Power Plays in Digital Experience: How the NHL Transformed Work on ServiceNow

Rewiring employee and partner engagement through intelligent design and embedded partnership

The National Hockey League runs its business on ServiceNow. From IT and HR to partner operations, the platform connects teams across the U.S. and Canada. Yet, over time, the League’s digital experience had grown uneven, with multiple portals, a growing backlog, and a partner that executed requests without advancing the vision.
The NHL wanted more than ticket resolution. It needed a team that could co-create, advise, and scale design.

A new kind of partnership

That search led the League to INRY, a Cprime company, after seeing our Total Engagement Framework session at the ServiceNow Summit in Charlotte. The NHL’s digital transformation lead, John Stein, recognized a shared philosophy: user experience as a strategic lever, not a finishing touch.

When INRY’s team joined the engagement, we became an extension of the NHL’s own Scrum teams, working side by side through every sprint.

Unlike traditional staff augmentation, the NHL gained an adaptive DevOps model backed by full-stack expertise. Architects, UI/UX specialists, and developers rotated in as needs evolved. That flexibility created momentum without losing focus on experience quality. This approach reflects our philosophy of guided evolution—meeting each client where they are and advancing transformation through continuous alignment, quick wins, and scalable design.

Designing for experience, not just delivery

Early priorities centered on modernizing the Employee Center Pro (EC Pro) "My Home Ice" portal, a cornerstone of the internal experience. The team rebuilt the Employee Directory, aligning it with NHL brand standards, improving responsiveness, and extending its functionality.
Next came a custom Event Calendar and a full UI/UX audit to unify visual language and accessibility across portals.

In parallel, INRY launched the League’s Virtual Agent with Now Assist, bringing conversational AI into everyday workflows. When AI Search briefly failed in production, our consultants diagnosed the issue within hours, restored functionality, and documented the fix, earning quick, visible trust from the client team.

“Thank you again for the prompt review and recommended steps to resolve. Our AI Search Genius Results and Virtual Agent are working as expected again in production.”
— John Stein, Senior Director of Digital Transformation, NHL

Outcomes that build confidence

In just a few months, the engagement evolved from backlog management to strategic collaboration.

46 user stories delivered across consecutive sprints, including Virtual Agent and EC Pro enhancements.

Clean, consistent branding established across employee portals.

Rapid resolution of AI and production issues through joint troubleshooting.

Positive client satisfaction, with survey feedback describing the collaboration as “wonderful” and expressing excitement to continue working together.

“Working with you and your team has been so wonderful. Super excited to continue.”
— Emma Harries, Project Coordinator, NHL

Each success opened the door to more. After the initial portal and AI work, the NHL added projects for Now Mobile, custom internal applications, and additional portal redesigns for club and partner audiences. Every new assignment reinforces the League’s trust in our ability to deliver both speed and sophistication.

Embedded expertise as a growth engine

INRY’s approach fused technical depth with design intuition, a hallmark of how we help organizations evolve from digital-native to AI-first operations.

“Our role wasn’t to take tickets; it was to elevate the work. By pairing UX expertise with ServiceNow architecture, we helped the NHL’s teams see what their platform could truly do.” — Samantha Smith, Senior Consultant, INRY

“The NHL wanted a candid, co-creative relationship. They valued that we could look at their work, challenge it constructively, and make every sprint deliver real improvement.” — Joel Bowles, Engagement Lead, INRY

This embedded model lets the NHL scale experience innovation while maintaining governance and agility. The organization gained a unified partner with orchestrating experience, functionality, and AI capabilities across its ServiceNow ecosystem.

Expanding the vision

The next phase focuses on Now Mobile, where design reviews are already underway. The goal: empower employees to access critical tools through intuitive, mobile-first experiences that extend the brand’s excellence beyond the desktop.

As the League continues integrating Now Assist and Virtual Agent capabilities, it is building the foundation for a truly AI-first operating model where workflows anticipate needs and every interaction moves seamlessly from resolution request.

Seeing digital work in a new light

Through the NHL engagement, INRY demonstrated how intelligent design and guided evolution transform everyday workflows into connected experiences.
The League’s portals, mobile experiences, and AI agents now reflect a cohesive digital identity that’s scalable, adaptive, and built for continuous improvement.

This collaboration stands as proof of what happens when strategy and execution move in harmony: innovation flows, user satisfaction rises, and transformation becomes sustainable.

Click here to Download the PDF