Design Strategy

What we do

Concept Architects is the core of the team’s output. Concept architects work on named bets: distinct, researched, and designed expressions of where GitLab’s product experience should go. These are not wireframes for a backlog. They are fully reasoned design positions, grounded in market context and customer need, built to inform executive decisions about where to invest.

DesignOps runs the infrastructure that makes Upstream Studios effective. This includes how the organization measures design quality, how design work moves through the company, and how the team’s operational rhythms support the pace and quality of the work.

Craft Quotient (CQ) is Design Strategy’s investment in raising the quality ceiling across GitLab’s design practice. This includes tools, standards, and capability development that benefit the broader organization, not just Design Strategy.

How we work

Design Strategy is a Central Organization, not a capacity resource for Product Studios or stage groups. The team does not backfill headcount gaps, take on scoped feature work, or serve as an overflow design function. What the team produces is upstream of product planning: it informs what gets built, not how a committed scope gets staffed.

Concept work is internally developed until it reaches a point where executive input or cross-functional investment decisions are needed. At that point, Design Strategy brings work forward through Upstream Studios leadership.

Team

Design Strategy is supported by two researchers from Experience Research who are embedded with the team. Jessica Kane and Will Leidheiser report into Experience Research but work closely with Design Strategy on concept development and directional research.

Working with Design Strategy

Find us in #design_strategy on Slack.

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