Defining the Digital Future of the Ski School Experience
Leading UX strategy and visual evolution for a high-stakes, industry-first digital ski school companion.
Role
Co-lead designer
Client
Vail Resorts
Timeline
Q1-Q4 2025
We started with an industry-first vision of a ski school in-app feature to engage with parents and inspire a new generation of skiers.
Vail Resorts aimed to modernize their Ski & Ride School by launching an industry-first digital companion within the existing My Epic app to engage new audiences and drive revenue within the line of business. The project faced a hard nine-month season-start deadline, significant legacy tech constraints, and moving targets as the business strategy evolved.
I designed a gamified experience that offers digital check-in, showcases skills progression, and provides real-time lesson updates.
I led the UX strategy and visual evolution while managing weekly stakeholder alignments to sell design decisions across complex business units. By translating technical hurdles into a simplified, gamified mobile experience, I delivered a scalable product that modernizes the on-mountain journey for millions of global guests.
This work helped to establish a scalable framework for a global rollout across 40+ resorts
As of writing, the feature is in the final rollout phase for the upcoming ski season, however, the project has already generated significant industry buzz as it prepares to introduce these groundbreaking features to their 40+ global resorts and hundreds of thousands of annual ski & ride students.
Operational Efficiency: Automated the lesson check-in and progress-tracking process reduced manual friction for instructors and students.
Organizational Shift: Established a new precedent for in-app gamification that the business plans to scale into other on-mountain activities.
Executive Buy-in: Secured final approval from C-suite leadership by successfully introducing modernized UI interface with a thoughtful system logic that plays nicely with legacy technical requirements.
There's so much more to the story
I’d love to walk you through some specific highlights and the hurdles that shaped my growth through this project.