Alps2Alps: design function from scratch
Context
When I joined, the company had decided to actively invest in product development. There was no shortage of products: the main website, a user account area, a passenger mobile app, a driver app, a CRM for internal managers — and a new brand for the US market in the pipeline.
There was no design function to speak of. Two designers had just been hired, one of them underperforming. No processes, no rituals, no stable team. I was brought in as Design Lead to build all of this from scratch.
Problem
First — chaos in Figma. Every product and brand had its own design system, all living inside working layout files. The three mobile kits duplicated each other, were poorly structured, and difficult to work with. The web kit was outdated: badly organised components, inconsistent typography. All of these had to be maintained in parallel.
Second — the team. One of the two designers wasn't performing. It became clear that parting ways and hiring someone new was a better use of time than trying to fix the situation.
Third — a hard deadline. The product is seasonal: the ski season start date is fixed, and everything had to be ready by then. The backlog of planned improvements and product launches was enormous. We had to work intensively and make decisions fast.
What we did
Team and processes
First, we parted ways with the underperforming designer. A short-term dip in pace seemed like a fair trade for a stronger designer in the long run. That's exactly how it played out.
Reviewed over 1,000 CVs, ran dozens of interviews — found and onboarded a new designer.
In parallel, I built out the processes: 1-to-1s, design reviews, design demos, retros. We also introduced a standing open slot — any designer could drop in with layouts or questions without scheduling in advance. This eliminated situations where work disappeared into a vacuum: problems surfaced earlier, solutions got better.
Design system
We merged three mobile design systems into one: rewrote from styles to tokens, moved everything into a separate repository file, removed styles from working files. Components were replaced across all layouts, keeping the same naming conventions and colour values — to minimise breakage. We cross-checked against production. The result: three sources of truth became one.
The web kit was rebuilt from scratch: restructured components, simplified styles, fixed typography, brought in line with the current production state.
In parallel, we cleaned up Figma: removed outdated files, catalogued what remained, created master files with tables of contents. We assembled a single up-to-date link list in Notion.
Website redesign
Redesigned all internal and SEO pages across the public-facing site. The homepage had been approved before I joined — we reused its design decisions and adapted them to each page type. Prepared specs, new components, and marketing guidelines. Supported development with design reviews.
Booking funnel overhaul
User research surfaced three core problems: too many fields, a confusing form structure, and poor copy. We used these insights to fully redesign the funnel — from step architecture to microcopy.
Driver app overhaul
Rebuilt the entire trip flow from the driver's side — from the daily tasks overview to pickup, waiting, and boarding. Clarified trip statuses and reduced each screen to a single primary action, with passenger check-in consolidated into one sheet (on board / no-show). Added a day-off request flow so drivers can plan availability in-app instead of calling dispatch.
US market brand launch
A new brand, Rock2Rocks, for the American market: homepage, inner pages, booking funnel. The go-to-market was built on organic traffic — pages were designed to be easily populated with SEO content.
This is where the investment in the design system paid off: since everything was token-based, we took the existing Alps2Alps layouts and switched the token values to Rock2Rocks brand colours. Brand-specific elements were adjusted by hand. Instead of a full redesign — a few days of work. The product launched and started showing growth in the US market.
Shared Transfers
A new product — fixed-route shuttles at a lower price than private transfers. We designed the web pages and a separate booking funnel. The product launched.
Result
In ~6 months: design team built and running, three mobile design systems unified into one token-based system, web kit rebuilt from scratch. Six product directions shipped: website redesign, booking funnel overhaul, Rock2Rocks brand for the US market, Shared Transfers, passenger app improvements, and driver app overhaul.
The ending was unexpected. The product is seasonal — the company decided it performs well enough without active investment in development. Engineering was paused, the design team was dissolved. The engagement ended.