Redesigning how REI manages bike service across 200+ stores
Getting behind feels stressful. Being ahead builds confidence. Managers were padding schedules not because the tool was confusing, but because they didn't trust it.​
CONTEXT
The problem behind the problem
Hub is REI's internal Salesforce tool for managing bike repair work orders across 200+ US stores. The stated ask was: improve the scheduling flow. But when we started digging, the real issue was more human than systemic.​
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Stores were blocking out full days as "catch-up days," leaving artificial gaps, and hiding available capacity from the system, all to protect themselves from breaking a promised date. The consequence of calling a customer to say their bike wasn't ready on time felt worse than having long wait times. This wasn't a feature problem. It was a trust problem.
Goals
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Improving scheduling process
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Increasing store productivity
RESEARCH
Mixed methods, at real scale
We didn't assume the problem was universal — REI's stores vary enormously in size, geography, and culture. So we designed research to test that.
500
Survey respondents across 200+ US stores
13
Video interviews — in-depth workflow exploration
6
In-store visits for contextual observation
3
Key opportunity areas surfaced from synthesis
Getting behind feels stressful, being ahead builds confidence
Shops were implementing workarounds to prevent falling behind
Blocking out full days as “catch-up days,” not scheduling work on certain days to artificially push out promise dates, leaving gaps in the schedule between work orders, and reducing available hours to limit what can be scheduled.
The consequences of breaking a promise date felt worse than
wait times
Having to call a customer and tell them that their work order wasn’t completed on time is awkward and embarrassing.
PLATFORM ENHANCEMENTS
Designing for the mental model, not the system model
Two design enhancements on Salesforce drove most of the measurable impact
Removing breaks to enhance availability and decrease management effort
Removed break visibility from the scheduling view. Managers were manually removing breaks to prevent overbooking — a workaround that added hours of rework per week. Hiding breaks from the display eliminated the confusion at the source.
↳ 5,000 hrs/yr rework eliminated
