01 / Redesigning the RFI Process in Construction

Overview

A RFI (Request for Information) is a critical component of any construction project. It is document and process that gets used to clarify design details and resolve any issues between contractors, owners and/or consultants throughout the project's lifecycle. The process typically involves a subcontractor on site asking a question about the project that impacts their work. The answer to that question could lie with the architect, another consultant (plumber, electrician, environmental governing body) or even the client. Our job as the general contractor is to record the question and collect and distribute responses to the question to all relevant parties so that the construction work can continue. There can be a lot of back and forth as the answers and responses to an RFI may need further clarification from other consultants who weigh in.

Ensuring clear communication between various stakeholders on a project is crucial for completing a construction project within budget and schedule, therefore the RFI process needs to facilitate collaboration, transparency, trust, and accountability between everyone involved in completing the work.

Problem

The RFI system that was existing limited collaboration leading to bottlenecks, miscommunications, inaccurate timelines, and inconsistent record keeping. One of the largest, most obvious problems with the existing RFI tool was that it was only accessible for internal users. This meant any communication with external consultants (architects, specific trade workers, subcontractors, etc) had to be manually copied from emails into our system, often retroactively, making the submission process fragmented and error-prone.

Along with that, the RFI document workflow was extremely rudimentary and didn't allow for any flexibility in assignees or stages throughout the RFI document's lifecycle, which doesn't accurately reflect the RFI processes that are employed in an actual construction project.

With no ability to update or reassign participants as the RFI evolved, this resulted in delays when consultants were unavailable or when additional expertise was needed mid-process. Responses were not tracked at the individual level, making it difficult to monitor accountability or extract any insights that could be valuable to the current as well as future projects (i.e. tracking time it takes certain consultants or subcontractors to respond).

Discovery & Research

• Stakeholder interviews (project managers, document coordinators, consultants, executives, legal teams who process insurance claims based on RFIs) to identify pain points and inefficiencies
• Understanding of current RFI creation and tracking processes
• Review of RFI email threads and auditing their corresponding RFIs logged in the system
• Heuristic evaluation of the existing interface

Key Insights

• Users needed flexibility to adapt RFIs to accurately reflect the back and forth of a request's lifecycle
• Lack of integrated communication tools created fragmented, inaccurate record keeping
• PMs wanted clearer visibility into who had the RFI at each stage and for how long
• Executive teams were seeking data to assess consultant responsiveness and risk

User Journey Mapping

We mapped the full lifecycle of an RFI, from start to resolution, identifying any potential inefficiencies. By comparing the current journey with an ideal future state, we identified key opportunities:

• Empowering field teams to create RFIs on the spot, rather than retroactively
• Providing visibility into RFI status and history
• Reducing reliance on email as the primary communication tool
• Centralizing information in a format usable by all stakeholders

Design Approach

Wireframes & Flows:

• Built wireframes that prioritze quality data entry with low cognitive load
• Used conditional logic and field validations to ensure complete RFI submission

Key UX Enhancements:

• Redesigning the document's workflow engine to be more flexible and accommodate changes
• Incorpoarted clear document status indicators
• Redesigned the RFI submission form to include better categorization (users can now add custom labels to RFIs that help them sort and sift through RFIs for a project)
• Redesigned the RFI landing page (table of all RFIs on a project) to include filtering, sorting, saved views, and more functionality to help document coordinators manage RFIs on a project
• Built email integration and notification system to eliminate double entry of consultant responses and provide updates to relevant parties
• Integrated with our platform's internal design system for visual consistency

Cross-Team Collaboration

As the dedicated UX designer on the RFI rebuild project, I worked across three development and product teams to coordinate UX research, align technical feasibility with design strategy, and advocate for user needs. The other teams that were logically needing to be involved were the communications product team, who were handling the platform's email service and inbox, as well as the workflow engine team, who handled rebuilding the workflow engine for documents in order to allow for that flexibility in stage/assignees and capture data related to time the RFI spent in each stage of its workflow.

Outcome & Impact

• Reduced administrative burden on internal staff
• Improved quality and consistency of RFI data (tracking response times, quality of responses, categorizing various RFIs on projects for easier readaiblity, etc)
• Greater accuracy in tracking RFI resolution time and tracking consultant accountability
• Internal staff reported less time spent on email triage and manual entry
• Created a foundation for further collaboration tools between internal and external stakeholders for our platform as a whole

Reflection

This project highlighted how internal tools can unintentionally silo communication and create inefficiencies, especially when key collaborators are excluded from the process. By addressing both the user experience and workflow design, we were able to shift RFI handling from reactive to proactive. Redesigning the RFI tool pushed me to analyze an experience with a digital product more holistically, considering offline processes that are part of the reality of the construction environment.

‍