Inventory for Feature Discovery Moments and Create guidelines for when and how often to notify users of paid features
Problem statement
Feature discovery moments (FDMs) are notices presented in the product UI to inform users of additional features in GitLab paid tiers. From a user perspective these notices should be contextual, valuable, consistent and dismissable. From GitLab's perspective, FDMs should also offer the user opportunities to start a free trial of paid tiers in a non-intrusive way.
Right now, we have no clear documentation of existing FDMs nor guidelines that outline the best practices for when and how often to notify users of paid features. We do want users to know that there is value in our higher tiers, but we should be intentional in how we display these.
The lack of this guidance leads to uneven implementation, in some cases features are hidden entirely, or in others users raise complaints about seeing FDM notes too often.
How might we create guidelines on when, how, how often and what feature discovery moments will appear to users to help them discover and try valuable paid features?
Examples of existing FDMs (free SaaS)
| Create | Plan | Secure |
|---|---|---|
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Proposal
Read through a more detailed user journey and comments in the Design attachments below the issue.
| MVC - persona agnostic | User journey |
|---|---|
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User clicks on learn more and FDM opens to show more information about this feature. User reads a short description about the feature and JTBD. An image is used as a reference to understand more at a glance. If the user wants to read more, they click on “Read more” and are redirected to the relevant Docs page. If the user wants to Try it for free they click on “Try it for free” and are redirected to the Free trial sign up page. |
| Iteration - Persona = admin | User journey |
|---|---|
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If the user has admin access and they are ready to upgrade, they can click on the “Upgrade” button and redirected to the upgrade page. |
| Iteration - Persona = non admin | User journey |
|---|---|
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If the user doesn’t have admin access and they want to discover more advanced features, they can click on the the “Discover more advanced features” button and redirect to the cross stage discovery page. This is an opportunity to learn more about the one DevOps platfrom. |
Supporting Material
- Community request to disable in-app upgrade messages
- CE to EE - Upgrade and Downgrade rates
- Net New Installs - CE vs EE
- Interviews on why users selected a given edition
- Spreadsheet of feature discovery moments by paywall status
- Feature Discovery Moments UX Patterns