Feature Marketing
We want to be better at marketing feature. Right now we treat documentation as marketing, which is totally not a good way to do this.
I think we should have a page for (something like) each of the categories listed here: https://about.gitlab.com/features/#compare
For instance:
/features/authentication, /features/workflow, /features/integration, /features/administration, /features/ci.
There we could list each separate feature, with some more in-dept information with links to content (blog posts, videos, documentation).
It would have to be a nice looking page, using classic full-width design. If someone asks for a certain feature, we can deep link to one of these pages.
@sytses love to hear your thoughts. This is in line with the conversation we had the other night.
Activity
@JobV did we just discuss?
- There are about 7 subjects
- /features are 7 panels that deep links to the subject pages /features/workflow and a link to /features/compare (make sure it has a #compare anchor)
- /features/compare (separate page) has 7 tables of which the headers links to the subject pages and the rows deeplink to the relevant part of the subject page
- the subject pages contain links to the documentation, blog posts and screenshots and clearly indicate what is CE and EE
Edited by Sid Sijbrandijmentioned in issue #439 (closed)
@JobV nice, ping me with content details, so I can start working on layout.
@creamzy
/featureswould have the main categories. It'd at least these seven. They would each link to their own separate page.Subjects (Features)
- Code, Review and Collaborate
- Secure with extended Authentication and Authorization
- Fine-grained workflow management
- Runs on any infrastructure, from Raspberry Pi to cluster
- Integrates deeply with your current tools
- Built-in, powerful CI. Test, package, deploy
- Full project management solution
Code, Review and Collaborate
- full git access (files, commits, etc)
- comment anywhere
- code review using merge requests
- view activity of things relevant to you (activity feed for all / group / project)
- protected branches
- ?
Secure with extended Authentication and Authorization
- LDAP user authentication
- Multiple LDAP server support
- LDAP group synchronization
- Create and remove admins based on an LDAP group
- Kerberos user authentication
- Two-factor Authentication
- Integrate with Atlassian Crowd
Fine-grained workflow management
- Groups consisting of multiple people with a shared namespace for projects
- Share a project with other groups
- Rebase merge requests before merge
- Lock project membership to the members of a group
- Approve Merge Requests
- Mirror External Repositories
- Automatically Merge on Build Success
Easy to Install, Migrate
Integrates deeply with your current tools
Built-in, powerful CI. Test, package, deploy
Full project management solution (Issues)
- Set weight of issues
@creamzy in summary, we need to have easy to update / change pages that would allow us to add and remove features. There will be only one 'overview' page, of course.
Let me know if you need more input, but it would be great to get a rough start before either of us pours lots of time into making something very detailed.
@JobV our about.gitlab.com designer is starting on the 11th. Perhaps assign to him?
@AshleyS fine with me, but a start made by @creamzy wouldn't be bad either.
Do you have the username of the new designer?
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@JobV if we have about.gitlab.com designer onboard, i would suggest to wait till he's ready. Not sure about his software of choice and overall vision.
@AshleyS @JobV we already have an issue about redesign for website assigned on me, should I stop to do it and reassign it for a new guy?
To clarify, this issue is only in regards to the feature marketing on the website. Not regarding the redesign of the website.
@skyruler if you already have something, I propose you work together with the new designer joining us and hand it over. If you agree with me, I think we're best off having your work on the application, rather than the website.
@JobV I'm working on homepage now, unfortunately I'm not sure how it's possible to move forward until Homepage is not ready. So I hope we can move faster when we have homepage polished and ready for Frontend
Call scheduled tomorrow with @JobV to deep-dive into this.
Hey guys, just documenting some notes as reference to the call @JobV and I had today.
Problem: It's really difficult to convey features on GitLab — people come to support asking for a feature that actually already exists.
Solution: Show off GitLab with a simple and intuitive experience that allows the user to not only see an overview of all GitLab's features. But also be able to deep dive into each specific feature and relevant links (blog posts, media, documentation, etc.).
The overall design should be one that's easily scalable as there are always new GitLab features to add (i.e. Job can add a new row for a new feature being released).
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Categories make things easy to find, avoid being a massive scrolling page with tons of content
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Once inside a category or feature, make it easy for the user to jump to other categories and/or features — keep them engaged, tangent off into other categories, but always have that category context available.
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One idea is to always highlight new features, maybe at the top of each category we showcase new features that have just been released (distinguish by color, type, tag, etc.)
Github Enterprise is NOT a great example: https://enterprise.github.com/features#features
Square does it well: https://squareup.com/global/en/register
Parse does it well: http://parse.com/products
Edited by Luke Babb-
Moved to marketing#95
