Eric Hoover

Spearheaded the development of the 21st Century PolicyNet (21CPN) to modernize SSA’s authoritative policy and procedure repository/search engine, including indexing 410,000 pages of instructions, serving over 40,000 employees enterprise-wide.

Achieved the launch of 21CPN on September 21, 2024, after six months of focused development, providing:

• Modernized, streamlined, and accessible user experience/interface.
• A.I. Powered by "Intelligent Search," utilizing learn-to-rank features, delivering more relevant search results.
• Ability to create, save, and organize tags for groups of policies and procedures.

Led the strategic direction for 21CPN, aligned with agency goals to accelerate technician proficiency, and reduce task time by 20%.

• Solicited for, created, coordinated, and led an agency-wide stakeholder team of 60+ during biweekly meetings, serving as a continuous feedback loop pre-, during, and post-development of product increments.
• Implemented structured Scrum ceremonies to ensure timely, budget-compliant, scope-adherent project delivery.
• Facilitated the identification and prioritization of user pain points and capabilities.
• Effectively presented initiatives at executive-level meetings, championing user-driven design principles.

Ongoing work also includes the creation of a modernized Virtual Helpdesk, a platform that empowers technicians to route the most complex policy/procedure questions through local field office technical experts, to Regional, and HQ domain experts for interpretation and authoritative guidance.

Also in progress is the development of our agency's internal policy chatbot, grounded in authoritative policy and procedure data stored in 21st Century PolicyNet. Our Policy Chatbot utilizes semantic search and generative A.I. to provide technicians with real-time assistance and guidance to both simple and complex policy/procedure questions. This tool allows our technicians to serve the public more efficiently, accurately, and in a timely manner, and it reduces training times.

Led the successful implementation of the Adjustment of Notice Referral Language in Light of COVID-19 Commissioner priority investment, standardizing notice referral language across all Agency components, offices, and programs, ultimately reducing technician burden and customer confusion.

• Facilitated working meetings between Policy, Systems, the Chief Business Officer, and stakeholders to address pain points and ensure strategic and tactical alignment.
• Shepherded contentious meetings with various stakeholders to resolve formatting and content issues, and negotiated compromise.
• Drafted four main and fourteen optional referral language paragraphs, standardizing agency-wide communication
• Revised 133 Universal Text Identifier (UTI) paragraphs to ensure compliance
• Drafted and received Commissioner and Office of Management and Budget sign-off for notice clearance packages totaling 242 pages.
• Successfully released standardized referral language on June 10, 2022, replacing 121 existing paragraphs with 4 standardized paragraphs.

Additionally, I served as the Component Support Staff representative, or Investment Lead, for all of the operations. Advocated for operations executives during the IT budget process, facilitating the successful conception, funding, approval, and prioritization of multiple IT investments.

As Product Owner for Social Security's authenticated self-service platform, mySocialSecurity, I conceptualized, planned, acquired funding for, lobbied for support, led, and ultimately released the Retirement Calculator in September 2019.

This transformed what was a manual process in a field office, requiring an in-person visit and printing of a paper document, to an entirely electronic self-service activity that could be completed by the customer anytime, anywhere there is internet or cell service. As of March 2025, the Retirement Calculator has been used over 245 million times, preventing millions of in-office visits, and saving the agency significant money on paper and printing costs.

A sample of service from my time as a Product Owner:

• Delivered consultative services and presented to agency leadership, C-suite executives, congressional liaisons, foreign government representatives, and social insurance organizations.
• Facilitated agile ceremonies, enhancing team collaboration and project delivery efficiency
• Conducted detailed evaluations of user interactions with the Retirement Calculator, achieving ForeSee customer satisfaction scores greater than Google.
• Chaired stakeholder meetings to address blind spots in service capabilities, gathering feedback from diverse components, and negotiating compromise to meet user needs, not individual executive mandates

I served the Social Security Administration as an Operations Supervisor, Technical Expert, Claims Specialist, and Customer Service Representative in four different field offices within Ohio for nearly ten years.

Provided compassionate support to more than 10,000 individuals facing significant life changes such as bereavement, disability, and retirement.

Highlights from my decade of direct service include:

As an Operations Supervisor, I reduced Internet Claim (I-Claim) initiation times from longer than a month to less than seven days, improving the timeliness, accuracy, and consistency of customer service. This was achieved by -

• Developing and executing innovative process enhancements for self-help PCs, such as installing doorbells at each desk, and printed guidance for customers, empowering staff to serve multiple customers simultaneously.
• Leading the E-Services Team, I provided numerous educational, promotional, and teambuilding events for our staff that improved employee engagement and increased monthly in-office mySocialSecurity account registrations by 457%.

As a Technical Expert, I served as a Title II, Title XVI, and Medicare subject matter expert, as well as a mentor to all of Area 5 (Northern Ohio). I demonstrated this by -

• Providing demos and presentations to senior citizen centers, insurance specialist professionals, financial planning organizations, and state/local government entities.
• Completing organizational payee site reviews, investigating all fiduciary, legal, and care documentation to ensure that said entity could keep its credential.
• Implemented eMailer 3.0 to automate appointment reminders, enhancing online filing and reducing appointment wait times to 28 days.
• I evaluated and developed policies impacting service delivery, focusing on SSA's Internet applications, by supporting regional and national policy review requests, and ensuring technical accuracy and clarity in POMS policy rewrites. Five of my suggestions were implemented.