Contextual Help Sidebar (boost adoption/satisfaction; reduce costs/attrition)

Problem to solve

Make it easy for users to quickly get the help they need in order to:

• Boost feature adoption
• Increase customer satisfaction (more seamless experience)
• Reduce attrition
• Lower support costs

Note that some solutions are more scalable, allowing us to build other contextual features into the sidebar over time, like chat and idea/issue submission.

Intended users

All users, whether beginner, intermediate or expert (assumes every user has something to learn in a robust, unified platform like Gitlab).

Further details

Third-party examples:

• ELEVIO >> https://elev.io/product/contextual-support (click Need Help tab at right for live demo)
• ZENDESK >> https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/219796887-About-Contextual-Help-for-the-Web-Widget#topic_hvh_p3g_bw

Proposal

Lean POC to prove/disprove contextual help value:

• Persistently placed Help icon that on single click, launches POC help sidebar with quick access to suggested (aka popular/contextual) help topics. For example, if integrated onto Merged Request page, contextual help sidebar would provide quick links to 10 most popular MR help topics, format of each, etc.
• Expose POC to subset of users for period of time and track performance metrics

Potential metrics - Those who experience POC, such as a beta group:

• click through to help topics more
• like help topics more
• provide positive feedback

POC or future iterations could also incorporate:

• Search so users can search entire knowledge base without leaving the page their on, should the suggested topics not meet their needs
• Integration of the other contextual tutorials and support, such as new feature announcements, feature tours, and or live chat.

Permissions and Security

Documentation

Testing

What does success look like, and how can we measure that?

Links / references

@mikelewis @vkarnes @sarahod @edjdev @ebrinkman