UX Department

Product Design, UX Research, Technical Writing, and Design System collaborate to create the GitLab product experience as part of Upstream Studios.

UX at GitLab encompasses Product Design, UX Research, Technical Writing, and Design System—four disciplines working in close collaboration to shape the GitLab product experience. Together with Brand, we form Upstream Studios, GitLab’s full-stack experience organization.

UX focuses specifically on the product—designing interfaces, conducting research, writing documentation, and building the design system that powers the GitLab application. While Brand shapes how the world experiences GitLab externally, UX ensures the product itself is productive, minimal, and human.

Our disciplines

Product Design

Product Designers are strategic partners in the product development process, working in trios with Product Management and Engineering to shape user experiences from concept to delivery. Positioned upstream—involved in Interlock planning from the start—Product Designers drive product decisions with user-centered thinking.

Learn more about Product Design →

UX Research

UX Researchers validate hypotheses before teams commit to direction, not after building has started. Through continuous discovery and strategic insight, research drives what we build and shapes how the entire company approaches decision-making.

Learn more about UX Research →

Technical Writing

Technical Writers focus their words where they create direct product impact—guiding users exactly where and when they need it most. Involved in product design early enough to influence where guidance lives and how it’s delivered, Technical Writing shapes the product experience, not just documents it.

Learn more about Technical Writing →

Design System

The Design System team delivers platform-wide patterns and production code that sets the foundation everyone builds on. With expanding capability to ship cross-cutting experiences, the Design System ensures consistency, quality, and velocity across the entire GitLab application through Pajamas, our product design system.

Learn more about Design System →

How UX works together

These four disciplines don’t work in silos—they collaborate throughout the product development process:

  • Research informs design through continuous discovery and validation
  • Design systems enable designers and engineers with reusable patterns and production code
  • Technical writing shapes the experience by influencing how and where guidance appears
  • Product design orchestrates the end-to-end user experience

Together, we ensure the GitLab product is not just functional, but intuitive and delightful.

Working in UX

Part of Upstream Studios

UX is one of two core groups within Upstream Studios, alongside Brand. While we focus on the product experience, we share Upstream Studios’ commitment to strategic partnership, complete stack ownership, and shipping experiences that matter.

Learn more about Upstream Studios and our vision.

Leadership

UX is led by discipline leaders who report to Jonah Sterling, Chief Design Officer:

  • Product Design & Design System: Valerie Karnes, Senior Director of Product Design
  • UX Research: Jessica Kane, Senior Manager, UX Research & Karen Li, Senior Manager, UX Research
  • Technical Writing: Diana Logan, Senior Manager, Technical Writing

Learn more about Upstream Studios leadership.

Meet some of our team members

Assessing Category Maturity
We assess the maturity of our product categories based on market evaluations and user testing
Competitor Evaluations
Competitor evaluations help us understand how a competing product addresses the Jobs-To-Be-Done that our product also tries to address.
Design collaborator's playbook
This page acts as a quick reference of mental models for sync and async collaboration.
Documenting research insights in Dovetail
The GitLab UX Research team's guide to documenting insights in Dovetail
GitLab Navigation
Navigation refers to elements that aid users in moving around GitLab, which includes organization and wayfinding clues.
How to create a user persona
This page goes into detail around the steps needed to create a user persona with a high degree of confidence.
How we work
Guidance on how the UX Department at GitLab works.
Jobs to be Done at GitLab
Jobs to be Done (JTBD) is a framework for viewing products and solutions from the user's perspective, focusing on the problems they want to solve rather than specific solutions. It helps GitLab team members uncover user needs, identify strategic opportunities, validate plans, and drive innovation.
Pajamas Design System
The goal of Pajamas is to be the single source of truth for the robust library of UI components that we use to build the GitLab product
Product Design
Product Designers are strategic partners who shape user experiences from concept to delivery at GitLab.
Product Designer Workflow
Here are some guidelines to help Product Designers manage their work at GitLab
Remote Design Sprint
The purpose of a Remote Design Sprint is to create a shared understanding and a solution to a problem following a specific process over a set timeframe. Remote Design Sprint process is based on [Google's Design Sprint methodology](https://designsprintkit.withgoogle.com/methodology/overview), and adjusted using [AJ&Smart's Remote Design Sprint 2.0](https://drive.google.com/file/d/16bwrAqHVf8qxovd87Q7LdzqwAgy7a6Rx/view).
Technical Writing
The GitLab Technical Writing team collaborates with developers, product managers, and the community …
Think Big & Think Small Meetings
The purpose of think big & think small meetings is to develop a shared understanding of goals by discussing vision, roadmap, research, design, and delivery of upcoming features.
Tracking Critical Experiences
Critical Experiences are the make-or-break experiences, which we track in GitLab to monitor the quality of our design work in action.
User journeys
User journeys help GitLab teams understand and optimize the complete experience of customers as they discover, adopt, and integrate our DevSecOps platform to drive both user success and business value.
UX Department Learning and Development
This page contains links to internal and external resources that members of the UX Department at GitLab can use to build their skills.
UX Department Performance Indicators
Performance indicators for the UX department at GitLab
UX Forum
The UX Forum is a recurring meeting for UX team members to share and discuss their work.
UX Heuristics
Heuristics used by the UX team to evaluate our product.
UX Operations
Operational guidance for UX team members including headcount planning, procurement, labels, and team processes.
UX Research at GitLab
We drive **competitive advantage** by delivering **high-impact** insights **grounded in user needs** to guide data-driven decision making, **differentiate our product**, and directly influence **business outcomes**.
UX Research Operations (ReOps) at GitLab
We empower UX Research DRIs with the resources needed for efficient and high-quality research, enabling team members to focus on generating insights that drive exceptional user experiences and product innovation.
UX Resources
This page includes information about UX Resources to help you do your job as a product desginer at GitLab.
UX Scorecards
The UX Scorecard is a process similar to a heuristic evaluation that helps identify usability issues and score a given experience.
Last modified December 19, 2025: Add Upstream Studios to public handbook (840d8a57)
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