Timeline
2 year, 2 months
Role
UX Designer, Google Cloud
Launched
August, 2020
Overview
Google Cloud offers a suite of tools for developers to launch their code to production.
I was the lead designer for Cloud Build and Artifact Registry. These tools let developers integrate their code with Google Cloud and then build, test, and deploy on a serverless platform.
CI/CD stands for continuous integration, continuous delivery. It's a method to frequently deliver apps to customers by introducing automation into the stages of the app development process. The more automation there is, the more time developers can spend writing code.
User Journey Map
Problem
Developers at large enterprises need to learn many different tools to get their code to production.
Goal
Offer a best in class CI/CD tool that securely automates developer workflows from commit to prod.
Process
I led the design of Cloud Build and Artifact Registry's GA launches. I worked on designs for dashboards, notifications, integrations, settings, and management flows.
I also partnered with a researcher to conduct foundational research on our users. We defined archetypes, using the analogy of hats. These archetypes were helpful when writing product requirements. We helped product managers and engineers on our team understand that different individuals wear different hats and are responsible for different parts of the CI/CD journey. Larger engineering teams have engineers specialize more than at smaller organizations.
Archetypes
The archetypes were used to create personas. Personas were referenced in product requirement documents. They also drove the point home that our users wear many hats. Most of them are developers and want to spend their time writing code. They aren't interested in debugging CI/CD issues in a new tool, so we need to build integrations and meet them where they already are. This meant integrating with tools like GitHub and Visual Studio Code.
Personas
Launch
The Cloud Build GitHub integration launched in August of 2020. This was when developers could easily connect their code to our CI/CD platform. Artifact Registry launched in November of 2020.
Iteration
After launching Cloud Build, I partnered with a Product Manager to pitch a re-architecture of the Cloud Build mental model and validate the concept with customers. We used continuous research and participatory design methods to test the concept. We partnered with large enterprises and met with the same partipants throughout the 3 phases of research. We iterated our designs based on user feedback.
The Outcome
Cloud Build and Artifact Registry allow Google Cloud customers to manage their CI/CD pipelines with a single tool. Customers don't need to pay for other platforms and engineers don't have to learn new tools. We saw steady YoY adoption of our CI/CD offering and were named a leader by Forrester Wave. The pitch for a new architecture model for Cloud Build was validated by customers and accepted by leadership. The team was allocated significant resources to build the new model.
