## ✨ WIP 1-Year Vision #### Goals for this vision 1. Set an ambitious goal for improving GitLab CI templates experience 2. Inform the amazing work by our engineers with a clear product and UX vision (see [Improve CI/CD Template Managements for GitLab](https://gitlab.com/groups/gitlab-org/-/epics/6293)) 3. Solicit feedback and drive further discussions within GitLab ## 🧩 Background The way CI templates are created and used in many ways defines the GitLab CI/CD experience. Our users rely on the templates and examples to build their pipelines. * Developers want CI to just work so they can move on to shipping code. * Organizations want to make CI authoring for their projects as smooth and fast as possible, ensuring compliance, workflow standardization and reliability. #### Problems and opportunities with the current experience Several problems and opportunities stood out to us during the [problem validation interviews](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/ux-research/-/issues/1452) as well as prior research: * GitLab templates aren't discoverable to new users. _How can we make the templates more discoverable?_ * It's difficult to find the right template that can solve most of your needs. _How can we provide the right match at each step of the CI onboarding?_ * Many of GitLab's features that are enabled using CI could be made more discoverable using improved CI/CD templates experience. _How can we leverage GitLab CI to enable further DevOps stage adoption?_ * Templates are used as either end-to-end workflows or as workflow extensions using `include`, `extend` etc. _How can we differentiate between these different types of template usage and leverage it in GitLab CI interface?_ * To simplify the pipeline authoring experience, users would like to reuse CI/CD configurations and run them as a part of their pipeline on their own project. _How can we make it easy to create and use workflow extensions?_ * Organizations maintain their own libraries of templates and use internal documentation sites as CI on-boarding resources for their teams. _How can we help them enable their CI/CD practices across their organizations while making developer's job easier?_ * Templates don't have built-in versioning. _How can we make it easy to use the latest template?_ ### User personas * Devon * Priyanka * Sasha #### UX research The research efforts that informed this vision: - [Competitor Evaluation: CI/CD templates/onboarding experience](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/competitor-evaluations/-/issues/7) - [Pipeline Authoring Category Maturity Scorecard FY22 Q1](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-design/-/issues/1534) - [Problem Validation: CI/CD Enterprise Template Management](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/ux-research/-/issues/1452) - [Problem Validation - CI/CD enterprise template management - insights](https://dovetailapp.com/projects/24526001-e303-4dfd-a405-55ad6a5ce32c/insights/present) - [CI/CD templates UX research - Card Sort](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/ux-research/-/issues/1365) ## 🔗 [Visionary mock-ups (see attached in design issue)](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/issues/335376/) #### 📼 [Video Walkthrough](https://youtu.be/T2H_WUyCF2c) - 1:30 - Goals for this vision - 1:30-2:15 - UX research and discovery practices we used - 2:15-8:00 - Problems and opportunities - 08:00-19:15 - Visionary mockups - 19:15-20:30 - Next steps :exclamation: These designs are not deliverables, and we're not making any commitments to ship a certain feature. These visionary designs are a tool to drive further discussions within GitLab as well as with our customers and the developer community at large. Everyone is welcome to share their feedback, and we'll make sure it informs further design exploration and implementation priority. #### To-do <details><summary>Click to expand</summary> - [x] Review problem validation and customer interviews to gather related insights on PA side. https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/ux-research/-/issues/1452 - [x] Collaborate with the Compliance team to better understand their persona and their user flows. Review their research insights. - [x] Map relevant user flows in Figma https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/issues/331211 - [x] Gather additional insights around the necessary levels of permissions if necessary - [x] Conduct a lgiht-weight market and competitor evaluation in CI/CD space to gather insights and inspiration - [ ] Create visionary mockups for what the desired experience might look like (in progress) https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/issues/335376 - ---- 14.1 ends here - [ ] Kick off discussions with the team and iterate if necessary (keep in mind these are visionary mockups and we'll be iterating on overall vision, not necessarily details of the experience) - [ ] Record a walk-through with Dov and share widely - [ ] Add the vision and walk-through to the handbook - [ ] Share the vision in an easy to understand way to counterparts like product and UX leadership - [ ] Use the insights to inform our enterprise JTBDs study ([example Mural of how Alexis did this](https://app.mural.co/t/gitlab2474/m/gitlab2474/1619107310922/b09640982c7c6b094dfe27429c187d90acb343df)) - [ ] Use the assets to validate ideas and communicate future direction with customers (reach out to sales as well) </details>