[Rebrand] Mt. Bachelor ski resort - research phase

I wanted to do this personal project to show my design process. Of course every company is different and the process will be adapted accordingly. The project is separated into 4 different sessions:

1. Research

2. Design Brief

3. Logo Ideation

4. Style Guide and Application

As I just started this project, I didn’t expect COVID-19 will cause the world-wide shut down and all the ski resorts closed earlier than they planned. Since I’ve been quarantined at home, I couldn’t get all the interview done. Ideally I would like to get more data from different demography and get the ski resort involved.

Brief intro

Mt. Bachelor is a volcano located in Central Oregon. The ski resort is one of the biggest ski resort in the US (#6 in terms of the area.) It’s a volcano so you actually can ski 360°.

It’s owned by Powdr Corp which is also the company that owns Woodward. If you are not familiar with Woodward, it’s an action sports company. That’s also the reason why Bachelor terrain park got branded as Woodward in 19/20 season.
It also offers nordic skiing and tubing in winter; mountain biking in summer.

competitors

There are two types of competition for Bachelor - nation-wide and local.
For nation-wide competitors, I would point out the humongous corporates in ski industry - Vail and Alterra. Vail owns Epic pass, and Alterra owns Ikon pass. They both include crazy amount of ski resorts in the US and international destinations. If you’re a skier/snowboarder, you know the ski resorts included in these two passes got hammered by tourists.

Since Mt. Bachelor is not part of Epic or Ikon pass, most of the visitors are local or PNW dwellers. The competitors are the mountain resorts that’s located in the vicinity.

audience

Currently customer profile is local people living in Central Oregon (Bend, Sun River, Eugene) and weekenders from Portland. Local people usually buys season pass; city weekenders usually get 4-day pass. I roughly outline the four main types of audience-

Here’s the more detailed version (they’re based on my observation):

Fun Chaser
Skiing/snowboarding is their life. Most of them work at ski resort or have a part-time job at night that doesn’t affect their ski schedule. The style! It’s all about the style! They usually stay in park where they find most of the fun is - but if they go out, they make other people look like beginners.

Mountain Goat
They live in Bend or Sunriver and likely are weekday or senior pass holders. On powder days they would go on the mountain get some fresh turns in the morning and get back to work later. They’re decent in what they’re doing and not afraid to shred on the gnarly terrain.

Summit Achiever
It’s not surprising to see a Gopro on their helmets. They usually have experience traveling to different ski resorts across North America. If the summit lift is open, they’ll be in the line. This type of user has higher chance morphing to backcountry skiers and ditch ski resort.

Groomer Taker
They usually come with family and are the main contributors to the lodge. They would come early on a weekend, spend whole day at ski resort, and take a lot of photos. Restricted by the days they can come out skiing, they might have skied for many years but still stick with groomers. They probably have a Summit Achiever Dad.

user research - interview

The goal of the interview is understanding who they are and their experience at Mt. Bachelor. Ideally (without being quarantined), the interview will be targeting 4 different users:

• Park rider, very experienced

• Mountain cruiser, intermediate level, local

• Around 40 yo have 2-3 kids

• Expert knowledge in Bachelor 

I did manage to do two interview before the COVID-19 outbreak.

I don’t do survey or traditional interview. People usually give the answers you want, or they think who they are. Here’s the diagram showing different approach that can reach to different levels of human psychology.

I listed the questions I would like to know from the users, and designed the practice with different research tools.

The process is almost like a therapy. Interviewer has to carefully listen to what user say and ask questions to dig deepr.

Along with the marketing research, the design team will filter the data and generate insights. The next step will be creating design brief, 6 attributes, and mood board.