Gilson Snow

Overview

The Challenge

Gilson Snow is the largest producer of custom snowboards and skis. The company founders, Nick Gilson (CEO) and Austin Royer (COO), developed an innovative 3-D design based on the observation that objects moving through a fluid, e.g. boats and planes, are curved to maximize efficiency. Gilson and Royer established this unique curved design, patented it and formed Gilson Snow to sell mass-customized snowboard and skis using the patented “soft edge” technology direct to consumers.

Gilson Snow tasked us with the challenge of diving into their customer and purchase data and uncovering significant insights about the behavior, attitudes, and motivations current and prospective customers. Our team supplemented our quantitative exploration with qualitative research methods to provide Gilson with richer tools to utilize in building their business and marketing strategies.

The Problem

How might we help Gilson Snow better understand their customers, the journeys they take, and capitalize on opportunities to serve them?

Research Approach

After exploring and analyzing the data Gilson Snow provided us, we were confident in our understand of what was currently happening. We cultivated a growing list of questions that we wanted to use to find out why they were happening.

To find the answers to our questions, we conducted observe and intercept interviews with customers and sales associates at local ski and snowboard retailers. We reached out and spoke with industry partners at both the local and national level. We also conducted semi-structured interviews with both Gilson customers and non-Gilson customers who ski and snowboard.

We synthesized all our data across each of our different research channels through an extensive affinity diagram.

While looking for trends, needs, pain points, and opportunities, we categorized our findings to develop key insights for Gilson in 4 different categories: education, community, customer service, and personalization.

Outcome-Driven Personas

To make actionable personas, we used an outcome-driven approach based on the Jobs to Be Done theory. The four personas we created are centered around user goals and the behaviors undertaken in pursuit of those goals.

We chose to align our personas on two axes: an identity axis (I snowboard vs. I am a Snowboarder) and experience level axis (beginner vs. expert riders), as these were emerging trends we noticed through our research synthesis process.

Click on a persona to see more!

Customer Journey Maps

We constructed two customer journey maps for Gilson: one showcasing a customer’s journey for purchasing a snowboard through retail and another’s through purchasing the snowboard online.

Why retail?
Our research showed key opportunities in the current ski/snowboard retail space that are not represented in the online equipment purchasing experience.

Why online?
To visualize the positives and negatives of purchasing skis/snowboards online and highlight the areas where Gilson is already excelling in or has opportunities for growth.

Click on a journey map to expand!

Presenting Our Findings