Auto DevOps Design Sprint

Design Sprint Focus

Objectives

The Auto DevOps vision was recently updated. We want to re-imagine the Auto DevOps solution and offering to fulfil the updated vision:

DevOps Adoption is a known pain point that GitLab, as a complete DevOps platform delivered as a single application, can help alleviate. That adoption isn't just hard technically, it's also a challenge organisationally. The vision for Auto DevOps is to ease that adoption pain. We will serve as a central mechanism for enabling users to continue to further their DevOps adoption journey by automatically implementing best practices, and recommending iterative improvements where appropriate.

There is no current tool in the market that does what Auto DevOps is capable of doing. The best analogy we've found is this - consider that you are trying to navigate from New York to California by car in the year 1992. To get there it would be painful, even with a map because it is a multi-variate problem - one that requires lots of inputs and more than just instruction manuals and best practices. Now imagine you are doing that today with Google Maps on your phone? Google Maps removes all of the pain of those best practices, employs data to intelligently move beyond them and recommends pit stops if you ask.

Auto DevOps will be something similar for DevOps practices. Today it can provide encoded best practices. In the future, Auto DevOps will become the navigation assistant for your DevOps journey - a guide for the journey of continuous improvement.

This vision offers enormous benefit to users confronted with the pain of adopting DevOps, and it serves our business. As a recommendation engine for our single platform - Auto DevOps can improve the discoverability of valuable capabilities to our users, increasing their complete platform adoption.

Outputs

  • A User testing flow.
  • A Storyboard to be tested with users.
  • A Prototype to be tested with users ❓
  • User testing analysis.
  • (If the solution is viable) An epic or issue that describes the direction in details and the next steps.
  • Necessary updates to the Handbook.

Design Sprint Details

Start End
2021-05-06 (EMEA, NA) / 2021-05-07 (APAC) 2021-05-14 (EMEA, NA, APAC)
3pm BST - 4pm CET - 10am EDT - 7am PDT - 12am AEST End of day for all locations

WHERE

Async

WHO

  • Maria Vrachni @mvrachni - Facilitator
  • Viktor Nagy @nagyv-gitlab - Decider
  • Nicholas Klick nicholasklick - Co-decider
  • Thong Kuah @tkuah - Sprint team member
  • Hordur Freyr Yngvason @hfyngvason - Sprint team member
  • João Cunha @Alexand - Sprint team member
  • Matthew Kasa @mattkasa - Sprint team member
  • Mikhail Mazurskiy @ash2k - Sprint team member
  • Tiger Watson @tigerwnz - Sprint team member
  • Becka Lippert @beckalippert - Sprint team member
  • Justin Mandell @jmandell - Co-facilitator

Tools

Here is the list of tools for the Sprint preparation, collaboration and documentation. Prior to the Sprint make sure you have access to all of the following:

  • GitLab
    Each Sprint day outcomes and material will be documented in a separate issue under the Design Sprint epic.

  • Mural (You can join as anonymous but we need to be able to identify input against names, so please create an account beforehand.
    We will use Mural for most of the Sprint collaboration. Some of the things we will do in Mural:

    • Create artefacts like affinity diagrams from participants' input
    • Use post-its to comment on each other's points and to add notes
    • Vote on ideas and solutions
    • Create the first draft of the prototype. The Mural link to the collaboration project will be provided in the issue before the start of the Design Sprint.

  • Video and/or screen recording tool (Loom, Quicktime, Zoom or another tool you are using).
    As part of the pre-Sprint homework, you will be asked to record a short Lightning Walkthrough video. You can use any tool you feel comfortable with as long as it can capture your screen, mouse pointer and your audio.

  • A4/Letter sized paper (preferably white blank), Sharpies/Pens (please don't use a pencil because it doesn't create enough contrast for photos).
    Day 2 of the sprint involves some (async) ideation via sketching so you will need a writing utensil (Sharpies are preferred because they force you to draw at a lower fidelity because the small details aren't necessary at this point) and some paper. This is the most fun part of the Sprint where you get into a design thinking mindset and can appeal to your creative self. Don't worry, it's not about artistry, it's about ideas and collaboration.

  • Camera (phone or other) or scanner
    You will need to upload sketches as images for the facilitator to prepare the material before the next sync meeting. You can take a photo with your phone or use a scanner if available.

  • **Post-it notes (Optional)**
    If you enjoy taking notes using post-it notes make sure you have available some of them as well. The upside is that they will make you feel more like you are in a workshop and will help the ideas flow (I find that typing is distracting while ideating). The downside is that you will have to digitalise the ones you want to share with the team in Mural.

Artefacts & Pre-Read Material

Issues and discussions

Auto DevOps walkthrough from GitLab's solution architects

GitLab pages

Competitor resources

Articles on Design Sprints

Tasks

Design Sprint preparation

Activities to be completed during the Sprint

  • Organise user testing sessions - facilitator or decider ❓
  • Create the Prototype to be tested and task list (End of Day 5) - Product designer or Front end developer
  • Run user testing sessions - facilitator or decider

Post-Sprint activities

  • Create a feedback issue for the Design Sprint - facilitator or decider
  • Analyse user testing results - facilitator or decider
  • Create report and share with the Design Sprint participants and wider team - facilitator or decider

Personas

Deciding which persona we are focusing on will be part of the Day 1 discussions in the workshop. The personas we are going to consider are:

Activities and Agenda

Each activity will be explained and documented in a separate issue. We will use this Epic to track the overall progress of the Sprint.

Day 1 activities (6 May EMEA, NA | 7 May APAC)

Estimated time: 30 mins

Deadline: 7 May - 1pm BST, 2pm UTC | 7 May - End of day EDT, PDT, AEST

Agenda

Activity Duration Tool Description
Form & Questionnaire 15 mins Google forms All the participants should fill in the Google form that has been shared shared by the facilitator and answer the questions related to Auto DevOps.
Personal view Video 5 mins Zoom, Quick time or other video recording tool Each participant will prepare a short video (5 minutes max) to talk about Auto DevOps from their own perspective. The video will be presented back to the team asynchronously and will act as inspiration for the team as the Sprint progresses through the design concept-ideation phases.
Share video 1 min Google drive Once recorded, the video should be added in the shared Google drive folder so that it's accessible by the other Sprint participants.
  • Fill the form/questionnaire and submit (15 min) - all participants except the facilitator
  • Expert interviews analysis - facilitator
  • "Auto DevOps in my view" videos (5-15 mins) - all participants except the facilitator(to be shared in shared folder by deadline)

Day 2 activities (7 May EMEA, NA | 10 May APAC)

Estimated time: 1 hour

Deadline: 7 May - End of day BST, UTC, EDT, PDT | 10 May - 5pm AEST)

Agenda

Activity Duration Tool Description
HMWs note taking 45 mins Video, pen & paper All participants will watch the videos from each team member and make notes on what they see as being the most important big ideas of each walkthrough. The notes should be taken in the form of the question "How might we... (recommended to create at least 3 from each participant's video)e.g. "How might we... allow users to more easily set up and manage their GitLab environment?"
Add HMWs to Mural 5 mins Mural Once the "How might we..." notes have been created they should be added to Mural under the Challenges section (link to board). It's important to submit by the deadline as the following activities involve the HMW notes from this activity.
  • How might we... notetaking assignment (50 mins) - all participants except the facilitator
  • Add How might we... notes to the Mural board (5 mins) - all participants

Day 3 activities (10 May EMEA, NA | 11 May APAC)

Estimated time: 5 mins

Deadline: 10 May - End of day BST, UTC, EDT, PDT | 11 May - AEST)

Agenda

Activity Duration Tool Description
Vote HMWs 10 mins Mural Once all of the HMWs have been submitted in the Mural board, everyone takes the time to review them and vote on the HMWs they think are the most important to be addressed in this Sprint.
Long term goals 5 mins Mural Everyone has to write down the one goal they think is the most important in the form of: "In 2 years' time.... E.g. In 2 years' time ... we should enable users to run the complete Auto DevOps cycle in one simple step."
Long term goal decision 5 mins Mural Once everyone has added their long term goals to Mural, the Decider will select the long term goal they think is the perfect goal for this sprint. The rest of the participants can optionally vote as well if they wish to do so.
  • Voting How might we... notes assignment (deadline: 10 May - End of day BST, UTC, EDT, PDT | 11 May - End of Day AEST) - all participants except the facilitator
  • Long term goal - all participants except the facilitator
  • Long term goal selection - the decider

WIP: Day 4 activities (11 May EMEA, NA | 12 May APAC)

Estimated time: 20 mins Deadline:

Agenda

WIP

  • Sprint questions - all participants except the facilitator
  • Lightning Demo - all participants except the facilitator
  • Share Lightning Demo - all participants except the facilitator

WIP: Day 5 activities (12 May EMEA, NA | 13 May APAC)

Agenda

WIP

  • 4-Part Concept sketching - all participants except the facilitator
  • 4-Part Concept sketching walkthrough video

WIP: Day 6 activities (13 May EMEA, NA | 14 May APAC)

Agenda

WIP

  • Concept gallery - all participants except the facilitator (might need to do sync)`

(consider assigning the User testing flow to APAC on this day)

WIP: Day 7 activities (14 May EMEA, NA | 14 May APAC)

Agenda

WIP

  • Concept gallery finalisation - decider and facilitator
  • User test flow

Ground Rules

  • Honor the Facilitator's directions (even if you work async). They are the guide for the entire process.
  • Minimize distractions: During the week you will need to dedicate some hours to the Sprint for async tasks such as reviewing your colleague's videos or artefacts, creating videos or artefacts, completing tasks on the Mural board etc. During this time we recommend blocking time in your calendar and having devices or apps with notifications turned off during that time.
  • All opinions are valid and are equally important, however, the Decider has the ultimate, final decision.
  • Document as much as you can: We should have concrete outputs to share with broader team. Document interesting ideas or fixes you might have so that they can be shared as well.
  • Stick to scheduled time for the tasks. The activities duration is defined after many rounds of practicing the Design Sprint is Additional time will not provide any value.
  • The Sprint is one of the few chances we get to work so closely together even in async. Have fun!
Edited by Becka Lippert