📺 Video: https://youtu.be/bNU8Ak0QYWg 🔗 Links below ▼ How do we deal with complexity in product design at GitLab? There are two concepts that can help us: experience rot and sophisticated simplicity. Event: OutSystems Product Design Unwrapped #1 Date: 2023-07-31 🔗 Links - @PedroMScom: https://twitter.com/pedromscom - Experience rot article: https://articles.centercentre.com/experience_rot/ - Experience rot talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oazvsSsB4bk - Experience rot workshop notes: https://uxdesign.cc/notes-from-the-design-for-delight-workshop-71abed3ba113 - Sophisticated simplicity handbook: https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/product/ux/product-designer/#aiming-towards-sophisticated-simplicity - Sophisticated simplicity in practice: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m0JT41CnCe4 - UX Department: https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/product/ux/ - How UX works: https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/product/ux/how-we-work/ - Product Designer Workflow: https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/product/ux/product-designer/ - Pajamas Design System: https://design.gitlab.com/ - Product Principles: https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/product/product-principles/ - Product Development Flow: https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/product-development-flow/ - Navigation changes: https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/product/ux/navigation/

1. GitLab Copyright
Pedro Moreira da Silva · @PedroMScom
Product Design Unwrapped #1 by OutSystems · 2023-07-31
Simplifying complexity

2. GitLab Copyright
Pedro Moreira da Silva
Staff Product Designer @ GitLab
Maintainer @ Pajamas Design System
● +15 years in Design, 6 years at GitLab.
● Worked at consultancies, startups, and solo.
● Passionate about remote work, open design, and
transparency.
👋 Hi!

3. GitLab Copyright

4. GitLab Copyright
Every company must
be great at developing,
securing, and
deploying software.

5. GitLab Copyright
Software. Faster.
The DevSecOps Platform
✓ Unified data model
✓ One user interface
✓ Single application
✓ Cloud agnostic
✓ Superior user experience
✓ Open core

6. More than 30 million users
More than 50% of Fortune 100
are GitLab customers
Transportation
/ Automotive
Financial
Services
Public Sector /
Education
Consumer /
Retail
Technology /
Internet

7. GitLab Copyright
Contributors
All-remote company
Broad adoption
Strong community
2,000+
Team members
in 60+ countries
Offices
Users from startups
to global enterprises
0
30M+ 4,000+

8. GitLab Copyright
Complexity challenge

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Experience rot
Experience
Complexity
Features
Talk
Article Workshop notes

10. GitLab Copyright
02 BIC DevOps
Best-In-Class
01 BYO DevOps
Bring-Your-Own
04 DevSecOps Platform
Single application
03 DIY DevOps
Do-It-Yourself
Standardized toolchain
Disparate set of tools Custom integration
The four phases of DevOps

11. GitLab Copyright
GitLab breadth and depth
8 stages and 53 categories
Plan Create Verify Secure Package Deploy Monitor Govern
Value stream
management
GitLab CLI Review apps
Container
scanning
Dependency
proxy
Environment
management
Service desk
Software bill
of materials
Design management Web IDE Merge trains Dependency scanning
Helm chart
registry
Release orchestration Incident management
Dependency
management
Portfolio management Pages
Code testing and
coverage
Fuzz testing
Container
registry
Feature flags
On-call schedule
management
Vulnerability
management
Team planning Wiki
Continuous integration
(CI)
API Security
Package
registry
Continuous
delivery (CD)
Error tracking
Compliance
Management
Planning analytics Code review workflow Secrets management DAST
Infrastructure
as code
Audit Events
Requirements
management
Source code
management
Secret detection Auto DevOps
Security policy
management
Quality management Remote development SAST
Deployment
management
Release Evidence
DORA metrics
Software composition
analysis
DevOps reports Code quality
License compliance
Mature Early
Over last 3.5 years, significant
increase in feature and
functionality in every stage

12. GitLab Copyright
More features for many personas
Business Developers Security Operations
One user interface
Unified data model
Plan Create Monitor
Package Deploy
Manage
Verify Secure Govern

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Stage
No. of
personas
Alex
(Security
Ops Eng)
Allison
(App Ops)
Amy (App
Sec
Engineer)
Cameron
(Comp
Manager)
Dakota
(App Dev
Director)
Delaney
(Dev Team
Lead)
Ingrid
(Infra Ops)
Isaac (Infra
Sec
Engineer)
Janell
(Enable
Advocate)
Parker
(Prod
Manager)
Presley
(Prod
Designer)
Priyanka
(Platform
Eng)
Rachel
(Release
Manager)
Sasha
(Software
Dev)
Sidney
(Sys
Admin)
Simone
(Software
Eng in Test)
Manage 15
Plan 11
Create 8
Verify 6
Data Stores 5
Deploy 4
Govern 5
ModelOps 5
Growth 3
Monitor 3
Secure 4
Systems 3
Analytics 2
Anti-abuse 3
Package 2
Fulfillment 2
SaaS
Platform 2
16 personas across stages

14. GitLab Copyright
How can we address
this complexity?

15. GitLab Copyright
Carefully curate features
to match the vision.
Prune out experience rot
with every release.
Just because you can,
doesn’t mean you should.
You have to pick carefully.
I’m actually as proud of the
things we haven’t done as
the things I have done.
Innovation is saying ‘no’ to
1,000 things.
Steve Jobs
Fight experience rot
Product judgement

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Naive simplicity
Sophisticated complexity
Sophisticated simplicity
1
2
3
Aim for sophisticated simplicity
Design judgement
Handbook In practice

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Aim for sophisticated simplicity
Does this content or functionality need to be visible
all the time and for everyone?
Is the structure in support of discovery and use of
advanced capabilities?
Is this feature and/or capability even needed or used,
or what would happen if it was removed?
Handbook In practice

18. GitLab Copyright
● UX Department
● How UX works
● Product Designer Workflow
● Pajamas Design System
● Product Principles
● Product Development Flow
● Navigation changes
Learn more

19. GitLab Copyright
Questions?
Add them to the Slido link shared in
the chat.