REI mobile app concept & strategy
REI is an outdoor adventure retailer and service provider whose mission is to “inspire, educate and outfit for a lifetime of outdoor adventure and stewardship”. We worked with them to envision and validate an app concept with the goal of inspiring people to get outdoors more. The result was a concept that elicited more excitement than we have ever seen, even after we stripped out half the features for a slim MVP.
Context
Project type User-centered design, envisioning & strategy, MVP prioritization
Key tasks Foundational research, competitive audit, concept ideation based on research insights, UX & visual design, prototyping, evaluative research, concept validation & prioritization, MVP recommendations, pitch deck for the REI senior leadership team.
My role Project lead, design, prototyping, strategy, collaborating on research
We had a core team of 2 - myself and a super talented researcher. Because we were conducting research in multiple locations simultaneously, I was facilitating sessions as well as doing the design work with input, ideas. We collaborated regularly with our head of design, partner team and pulled in additional people for ideation and feedback.
The Challenge
The goal of this project was to design an app that would further actualize the REI mission (below) and increasing the following business metrics: broaden the customer base, get people into new outdoor sports, expand awareness of classes and adventure centers and increases membership.
the Result
the Process
Target audience + key barriers identified in foundational research
Our objective for the foundational research was to talk to people who matched characteristics of our 2 target audiences, talk to them about their aspirations for outdoor activities, and the barriers that prevented them from achieving their aspirations. Findings are summarized below.
Competitive research
We did extensive research to understand what the existing products were in this space, how they addressed the key barriers that we uncovered, where there was opportunity for a differentiated product, and how it would fit into a complete user journey with an ecosystem of other apps.
Concept creation
We facilitated a concept ideation session guided by a set of HMWs created to focus concepts on key user barriers and business goals.
Nation-wide concept testing
Below are some of the first mockups built from the concept sketches and tested with the target audience to validate, prioritize and refine. We went to strategic markets around the country, identified our target audiences, and asked them questions around whether or not the concept is something they would be interested in using, if and how it might address their barriers, and how, and if they had any suggestions for improvement. Based on the insights from this study, we prioritized features and refined the app concept.
Results
The first phase of work ended with a pitch deck to the REI leadership team. They loved it and approved another round to identify and refine an MVP version of the app that they intended to build. Last I heard, the project was on hold.
These were all the features that people loved, but that cut for the MVP:
