The Evolution of UX at GitLab

Since hiring its first designer in 2014, GitLab's UX department has significantly evolved, progressing through several UX maturity stages as defined by Nielsen Norman Group. Initially focused on improving the UI design away from vanilla Bootstrap, the UX team expanded from one to six members by 2016, aligning more closely with the Engineering department to enhance iteration speed. By 2017-2018, as the team grew to 12, foundational work for future UX developments began, including the establishment of personas, category maturity scorecards, and the initial steps toward the Pajamas Design System. The period of 2019-2020 saw the UX department expand to nearly 60 members, achieving a balanced ratio of Product Designers to Product Managers, integrating broader department changes, and placing a greater emphasis on research, which became crucial in decision-making. This growth facilitated the embedding of UX into cross-functional teams and introduced tools like Figma and Mural, while also adding tech writing to the UX department. Looking forward, GitLab aims to enhance its DevOps tooling and continue evolving its UX maturity, embracing iteration and aiming to become a User-Driven corporation.

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