Starbucks case study

How Starbucks Rolls Out New Stores With Hive’s Project Management Platform

The concept design studio at Starbucks defines the design palate for all 13,000+ Starbucks locations in the Americas and is integral to the process of opening new stores.

The team is responsible for identifying, vetting, and cataloging all of the interior design elements used in stores. From furniture to lighting to wall coverings, they find the highest quality items and negotiate with manufacturers to get the best price.

With stores constantly opening and a catalog of thousands of pre-approved items for their interior designers, the team is often juggling 40+ projects at once under tight deadlines.

The Challenge

Before using Hive, the team was managing all their projects in Excel, but it wasn’t scalable and it was prone to error. It was also completely separate from their files in Dropbox and their chat conversations in Outlook. With the team divided between New York and Seattle and their work spread out among so many tools, it was impossible to make sure everything was on track.

They wanted to a more efficient way to see what everyone was working on and easily set priorities. They also wanted a solution that could accommodate many different working styles, integrate with Dropbox, and maintain a shared record of information.

The Solution

Since switching to Hive, the speed of designing new stores has increased significantly. Every project – from vetting specific items to catalog management – is managed in Hive. At a glance, anyone can easily see which tasks are unstarted, in progress, under review, or completed.

Starbucks couldn’t roll new stores out so quickly without Hive. We have eliminated miscommunication, saved hours of unnecessary meetings, and achieved full transparency across all our projects,” says Brian Collins, Interior Concepts Design Manager.

Hive has also been able to accommodate different working styles on the team with flexible project views. From Gantt charts, status view, calendars and more, each team member can work in the style that suits them best. Having actions automatically updated on each project view, and on each individual’s action list, has allowed for full transparency across the entire team.

Hive has transformed the way the concept design studio works, centralizing work and allowing Starbucks to open new markets faster than before.