Crystal Ski Explorer iOS app
A skier’s pocket tool for getting the most out of the mountain
The opportunity
Crystal Ski’s proposition is built around its overseas expertise and the quality of its resort reps. That expertise was strongly delivered on-mountain, but difficult for customers to access before departure and in-resort, particularly when on the slopes. The brief was to extend that value digitally through a native mobile experience that would become a core part of the customer journey.
Identifying value propositions
Initial ideation was grounded in the customer journey map, identifying key moments where digital support could meaningfully extend the ski experience before, during and after travel.
Early value propositions were tested through focus groups, helping us refine which concepts resonated most strongly and which would genuinely motivate usage.
From this, we developed a user acquisition strategy that directly shaped the product roadmap across three phases:
- We focused on building a base of skiers beyond just existing customers, with particular emphasis on “party lead” skiers — the individuals who typically organise group trips and influence booking decisions.
- We expanded engagement through social and group-oriented features designed to give every member of a ski party a reason to download and actively use the app, not just the person who booked.
- We layered in post-booking services and value-added functionality to increase retention and deepen utility for paying customers once their holiday was confirmed.
The product itself was designed specifically for the realities of skiing — on-mountain conditions, glove-friendly usage, variable visibility — combining rep-generated content, live snow and weather data, and GPS-based piste mapping.
A true team effort
Delivering Crystal meant reaching well beyond a single team into other departments across the business and out to external partners, all pulling in the same direction at once to deliver to a hard deadline; the upcoming ski season’s first arrivals.
Product Design and User Research
My own team led the core design work end to end, from early concept through to the shipped experience.
Marketing
Closely involved to make sure the app’s look, tone and feel landed in step with the recent rebrand, and to coordinate activity around the launch event itself.
Overseas teams
A critical source of on-the-ground feedback, and the team responsible for producing all the content for the resort guides; the local knowledge that made the guides feel authentic rather than generic.
External development agency
Brought in to build the app, and leaned on heavily for their specific expertise in route planning and tracking, which sat outside our own team’s core skillset.
Coordinating across that many stakeholders, each with their own priorities and pace, meant someone had to hold the single thread connecting it all. That was my role throughout; keeping the vision consistent across every team and supplier, so what shipped felt like one coherent product rather than the sum of separate workstreams.
Taking the app to market
We launched a soft release in the first season with existing customers, using it as a live testing environment to gather behavioural feedback and iterate quickly on core features.
This proved successful, allowing us to refine the proposition ahead of a more ambitious hard launch in the second season. At that point, the app became a central promotional asset for Crystal, featured prominently at skiing events and trade shows, supported by in-person engagement rather than paid media.
The outcome
The app achieved 3,000 downloads in its first month and 55,000 downloads in its second full season — driven entirely by word of mouth and customer recommendation.
It became a clear differentiator for Crystal Ski, strengthening pre-departure engagement and setting a new benchmark for mobile product thinking across the wider SHG group.