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Background
REI has set an amazing goal to have 50 million co-op members by 2030, and they need innovative ideas to achieve it. That's where
the Innovation Team comes in. They're responsible for using a human-centered approach to produce tangible results that can
gradually scale into $100 million ideas. During my internship, I had the chance to work on several exciting projects that involved testing
various products and services for user interest and market fit. These projects were expected to launch within the next 2-5 years. My
main project was super cool, as I got to design a service at a national level and conduct research. I learned a lot of research writing
skills, worked with an awesome team, and tried some scrappy testing to get amazing results. The best part was meeting some really
cool and amazing people, and I fell in love with research. Tinkering with projects and conducting research work was simply amazing,
and I got to know a lot of folks which was just awesome!
Timeline
Aug - Dec 2023
Role
Researcher
Designer
Prototyper
Tools
Figma
Mural
Sketchup
Notion
UserTesting.com
Disciplines
Human Interface Guidelines
Interaction Design
Visual Design
1. History
REI Co-op is an 85-year-old outdoor gear retailer that has experienced significant growth over the years. They have become a
highly successful brand with 179 retail stores across 39 states and 20 million members.
Their success can be attributed to their careful curation and sale of only the highest quality gear, their commitment to equitable
brands, and their delivery of top-notch customer service.
The Goal
When I joined in July they were currently at 20 million members
nationwide with a goal of 100 million in revenue and 50 million
members by 2035. This is a big goal, which leaves REI with an
interesting dilemma.
How will REI adapt to meet their goal, can they even do it?
The innovation team
That’s what the Innovation Team is for. To achieve this goal, the company must innovate and optimize its operations to generate
new growth ideas. The Innovation Team is responsible for de-risking these ideas through an iterative, low-cost, human-
centered approach that produces tangible results. These results have the potential to gradually scale into $100 million ideas that
will launch in 2-5 years. I worked on multiple projects over the summer, but my primary project was Bonfire.
2. Project Background
The main idea behind bonfire is that camping is difficult, we’ve heard this a lot in stores but especially online. Even for
experienced campers like most REI members. And this is because there are so many steps to going on an outdoor vacation.
So I created a persona for this group, a mix of our typical REI members and general outdoorsy non-members.
To sum it up there are about 6 steps to planning a vacation:
Define: Understand what materials what you have and understand what you want
Compare: Use the internet to find content and campsites to see what options you have out
there
Customize: Explore customizing registration and packing list to your situation
Confirm: Commit to booking and take steps to prepare for execution (scheduling dogsitter, taking
off work, etc.)
Execute: Get all of the stuff you need, pack, and do the not-so-fun stuff until/after you are
actually vacationing/relaxing
Enjoy: Fully embrace vacationing and take advantage of this experience
At the confirmation stage, users' sentiment is starting to rise. Planning a trip is already a challenge, but getting there presents a
whole new set of problems. Throughout this journey, we identified several opportunities for improvement that have given us
numerous ideas to explore.
During their journey, the team discovered that people want assistance with planning and support to ease their burden. Keeping
this in mind, they conducted a study with about 2,008 individuals and tested various ideas. Although all of the ideas were
received positively, the hosted camp solution was the most popular.
At an 61% appeal rating: The concept occasional outdoor adventurers, primary-planners, GenX and millennials, parents, women,
navy, and north easterners found the concept most appealing. The concept is unappealing to frequent travelers, evergreens,
non-priority segments, boomers, non-parents, men, and those who live in the west.
Knowing this the team needed to figure out how many people actually
would be interested in it and how they would like so they did a range of
tests and interviews eventually getting to this version of
This was the offering I joined in July, and it was already well-received by many people. My task has been to help prepare it for
launch next year and improve any gaps in the service.
But I kept wondering the question how do we attract & retain new members?
3. Importance
Service Mapping Sessions
My team hosted 2 sessions to design our ideal experience of this
service. The first session was with only the Innovation Team and the
second was with the team that hosts live services and experiences.
Service Breakdown
In these we broke down the user experience into 3 parts:
We then made swim lanes of what good happens, the bad that could happen, and any possible problems:
In order to attract and retain new members, it is important to design our service in a way that is accessible to everyone,
regardless of their background. This means creating an equitable and inclusive service that provides the best possible
experience to all users. By doing so, we not only do the right thing, but we also create a better service overall, which in turn
attracts new customers.
the bigger picture
My team hosted 2 sessions to design our ideal experience of this service. The first session was with only the Innovation Team and the
second was with the team that hosts live services and experiences.
4. Research Plan
When I brought it up to my team they gave me full support to look as long as I ironed out a few things, starting with syncing on
what actually useful things I could learn for the CO-OP.
Research goals
Goal #1
Identify hard must-haves and nice-to-haves for BIPOC communities when it comes to outdoor
vacations.
Goal #2
Determine how we can make the outdoor industry more comfortable for BIPOC
Goal #3
Determine how we can make the outdoor industry more comfortable for BIPOC
methodology
Qualitative
Since I wanted to get some really insightful responses, I decided to do user interviews. At first I tried an interview style of us
building their ideal version of their trip and try to probe where I could. But I found that it took up a little too much time going
through each part of the journey visually and I wouldn’t be able to analyze/share this data easily.
So instead I opted to put together a new discussion guide and conduct a new batch of 16 unmoderated interviews on
Usertesting.com. For the test, users went through a landing page test of our offering that we've used before and I asked questions about their thoughts and needs. I found this to work out really well, I was able to analyze the data & any major points, take those transcripts, and distill them down later.
But I still wanted to dig even deeper, so I went ahead and did another 16 moderated interviews to get even more feedback. Here I dug
deeper on common topics I heard in the unmoderated sessions, topics that no one brought up, and got to experiment with
ideas/solutions other sessions brought up
interview demographics
34 Participants (3 SME’s & 31 Citizens)
Ages 18-57 (Gen-Z, Millenial, Gen-X)
Interest in planning an outdoor activity in past/future 12 months
50% Black, 50% Non-Black
16 Moderated interviews
16 Unmoderated interviews
So with all these demographics I got two main groups
Older Families of Color
Younger Non-Families
Late Millennials - Gen X (37 - 56)
50% Black
50% (Hispanic, Asian, Pacific Islander,
Native American)
Gen Z - Young Millennials (18 - 36)
50% Black
50% (Hispanic, Asian, Pacific Islander,
Native American)
Looking for themes
We’re looking for themes expressed across participants
Even though the sample size is insufficient for most types of extrapolation, we can still have a high degree of confidence in the
findings if we pay attention to the underlying themes of what people are saying and feeling, despite the small number of
participants.
Understand Them
Understand their current situation completely
Labeling & prioritizing themes helps to ensure that the research is aligned with the specific needs and concerns of the target
audience, and can help to generate more relevant and useful insights.
& Group them
Document the intersectional complexities of each issue
It is rare for one problem to have only one cause, and often a single cause can lead to multiple problems. Our goal is to identify
and rank connections between issues based on the user's perspective.
5. Results
So how did Bonfire do?
BIPOC generally liked the offering
11/16 (69%) said they like our initial offering page
4/35 (11%) people knew who REI
This is great because that means most people didn’t have any history on REI, and still were interested in the offering.
Ok but what did I learn? 3 things actually!
I saw this in every aspect of creating the trip, people were hoping for control over every aspect of the trip
Across the board, older families were looking to control around pricing: how could I customize the pricing around my trip, and
what options did I have with my price. But this wasn’t necessarily important for younger non-families
Younger non-families loved the idea of an experience, its the end goal for most people. As long as they got to experience
something amazing, the money/situation could take a back-burner.
The next theme was being cherished, this means someone truly caring about you from before you even book to years later.
Feeling like you are being treated like family and like someone who’s feelings/opinions matter. This is important especially when
you have people entrusting their money and their lives to you.
The older families tended to care about creature comforts, making sure everything they needed was available or at least warned
about beforehand. It relieved a lot of stress knowing someone had your back with the baby crib, close bathrooms, etc.
This aspect of comfort ties in with their need for control, and was much more important for the younger non-families. As they
prefer to have control over their experience and be given the option to decide.
For most people, camping is already a scary concept, but imagine it being your first time, on your own/with your family, 2 hours
away from the city, with people you don't know, and with no idea what to do.
It's horrifying, especially when you are a person of color and especially if you are a black woman
Having protections & safeguards in a place far before signup is truly relieving, basic things like wifi/service added calm to
parents' minds and overall brought trust to our operation. But the biggest point was knowing there was someone out there like
me, there for me. A diverse, coordinated, prepared, and empathetic set of green vests (REI Employees) made users feel way
more comfortable
One thing I noticed in the younger non-families was the difficulties of distance, having a secure method of travel was not always
possible. Even just having one that was accessible and not extremely difficult was rare so planning a little ahead for people who
can't drive/live in a city who are young was a big plus in younger demographics
Recommendations & reflection
We learned a lot but heres a quick recap:
UX/UI Recommendations
I made a bunch more recommendations in my individual interview notes for the team but these were the main ideas/features I
suggested to focus on.
1. Price-based Estimating
Being able to customize the different parts of the offering on page to fit your budget and situation.
2. Being absolutely clear on what to bring
Making essential information very accessible and downloadable. Be clear on what the co-op has and doesn't have. (ie:
Packing Lists, Food Storage, Wildlife/Map, Emergency Plans, Pets)
3. Looking into new ways of securing payment
Being able to split the bill & pay in chunks or over time really interested this demographic.
4. Diverse and Inclusive Branding
Highlighting people in all forms having fun will bring in a much higher appeal rating (families, Gen-Z, disabled, etc.)
REflection
This is an experience I will never forget, I am so lucky work on an amazing team and on some amazing projects. I
learned a bunch from this internship but here’s a quick :
How Innovation, Research, and Design is done at big companies
Cross-functional Partnership and Planning
Innovation Mindset and Truly Iterative Design
Research Crafting/Operations
Some Scrappy Testing Methods & Thinking Outside of the Box Testing
The best part of my experience was meeting some really cool and amazing people. Being surrounded by
individuals who love the mission and come from all sorts of backgrounds was truly inspiring. REI was a place that
proved to me that I can do awesome stuff and take care of the world. It's where I fell in love with research and
discovered my mission as a designer - to make an impact for the greater good. I will never forget the times I had
here.
Lets Work Together!
Email Me!
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