
(2-week sprint)
Week 1
- Recruited participants using Calendly
- Set up the pre-interview survey
- Drafted and finalized the mod guide
Weeks 2–4
- Conducted interviews
- Synthesized early themes
12 participants
Payroll admins and HR specialists with hands-on W-2, ACA, and 1099 reporting responsibilities.
User interviews
- Sessions held over Google Meet (1 hour each)
- Pre-interview survey shaped tailored question paths
- Discovery supported by structured mod guides and iterative adjustments
What the Research Revealed
Over 12 user interviews (payroll admins across multiple agencies) validated the core problems:
Too many disconnected screens
“Nothing is connected, and there’s no single place to confirm what changed before filing. It slows us down and increases the risk of missing something important.”
Renne Hotz, Mohave Community College
Manual spreadsheet work
“I always end up exporting spreadsheets because I don’t trust what the system shows me.”
Tiffany Alsdorf, City of Durango
High cognitive load during deadlines
“W-2c corrections and multi-EIN filings feel impossible to manage in the current workflow. We handle most of it manually just to avoid errors.”
Ashli Perez, City of Arizona
Unclear state and local filing paths
“There’s no visibility into changes or pending updates. I shouldn’t have to drill through multiple menus just to confirm what’s going out on a W-2.”
Emily Wolf, City of Wildomar
Mapping the real workflow exposed where reporting breaks down
From Insights to Requirements
Once we synthesized what we heard, we shifted into weekly working sessions with PM, engineering, and payroll SMEs. The goal was to align on what the product should support immediately and what should wait, so we could reduce risk and increase clarity for both users and delivery teams.
We translated the findings into a shared problem statement and high level MoSCoW priorities that guided scope across the first release.
What we prioritized
These priorities gave us a confident foundation for sprint planning, requirement writing, and discussions about tradeoffs.
Must Have
- Single reporting workflow
- In-system totals preview
- Inline validation & alerts
- Status visibility across EINs
Nice to Have
- Guided setup steps
- Clear state/local grouping
- Bulk reporting actions
Could Have
- Audit trail for imports
- Progress indicators
- Role-based visibility refinements
Won’t Have
- 1099 automation
- Historical analytics
- Custom filing templates
How might we create a unified reporting experience that supports real year-end complexity while reducing the manual checks, fragmented steps, and risks payroll teams face today?
Rapid Low Fidelity Exploration
With the scope aligned, the first sprint focused on fast iteration. I explored multiple layout patterns, workflow sequences, and validation approaches at a fidelity that encouraged honest critique.
SME Alignment and Domain Validation
Internal HR and payroll experts pressure tested early thinking. Their experience validated the problem and exposed gaps that users expect systems to solve.
“I need clear state and local filing paths.”
— Payroll Compliance SME
“Totals don’t matter unless I can see how they were calculated.”
— HRIS SME
“We get the same questions every year because the workflow doesn’t guide them.”
— Implementation Consultant
Mid Fidelity Refinement and Visual Direction
By sprint five, the workflow, logic, and dependencies were defined. This was the moment to clarify how the experience should feel in practice.
That meant:
- Visualizing totals and breakdowns
- Designing clearer error surfacing
- Removing unnecessary clicks
- Aligning hierarchy and states across the full flow
Where We Are At Now
Alignment
Shared understanding of workflow logic, compliance rules, dependencies, and what scenarios were in or out of scope.
Confidence
Validated workflow sequencing and visibility improvements through SME feedback and internal testing.
Momentum
Requirements locked, handoff underway, and engineering ready with clear technical acceptance criteria.
What We Delivered
A unified Payroll Compliance Hub that brings year-end tasks into one workflow, provides real-time validation, and gives agencies full visibility from generation to submission.
Centralizing a Fragmented Workflow
Teams bounced between screens and external spreadsheets to complete a single W-2 cycle.
Consolidated the full process into one guided flow with clear hierarchy, predictable steps, and unified status visibility.
Impact: Reduced cross-system switching, fewer EIN-selection mistakes, and higher completion confidence across agencies, contributing to strong early adoption.
Reducing Errors Through Proactive Guidance
Critical configuration issues weren’t surfaced until late in the process.
Introduced setup guidance, inline validation, and time-sensitive alerts to catch issues earlier.
Impact: Fewer late-stage corrections and improved on-time submissions across multi-EIN agencies.
Strengthening Data Visibility and Trust
Payroll admins exported data to validate totals and verify wage breakdowns.
Designed a transparent totals view with rollups, jurisdiction-level detail, and contextual breakdowns.
Impact: Teams validated data in-system, decreasing reliance on spreadsheets and improving trust in calculated values.
Learnings
What this project taught me about designing for complex, high-stakes workflows:
Start with Real Workflows
Grounding the project in actual year-end processes and constraints helped prevent rework and made every design choice more credible.
Share Early, Share Rough
Early low-fidelity reviews with engineering surfaced technical considerations before they became blockers, keeping the solution feasible and scalable.
Align Through Collaboration
Weekly working sessions with PM and engineering clarified open questions, strengthened requirements, and ensured the team shared a unified understanding of what we were building.
Other Projects 👇
Salary Schedules Redesign
A redesigned workflow that gives HR teams a faster, more transparent way to manage grades and steps.
View project →
Historical Document Import
A new import workflow that gives HR teams a clear, guided way to validate and upload historical documents.
View project →
Julio Ramirez
Home
About
Resume
65% agency adoption and improved year-end accuracy for W-2 reporting
Unified year-end reporting into one trusted workflow, replacing fragmented processes and reducing compliance risk for more than 200 public sector agencies.
Role
Lead Product Designer
Team
Project Manager, Dev Lead, QA
Project Duration
12 weeks
Product Context
SaaS platform for government HR and payroll teams
KPI Highlights
65%
Overall adoption of the redesigned W-2 workflow as agencies transitioned from fragmented year-end reporting to a unified experience
$4M+
Influenced Payroll bookings driven by improved filing accuracy, compliance confidence, and workflow trust
15%
Reduction in payroll-related support load during peak filing season through proactive validation and clearer status visibility
The Problem
Payroll teams relied on disconnected screens and spreadsheets to validate data before filing W-2s. This created unnecessary cognitive load, manual rework, and accuracy risks during the most time-sensitive period of the year.
Project Goal
Create a unified, reliable experience for year-end reporting that:
Reduce Manual Work
Eliminate cross-system navigation and disconnected spreadsheets through a single integrated workflow.
Improve Clarity
Provide clear totals, jurisdiction-level breakdowns, and transparent validation so teams can trust what they see.
Increase Filing Confidence
Surface issues early with guided steps and inline alerts, reducing errors during the busiest reporting period.
Foundational Learning: Understanding the Payroll Compliance Ecosystem
I began by grounding the work in the compliance ecosystem and real workflows:
IRS W-2 Requirements
key fields, rules, and deadlines
W-2c Correction Logic
triggers and sequencing for revisions
Payroll Data Structures
earnings, deductions, taxable wages
Legacy Workflow Audit
manual checks and reconciliation points
From Context to Discovery
With the compliance basics in place, I moved into structured discovery to understand how year-end reporting actually works in practice.
4 weeks research
(2-week sprint)
Week 1
- Recruited participants using Calendly
- Set up the pre-interview survey
- Drafted and finalized the mod guide
Weeks 2–4
- Conducted interviews
- Synthesized early themes
12 participants
Payroll admins and HR specialists with hands-on W-2, ACA, and 1099 reporting responsibilities.
User interviews
- Sessions held over Google Meet (1 hour each)
- Pre-interview survey shaped tailored question paths
- Discovery supported by structured mod guides and iterative adjustments
What the Research Revealed
Over 12 user interviews (payroll admins across multiple agencies) validated the core problems:
Too many disconnected screens
“Nothing is connected, and there’s no single place to confirm what changed before filing. It slows us down and increases the risk of missing something important.”
Renne Hotz, Mohave Community College
Manual spreadsheet work
“I always end up exporting spreadsheets because I don’t trust what the system shows me.”
Tiffany Alsdorf, City of Durango
High cognitive load during deadlines
“W-2c corrections and multi-EIN filings feel impossible to manage in the current workflow. We handle most of it manually just to avoid errors.”
Ashli Perez, City of Arizona
Unclear state and local filing paths
“There’s no visibility into changes or pending updates. I shouldn’t have to drill through multiple menus just to confirm what’s going out on a W-2.”
Emily Wolf, City of Wildomar
Mapping the real workflow exposed where reporting breaks down
From Insights to Requirements
Once we synthesized what we heard, we shifted into weekly working sessions with PM, engineering, and payroll SMEs. The goal was to align on what the product should support immediately and what should wait, so we could reduce risk and increase clarity for both users and delivery teams.
We translated the findings into a shared problem statement and high level MoSCoW priorities that guided scope across the first release.
What we prioritized
These priorities gave us a confident foundation for sprint planning, requirement writing, and discussions about tradeoffs.
Must Have
- Single reporting workflow
- In-system totals preview
- Inline validation & alerts
- Status visibility across EINs
Should Have
- Guided setup steps
- Clear state/local grouping
- Bulk reporting actions
Could Have
- Audit trail for imports
- Progress indicators
- Role-based visibility refinements
Won’t Have
- 1099 automation
- Historical analytics
- Custom filing templates
How might we streamline year-end reporting into a confident, end-to-end workflow with built-in visibility and validation?
Rapid Low Fidelity Exploration
With the scope aligned, the first sprint focused on fast iteration. I explored multiple layout patterns, workflow sequences, and validation approaches at a fidelity that encouraged honest critique.
SME Alignment and Domain Validation
Internal HR and payroll experts pressure tested early thinking. Their experience validated the problem and exposed gaps that users expect systems to solve.
“I need clear state and local filing paths.”
— Payroll Compliance SME
“Totals don’t matter unless I can see how they were calculated.”
— HRIS SME
“We get the same questions every year because the workflow doesn’t guide them.”
— Implementation Consultant
Mid Fidelity Refinement and Visual Direction
By sprint five, the workflow, logic, and dependencies were defined. This was the moment to clarify how the experience should feel in practice.
That meant:
- Visualizing totals and breakdowns
- Designing clearer error surfacing
- Removing unnecessary clicks
- Aligning hierarchy and states across the full flow
Where We Are At Now
Alignment
Shared understanding of workflow logic, compliance rules, dependencies, and what scenarios were in or out of scope.
Confidence
Validated workflow sequencing and visibility improvements through SME feedback and internal testing.
Momentum
Requirements locked, handoff underway, and engineering ready with clear technical acceptance criteria.
What We Delivered
A unified Payroll Compliance Hub that brings year-end tasks into one workflow, provides real-time validation, and gives agencies full visibility from generation to submission.
Centralizing a Fragmented Workflow
Teams bounced between screens and external spreadsheets to complete a single W-2 cycle.
Consolidated the full process into one guided flow with clear hierarchy, predictable steps, and unified status visibility.
Impact: Reduced cross-system switching, fewer EIN-selection mistakes, and higher completion confidence across agencies, contributing to strong early adoption.
Reducing Errors Through Proactive Guidance
Critical configuration issues weren’t surfaced until late in the process.
Introduced setup guidance, inline validation, and time-sensitive alerts to catch issues earlier.
Impact: Fewer late-stage corrections and improved on-time submissions across multi-EIN agencies.
Strengthening Data Visibility and Trust
Payroll admins exported data to validate totals and verify wage breakdowns.
Designed a transparent totals view with rollups, jurisdiction-level detail, and contextual breakdowns.
Impact: Teams validated data in-system, decreasing reliance on spreadsheets and improving trust in calculated values.
Learnings
What this project taught me about designing for complex, high-stakes workflows:
Start with Real Workflows
Grounding the project in actual year-end processes and constraints helped prevent rework and made every design choice more credible.
Share Early, Share Rough
Early low-fidelity reviews with engineering surfaced technical considerations before they became blockers, keeping the solution feasible and scalable.
Align Through Collaboration
Weekly working sessions with PM and engineering clarified open questions, strengthened requirements, and ensured the team shared a unified understanding of what we were building.
Other Projects 👇
Salary Schedules Redesign
A redesigned workflow that gives HR teams a faster, more transparent way to manage grades and steps.
View project →
Historical Document Import
A new import workflow that gives HR teams a clear, guided way to validate and upload historical documents.
View project →