Upstream Studios

We integrate research, design, frontend engineering, documentation, and brand into a unified delivery pipeline, shaping how customers experience GitLab from first impression to final deployment.

Our disciplines

Upstream Studios brings together five core disciplines, each essential to delivering exceptional customer experiences:

Product Design

Strategic partners in the product development process, Product Designers work in trios with Product Management and Engineering to shape user experiences from concept to delivery. We’re upstream—involved in Interlock planning from the start, driving product decisions with user-centered thinking, and shipping experiences that are productive, minimal, and human.

Learn more about Product Design →

UX Research

UX Researchers validate hypotheses before teams commit to direction, not after they’ve started building. Through continuous discovery and strategic insight, research drives what we build and shapes how the entire company approaches decision-making. Our work expands across product and brand, ensuring every experience is grounded in user understanding.

Learn more about UX Research →

Technical Writing

Technical Writers focus their words where they create direct product impact—guiding users exactly where and when they need it most. Involved in product design early enough to influence how guidance is delivered, Technical Writing shapes the product experience, not just documents it after the fact.

Learn more about Technical Writing →

Design System

The Design System team delivers platform-wide patterns and production code for the GitLab product. With expanding capability to ship cross-cutting experiences and strategic front-end work, Design System ensures consistency, quality, and velocity across the entire GitLab application.

Pajamas is our product design system—providing reusable components, patterns, and guidelines that power the GitLab product experience. The team enables Product Designers, Engineers, and Technical Writers to move faster while maintaining the highest standards of craft and coherence.

Learn more about Design System →

Brand

Brand establishes one consistent visual language and narrative across web, collateral, support, education, and marketing. Through strategic storytelling and proactive design, Brand creates customer love and trust—ensuring every touchpoint reflects GitLab’s values and vision.

Slippers is our brand design system—providing the visual foundations, components, and guidelines that ensure consistency across all brand touchpoints. Together with strategic creative work, Brand shapes how the world experiences GitLab beyond the product.

Learn more about Brand →

How we work

We’re strategic partners, not a service organization

Just as backend engineering solves complex system architecture, we solve complex experience architecture. Our craft is deeply technical. Our decisions are strategically critical. Our impact is measurable in customer outcomes.

Strategic partners are upstream. We’re at the source, where things begin, where ideas originate, where direction gets set. We’re not downstream, executing on decisions made without us.

This means:

• Early involvement: We’re part of Interlock planning from the start, shaping strategy alongside Product Management and Engineering
• Strong point of view: We challenge assumptions, advocate for users, and shape outcomes—not just execute requirements
• Platform thinking: We work across teams on experiences that span the product, not just isolated features
• Data-driven advocacy: We define success criteria and hold the line on quality with evidence
• Continuous iteration: We ship to learn, measure impact, and improve based on real customer behavior

We own the complete stack

Most design organizations stop at mockups and prototypes. We go further—from research insights to production code, from brand narrative to technical documentation, from design systems to deployed interfaces.

We don’t hand off. We ship.

This integrated approach means:

• Research informs design
• Design systems enable development
• Code powers product experiences
• Documentation guides customers to success
• Brand storytelling creates meaning

These disciplines don’t work in silos—they flow through a unified pipeline where every transition is a merge, not a wall.

We partner to deliver

Success is collaborative and accountability is mutual:

• Product teams: We work in trios with Product Managers and Engineering to ship product experiences
• Marketing teams: We collaborate with Marketing and Market Research to shape brand perception
• Cross-functional initiatives: We drive platform-wide improvements that no single team owns

We win together.

Our principles

Bias for shipping

Perfection is the enemy of iteration. We ship to learn, then iterate based on evidence. A feature in customers’ hands beats a perfect prototype every time.

Design with data, judge with experience

We test assumptions. We measure behavior. We let evidence drive decisions to a point. But there are times where experience-based intuition results in judgment calls that outweigh data. It’s the exception, not the rule.

Question assumptions

The patterns that got us here won’t get us where we’re going. We challenge convention, test new approaches, and aren’t afraid to be wrong—as long as we learn fast and adapt faster.

Elevate craft

We’re technical craftspeople. Code quality matters. Design systems consistency matters. Documentation clarity matters. Brand coherence matters. We hold ourselves to the highest standard because customers feel the difference between good and great.

Default to collaboration

The best ideas come from diverse perspectives. Designers challenge engineers. Researchers challenge designers. Writers challenge everyone. We create space for productive conflict because it makes the work stronger.

Stay curious

Technology changes. Customer needs evolve. Markets shift. We remain students of our craft, our industry, and our users. Curiosity is what keeps us relevant and razor-sharp.

Why we exist

GitLab succeeds when customers love the product and trust the brand. That doesn’t happen by accident—it’s designed, built, tested, documented, and delivered with relentless intention.

Upstream Studios exists to ensure every customer touchpoint—from marketing site to product interface, from documentation to design system—reflects GitLab’s values and serves our users’ needs. We’re the connective tissue between brand promise and product reality.

Learn more about our vision and strategy.

We’re here to make GitLab:

• Not just powerful, but delightful
• Not just functional, but intuitive
• Not just feature-rich, but coherent

We’re here to ship experiences that matter.

Leadership

Jonah Sterling, Chief Design Officer

Discipline leaders:

• Product Design and Design System: Valerie Karnes, Senior Director of Product Design
• UX Research: Jessica Kane, Senior Manager, UX Research & Karen Li, Senior Manager, UX Research
• Technical Writing: Diana Logan, Director, Technical Writing
• Brand: Adam Mittner, Director of Product Design

This handbook is maintained by Upstream Studios. Have feedback or suggestions? Open an issue or reach out in #upstream-studios.

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