Ikon Pass

Background

Over the course of a ~5 year engagement, I guided Product & UX strategy for Alterra Mountain Company (Ikon Pass), partnering with in-house Product Management and distributed engineering teams to scale the #2 multi-resort ski pass in the world from early-stage startup to hundreds of thousands of annual passholders.

Noteworthy initiatives included:

• Ikon Pass marketing & checkout flows
• Snow condition & trail report dashboards
• Lodging information & booking flows
• Passholder portal (My Account)
• Ikon Pass mobile app onboarding
• Reservation booking (COVID-19)

As a wannabe ski bum, working with Ikon Pass has been a career-defining opportunity — and I'm grateful to have been a part of the journey from the early days, participating in what can only be described as rocket ship growth.

The relationship began in Banff, with previous work for CMH Heli-skiing. When Alterra was established, CMH was part of their initial wave of acquisitions, so when the Ikon Pass team went looking for help to build out their online presence, my team was at the front of the line.

By The Numbers

• #2 multi-resort product in the ski & snowboard industry
• 19 owned destinations
• 40+ partner destinations
• hundreds of thousands of annual passholders

This case study focuses on the transformation of the Ikon Passholder Portal (My Account).

I was the embedded Product Design Lead working in partnership with Alterra's in-house Product Management, marketing/IT stakeholders, and a distributed development team.

In this work, I inherited a simple shopping backend, then identified an opportunity to shift a once-a-year customer touchpoint into an ongoing relationship with the customer.

Opportunity Identification

The Feature That Started It All

One of the first new features I was asked to scope out and design was an Access Details view. The goal was to show passholders which resorts they had been to, where they could go, and how many days they had remaining (with the hope they'd also use this information to discover and explore new resorts).

Although the first version was quite simple, I suspected there was untapped potential to make this the heart of the experience. As I began to pull on that thread by analyzing usage patterns and survey data, a larger opportunity started to take shape.

Most desired pass information:

#1 - Total Days Used (63%)
#2 - Days used for each resort (63%)
#3 - Destination access information (46%)

This wasn't just about feature development or UX enhancements — it represented an opportunity to shift from a transactional relationship (annual pass purchase) to ongoing engagement throughout the season.

Strategy & Design Workshops

Working in tandem with another designer, we prepared two distinct concepts for a new passholder experience that would put usage front and centre. The explorations were intended to stretch the product capabilities with a North Star vision that would be industry leading.

I led a modified GV Sprint workshop with stakeholders in Denver, Colorado. Over the course of two days we explored the opportunity, discussed design concepts, and used dot voting to build consensus on which features to prioritize.

Based on my proposal — and backed by survey data and competitive analysis — leadership approved budget for a full platform redesign, reimagining the account portal which had been operating in an MVP state for a number of years.

UI Design & Prototyping

With budget approval in hand, I returned to Calgary to brief the team and start initial designs for the new account portal. At the time, COVID-19 was starting to send people home, so we migrated to Figma for the improved collaboration features and continued the work remotely.

Following the lead of the marketing and brand team, we first simplified the visual design language by moving away from the heavy-handed and distracting textures that had dominated the previous design.

Next, we adjusted the main layout. We expanded the main content area by moving the navigation bar to the top of the page, creating more space for the user's content. Then we put the user's usage information in the main view with cards showing destinations the user had visited, number of days remaining, and a toggle to see what other destinations were available to them. Mobile and desktop were designed in tandem, based on usage statistics that skewed towards the small screen.

Finally, we introduced a new feature that showcased snow conditions at the user's favourite destinations. I had initially proposed this feature for the mobile app where it received positive feedback, and I saw it as essential to encouraging return usage — especially for dedicated skiers and snowboarders. Because Ikon Pass is a collection of owned resorts and partner properties, this was a unique opportunity to take ownership of the customer relationship

Testing & Validation

My product management colleague and I had planned to do remote usability testing using a clickable Figma prototype. This user test would have been a first for Alterra's product team but unfortunately, our test plans were interrupted by shifting business priorities during the COVID-19 pandemic.

We pivoted to post-launch validation using HotJar's in-app survey tools, balancing speed-to-market with learning. The decision paid off, as the platform launched in time to support emergency initiatives, including a mountain reservation system and passholder insurance that kept resorts operational during the pandemic.

Development

I worked closely with Alterra's agile team throughout development (a mix of in-house developers, and staff augmentation from another agency in New Zealand).

To support the developers, I conducted a variety of support activities.

• Attended regular stand-ups
• Provided annotations clarifying expected behaviour
• Answered questions on Jira tickets and in Slack
• Troubleshooted issues one-on-one in ad hoc meetings
• Provided design QA support and testing
• Created new mockups when necessary

A significant functional area that had not been considered in the initial designs was the integration with the admin portal for Customer Service Representatives. These required quick adjustments to existing designs, and new designs for the admin UI. As the need for these had not been anticipated, I worked with the Product Manager to prioritize these requests and used existing patterns as much as possible to limit the need for retraining.

Results

Despite the setback on testing, we were still able to gather feedback after the intial launch and following subsequent feature releases using HotJar's in-app survey tools. The feedback was generally positive and customer satisfaction scores increased. In addition, Alterra's senior leadership praised the new direction.

In an unexpected twist of fate, the new account platform ended up launching in time to offer infrastructure for emergency initiatives during the altered pandemic season. This included a passholder insurance program, and a mountain reservation system that was essential for capacity planning and keeping resorts operational.

Without the account portal, launching these would have required gluing together various off-the-shelf systems. So even though we had to pivot on the overall direction (from engagement to keeping the lights on), the initiative demonstrated the value of preparedness with a modern technology stack and design system allowing for flexibility.

Unfortunately, due to client confidentiality, I cannot share any additional metrics for this work.