UX Research at GitLab

The UX Research team delivers key and timely insights to drive user-centric innovation, support and influence decisions from design tactics to product strategy.

Who the UX Research team works with

We works closely with designers, product managers, and developers to ensure that the product meets user needs and expectations. We serve as a bridge between the user and the product team.

Who we research

The UX Research team researches customers, end users, potential users, stakeholders, competitor users, and specialized user groups to ensure the product meets diverse needs and expectations.

How the UX Research team works

Using a range of research methodologies (including user interviews, surveys, usability testing, diary studies, and card sorting) we collect raw data on user behaviors, needs, and preferences.

We then apply rigorous data analysis and synthesis to transform this data into valuable insights that inform and shape the design and development of our products.

Note that UX Researchers are one of the many GitLab Team Members who conduct user research. Other roles, such as Product Managers and Product Designers, frequently conduct research with guidance from the UX Research team. All Research DRIs are supported by our UX Research Operations Coordination team to conduct efficient and high-quality research.

Our two years vision and strategic pillars

Our vision statement consists of two parts:

On our impact and scope: We deliver key and timely insights to drive user-centric innovation, and support and influence decisions from design tactics to product strategy.
On our methodology and reach: Our team excels in impactful research that balances rigour and adaptability, democratizing research, and providing accurate and actionable insights to decision makers across GitLab, from Product to Field.

We focus on 3 strategic themes:

Create a structured, accessible and impact-driven UX Research ecosystem for all, this includes:
- Deepen strategic impact of insights
- Establish insight repository
- Streamline research Operations
- Implement global research prioritization
Cultivate engaged partnerships across the organization, this includes:
- Communicate & evangelize research
- Scale research & enable counterparts
- Collaborate across divisions, and join up insights and share metrics
Encourage a culture of curiosity and experimentation, this includes:
- Embrace lean and experimental practices
- Establish service design as a new function
- Facilitate workshops for innovation
- Lead with recommendations

Detailed breakdown of our strategic pillars and our 2 years action plan can be found in the UXR Vision and Strategy Board (internal access only).

Work with UX Research

Working with us as a research participant or a research panelist

We want to learn from you! We are always looking for a range of professionals to take part in our studies, and would love to have you sign-up. You can read more about what to expect as a research participant, and register your interest in taking part in future research.

What you get in return:

Influence Over Design and Product Decisions: Your feedback will be heard and considered in future design and product decisions directing anything from feature improvements to product strategy.
Smoother Experience and Better Product: Your insights will help us shape a product that better fits your day-to-day needs, improving your overall experience and productivity.

Working with us as a GitLab internal team

We’d love to collaborate with you, gather your perspective, and partner with you to engage our customers. If your team interacts with customers and users as part of your daily role or make decisions that influence the customer/user experience of GitLab products, we’d love to hear from you!. Here’s how you can partner with us:

Ensure Your Customers Are Represented in UX Research: You can nominate customers as research participants by sharing their details in the #ux_reops channel or direct your customers to the UX Research Panel to register their interest.
Share what you know through GitLab User Insight Repository: Share what you learn about your customers in the #ux_research channel, or connect with a designated UX researcher for specific stages or themes.
Identify Areas for Improvement That Need Further Research (unknown): If you notice areas that could benefit from deeper exploration, feel free to mention it in the #ux_research channel or contact the UX researcher for the relevant stage or theme. Providing a related issue for reference would be a bonus!
Leverage UX Research Insights to Guide Your Work: Stay updated by checking out the #ux_research_reports channel for the latest insights. You can also explore Dovetail, our research insights management tool, to search by keywords or watch interview session recordings. You can also consult with the UX researcher for the relevant stage or theme, to be more informed when making design, product or customer engagement decisions.

What you get in return:

Informed Decision-Making: The UX research team provides valuable insights based on user behavior and feedback, helping internal teams make informed, data-driven decisions throughout the product development process.
Risk Mitigation: UX research helps identify potential issues early in the development process, allowing internal teams to address these challenges before they escalate, thereby reducing the risk of costly mistakes or misaligned products.

Do you have questions about UX Research?

The UX Research team is here for you! Reach out in the #ux_research Slack channel. Below is a full list of our UX Research team handbook content:

Conducting UX Research at GitLab

Research methods we use at GitLab

Finding participants

Data and research insights

Templates

Checklists

UX Research training

Resources for UX Researchers

Resources for UX Research Operations Coordinators

Measures and processes the UX Research team is responsible for

Analyzing and synthesizing user research data

Guidelines for how to analzye survey verbatim

Analyzing survey verbatim

Guidelines for how to analyze survey verbatim

Attending a research event

Best practices when attending a research event.

Choosing a research methodology

How to choose a research methodology: detail vs frequency, user characteristics, and fidelity of insight

Collecting useful data

You can use your research objectives to create categories you can reference as you take notes to make sure you are capturing the most salient information.

Community contributions for Actionable Insights

Engaging the wider GitLab community to get Actionable Insights fixed

Comparative testing for navigation

Comparative, qualitative usability testing enables you to get feedback on 2-3 designs early in the design process to assess the pros and cons of different design directions. This is different from quantitative comparative studies that focus on benchmarking and measurement of the design.

The focus at this stage in the design process is to identify what is working well or not working well with different designs and provide insight on which one to move forward with. This is a within subjects methodology, meaning that each participant will see all designs. By experiencing multiple designs, participants are able to provide useful feedback because they are able to compare and contrast the different designs they’ve seen.

Creating a first click study in Qualtrics

This page details how to set-up first click tests in Qualtrics.

Creating and managing a research participant panel

How to create and manage a research participant panel

Defining goals, objectives, and hypotheses

Conducting user research takes a significant amount of preparation before you even begin asking users anything.

Diary studies

What are diary studies and when to use them

Doing UX research in the AI space

How to conduct UX research in the Artificial Intelligence (AI) space, including research guidelines.

Evaluating navigation

When proposing navigation changes, it's important to proceed with high confidence. We evaluate how changes perform compared to our existing experience using a set of defined methods.

Facilitating user interviews

Tips and tricks for succesfully conducting user interviews.

Finding SaaS users

How we target SaaS research participants to meet specific criteria

First click testing for navigation

What is first click testing?

First click testing is used to determine if participants are able to find something they’re looking for in an interface within their first click. Assessing the first click is important because it is much more likely that a user will succeed in completing a task if they’re able to click on the right path initially. First click testing will be able to tell you if participants are clicking the intended area for a given scenario. If they don’t, you can learn where else they would click, and why.

Foundational research

Foundational research (also referred to as generative research, exploratory research, pathfinding research, or discovery research) attempts to identify and solve a real human problem. This problem should center on a topic or area that has not been clearly defined or explored in the past.

FoundationalResearchImage

This type of research is not necessarily focused on answering questions about the product, but is more about answering deeper questions from the user perspective (for example: how do users search for information within their roles? How do users engage with security tools in their development process?). In other words, it’s about understanding people (their actions, motivations, goals) and the contexts in which they live/work. Understanding people and their context helps to reveal users’ pain points or problem areas. The insights can be examined in situations such as workshops or ideation sessions to generate new ideas that could help teams address known pain points.

How the UX Research team operates at GitLab

How we decide what to research, spend our time, measure our success, and more

How to Conduct UX Research Workshops

The UX Research workshop process at GitLab

How to find existing research

Ways to find existing research insights.

How to recruit UX Research participants

How to find the right participants for research studies at GitLab

How to write an effective screener

How to write an effective UX research screener at GitLab

Interview Carousel - Becoming a better interviewer 15 minutes at a time

A lightweight and fun training to improve your user interviewing skills

Kano Survey for feature prioritization

Kano model provides a simple and powerful way how to think about the features that we plan to build.

Longitudinal studies

What are longitudinal studies and when to use them

Mental modeling

A brief overview of how we do mental modeling research at GitLab

Preference testing

How to determine which design your participant prefers.

Problem validation and methods

How to conduct problem validation research at GitLab

Problem Validation research for single-stage-group initiatives

Problem Validation research for single-stage-group initiatives usually focuses on specific behaviors relating to one stage group, such as: How do Release Managers do their job?

Product Analytics for UX Research

This page provides useful information and best practices for team members interested in using product analytics as part of user experience research projects.

Rapid Iterative Testing and Evaluation (RITE)

Using the RITE methodology at GitLab

Research insights

Research insights are the collective findings and learnings that come from a research study.

Research prioritization

How UX Researchers priortize projects

Solution Validation and methods

Solution validation research critically assesses if the product/feature/design has indeed solved the problem that was initially intended to be solved

Strategic research at GitLab

What is Strategic research?

Strategic research is focused on answering future facing questions about users that help inform the long term product direction and roadmap. This kind of research can consist of one or more connected projects to better understand a larger topic area. Usually, the topic is broad enough to cover multiple stage groups and/or stages. Thus, strategic research can be high impact for the product teams and company as a whole.

Surveys

Using surveys as a UX research method

Testing navigation: early Solution Validation

When considering navigation changes, it's important to test ideas early and efficiently. This is a guide to support early solution validation projects in the Foundations team.

Tracking actionable insights

How we track actionable insights derived from UX research studies.

Tracking gold, silver, and bronze UX research projects

How we track research research projects, by service level.

Tracking research velocity

How we track research velocity.

Unmoderated usability testing

Using unmoderated usability testing at GitLab.

Usability benchmarking

The usability benchmarking process at GitLab

Usability testing

Conducting usability testing at GitLab

User story mapping

User Story mapping is a powerful way to visualize how people are using your product or feature holistically and organize individual stories to that journey.

Using quantitative data to find insights

This page defines quantitative data, describes the primary advantages and disadvantages of using quantitative data in UX research, describes best practices, and provides examples for quantitative analysis.

Using RITE to test navigation

Rapid Iterative Testing and Evaluation (RITE) is a usability testing method in which you evaluate a prototype multiple times in a rapid and iterative manner. The goal is not to determine statistical validity, but to observe behaviors, learn insights, and iterate rapidly. This is different from traditional usability testing, because you iterate during testing rather than waiting until the end to make changes. This method is intended to identify and fix as many usability issues as possible while verifying the effectiveness of changes made within testing. This will result in a navigation prototype that we can be highly confident about (in the context of usability), which helps to remove uncertainty around whether a proposed solution will be usable.

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