We integrate research, design, frontend engineering, documentation, and brand into a unified delivery pipeline, shaping how customers experience GitLab from first impression to final deployment.
Upstream Studios brings together five core disciplines, each essential to delivering exceptional customer experiences:
Built to architect tomorrow. The team shapes the future of GitLab through concept work, craft standards, and the conditions that make great design possible across Upstream Studios.
Learn more about Design Strategy →
The creative force behind how GitLab shows up in the world. We shape how GitLab is seen, felt, and remembered, with brand strategy, campaigns, identity, and digital experiences that move our audience from awareness to affinity and affinity to loyalty.
Learn more about Brand Experience →
Where GitLab’s design language is imagined, refined, and made real. We explore what brand could feel like at its best, then codify what works into the Design System the rest of the org builds on. One language that carries the brand on every surface: product, marketing, web. We own the core design infrastructure, hold the bar on accessibility, and build the front-end craft that brings it to life.
Learn more about Design Expression →
Owns the validity layer, from JTBD to AI research guardrails, so GitLab’s decisions are grounded on customer reality, not assumption, nor AI hallucination. Researchers are embedded in both the Centralized teams - shaping direction in Design Strategy and Brand Experience, and in Product Studios - helping GitLab move fast with confidence. Service Design keeps the experiences joined up, and Research Operations enables research efficiency and quality at scale.
Learn more about Experience Research →
Strategic partners in the product development process, Product Designers work in trios with Product Management and Engineering to shape user experiences from concept to delivery. We’re upstream—involved in Interlock planning from the start, driving product decisions with user-centered thinking, and shipping experiences that are productive, minimal, and human.
Learn more about Product Studios →
Just as backend engineering solves complex system architecture, we solve complex experience architecture. Our craft is deeply technical. Our decisions are strategically critical. Our impact is measurable in customer outcomes.
Strategic partners are upstream. We’re at the source, where things begin, where ideas originate, where direction gets set. We’re not downstream, executing on decisions made without us.
This means:
Most design organizations stop at mockups and prototypes. We go further—from research insights to production code, from brand narrative to technical documentation, from design systems to deployed interfaces.
We don’t hand off. We ship.
This integrated approach means:
These disciplines don’t work in silos—they flow through a unified pipeline where every transition is a merge, not a wall.
Success is collaborative and accountability is mutual:
We win together.
Perfection is the enemy of iteration. We ship to learn, then iterate based on evidence. A feature in customers’ hands beats a perfect prototype every time.
We test assumptions. We measure behavior. We let evidence drive decisions to a point. But there are times where experience-based intuition results in judgment calls that outweigh data. It’s the exception, not the rule.
The patterns that got us here won’t get us where we’re going. We challenge convention, test new approaches, and aren’t afraid to be wrong—as long as we learn fast and adapt faster.
We’re technical craftspeople. Code quality matters. Design systems consistency matters. Documentation clarity matters. Brand coherence matters. We hold ourselves to the highest standard because customers feel the difference between good and great.
The best ideas come from diverse perspectives. Designers challenge engineers. Researchers challenge designers. Writers challenge everyone. We create space for productive conflict because it makes the work stronger.
Technology changes. Customer needs evolve. Markets shift. We remain students of our craft, our industry, and our users. Curiosity is what keeps us relevant and razor-sharp.
GitLab succeeds when customers love the product and trust the brand. That doesn’t happen by accident—it’s designed, built, tested, documented, and delivered with relentless intention.
Upstream Studios exists to ensure every customer touchpoint—from marketing site to product interface, from documentation to design system—reflects GitLab’s values and serves our users’ needs. We’re the connective tissue between brand promise and product reality.
Learn more about our vision and strategy.
We’re here to make GitLab:
We’re here to ship experiences that matter.
Jonah Sterling, Chief Design Officer
Discipline leaders:
This handbook is maintained by Upstream Studios. Have feedback or suggestions? Open an issue or reach out in #upstream-studios.
0583402b)
