At REI (Recreational Equipment Inc.), a Project Manager plays a vital role in translating the co-op’s outdoor-focused mission into structured, successful initiatives. Unlike traditional retail corporations, REI operates as a member-owned co-op, which means every project must balance commercial success with member value, community impact, and environmental stewardship. As a Project Manager, you will sit at the intersection of cross-functional teams, driving projects that range from digital product launches and marketing campaigns to retail operations and supply chain optimization.

The impact of this role is highly visible. You will be responsible for aligning diverse stakeholder groups—including creative teams, marketing specialists, digital product managers, and external vendors—to deliver initiatives on time and within scope. Whether you are managing the rollout of a new digital experience or coordinating a complex multi-channel marketing campaign, your work directly influences how millions of co-op members interact with the brand.

To succeed in this position at REI, you must possess a unique blend of operational discipline and relational leadership. The environment is highly collaborative, requiring you to influence without authority and lead through ambiguity. Successful Project Managers at the co-op are not just master schedulers; they are strategic partners who understand how to foster a culture of shared ownership while maintaining a relentless focus on delivery execution.

To help you prepare, we have synthesized representative questions from real candidate experiences at REI. While the exact questions may vary depending on the specific team and business unit you are interviewing with, they consistently target core project management competencies, behavioral alignment, and your ability to navigate complex organizational structures.

Behavioral & Leadership (STAR Format)

These questions evaluate your past experiences, leadership style, and how you handle challenging interpersonal dynamics. REI relies heavily on the STAR (Situation, Task, Action, Result) format to assess these competencies.

• Tell me about a time you had to deliver a high-stakes project with highly constrained resources or limited data.
• Describe a situation where you had to lead a cross-functional project team without having formal authority over the team members.

Preparing for an interview at REI requires a balanced approach. You must demonstrate rigorous project management capabilities while showing a deep alignment with the co-op's unique organizational culture.

To stand out, focus your preparation on the following key evaluation criteria:

STAR Methodology Mastery – Your interviewers will evaluate how structured and detailed your behavioral answers are. You must frame your past experiences using the Situation, Task, Action, and Result structure, ensuring you clearly highlight your specific contributions and the quantitative results of your projects.

Cross-Functional Collaboration – You must demonstrate an ability to build relationships and drive consensus across disparate teams, such as marketing, creative, digital, and retail operations. Be ready to discuss how you bridge communication gaps between technical and non-technical stakeholders.

Ambiguity and Change Management – Projects at REI can evolve rapidly due to shifting market dynamics or seasonal changes. Interviewers look for candidates who remain calm under pressure, can pivot project plans seamlessly, and can manage stakeholder expectations through periods of uncertainty.

Operational Rigor – You will be evaluated on your technical project management toolkit, including your ability to define scope, manage budgets, build timelines, track dependencies, and utilize modern project management software.

The interview process for a Project Manager at REI typically spans several weeks and is designed to evaluate both your technical execution skills and your behavioral alignment with the co-op’s culture. While the process is structured, candidates should be prepared for potential administrative variations and should remain proactive in their communication with recruiters.

The journey generally begins with an initial recruiter phone screen to review your background and basic qualifications. This is often followed by an informal introductory conversation with the hiring manager to discuss the role's scope and responsibilities. If there is mutual alignment, you will move into the core evaluation stages, which frequently include a multi-hour panel interview loop consisting of 1:1 and peer interviews. For some teams, particularly within marketing or digital product, you may be asked to complete a short take-home exercise, such as preparing a creative brief or project plan, to showcase your hands-on capabilities.

The timeline above illustrates the standard progression from your initial application to the final decision stage. Candidates should interpret this timeline as a framework to manage their preparation energy, keeping in mind that the scheduling gap between the hiring manager screen and the panel loop can sometimes take two to three weeks. Because the process involves coordinating multiple cross-functional stakeholders, maintaining a structured preparation schedule is key to staying sharp.

To help you focus your preparation, we have broken down the primary evaluation areas you will encounter during your REI interview loop.

Behavioral & Core Competencies

This area is designed to assess how you work, lead, and collaborate in alignment with REI's cooperative culture. The panel will look for evidence of empathy, resilience, and collaborative problem-solving.

Be ready to go over:

• Conflict Resolution – How you navigate disagreements between creative, technical, and business stakeholders.
• Value Alignment – Your understanding of REI's co-op model and your commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion, and environmental stewardship.
• Learning from Failure – Your ability to conduct post-mortems, identify root causes of project issues, and implement preventive measures in future initiatives.

Example scenarios:

• Managing a situation where a team member is not delivering on their commitments, threatening the project timeline.
• Facilitating a retro meeting after a project missed its launch date due to cross-functional alignment issues.

Project Planning & Brief Execution

For marketing-adjacent or digital-focused Project Manager roles, you may be evaluated on your ability to synthesize information quickly and produce actionable project documentation, such as creative briefs or project charters.

Be ready to go over:

• Brief Development – Translating business goals into clear, actionable creative or technical requirements.
• Resource Constraints – Working under tight deadlines with limited access to specialized tools or data.
• KPI Definition – Establishing clear metrics to measure the operational and strategic success of a project.

Example scenarios:

• Developing a comprehensive project plan for a seasonal marketing campaign with a highly compressed turnaround time.
• Identifying and securing alternate data sources to inform a project brief when your primary analytics tools are unavailable.

Stakeholder Management & Alignment

As a Project Manager, you must act as a trusted advisor to senior leaders and a supportive partner to execution teams. This section evaluates your communication strategy and your ability to manage expectations.

Be ready to go over:

• Managing Up – Communicating project status, risks, and resource needs effectively to executive sponsors and senior directors.
• Expectation Management – Handling situations where stakeholder expectations do not align with resource constraints or timelines.
• Cross-Functional Empathy – Understanding the unique workflows and pain points of different departments (e.g., creative agency processes vs. software development lifecycles).

Example scenarios:

• Navigating a scenario where a senior leader requests a last-minute feature addition that threatens to delay a critical retail rollout.
• Aligning a highly technical development team with a creative marketing team that has different communication styles and priorities.