🎢 An improved free trial sign-up experience for GitLab.com (SaaS) users
Problem
The GitLab.com trial sign up experience is currently 37 actions and it takes between five and eight minutes to complete.
Much of the reason behind this is because users need to interact with the customer portal in order to complete the trial sign up. Users should not have to encounter the portal to begin a free trial on GitLab.com.
Proposal
We should move all GitLab.com (SaaS) free trial functionality from the portal to GitLab.com.
There are two categories of Entry Points: The marketing site and via GitLab.com
Within the two categories, the user has several opportunities to start a trial. The starting points of this proposal go through the user flows on about.GitLab.com landing page and Group Settings page within GitLab.com.
This new approach reduces the steps (steps as defined as user actions) needed to start a trial to:
- 22 for a New User Registration using the signup form
- 10 for an existing user from within GitLab.com
This is a significant reduction in user-initiated steps and almost halves the original 37 steps required previously.
Designs
This is a high-level view of the process and covers that of the two main entry point categories.
This Prototype will take you on a deep dive into all of the steps involved in starting a new trial. It should also give you access to the individual artboards for further reference.
Key Takeaways
| Current | Proposal |
|---|---|
 |
 |
- I removed the GitLab.com signup copy to help users focus in on their Trial Journey.
- I have also introduced a new Signup Header Bar in our default colours (originally white) - This is to help tie the user into the feel of GitLab.com as early as possible. This Header colour scheme is a user option and it would great if for an existing user starting a trial, we use the colour of the Header Bar in the user's preference.
- Full Name Input has been split into First Name and Last Name for greater consistency. There probably needs to be a longer discussion around developing inclusive naming patterns. Currently, the lead generation page for a new trial (on the customer portal) asks users for First Name and Last Name.
- Email confirmation input field has also been removed as it would be beneficial for us to adopt a soft email confirmation flow during the New Registration or a Trial applicant. This would stop users navigating away from the process and keep them focused on complete=ing the steps. Work on a proposal for this has already been completed https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-ce/issues/47003.
Removal of Social Sign-in from the Trial Process
Based on ongoing conversations, we have opted to remove the ability for Social Sign-in, specifically for users during the trial process. The main reason for this is because if a user signs up with Twitter we do not currently pull their Email Address from their account and instead force users to complete their profiles via the Edit Profile page. For a Trial sign up this creates a broken and frustrating flow. I have created another issue https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-ce/issues/65023 to explore what happens with all of our third-party Social Sign-in options.
Free trial signup page
| Current | Proposal |
|---|---|
 |
 |
I originally proposed that we update the Trial Sign up page. Free trial signup flow improvements: Trial Page has ongoing discussions around how we could optimise this page and it would be great to include this in the scope of work.
Design Specs & Assets
Result
- 95% of friction for users signing up for a GitLab.com free trial is removed
- Minimise missed opportunities from trial sign up dropouts
- A significantly improved experience as a first touch point for our users with GitLab
Rollout Strategy
- Ensure envs variable for Subscription Portal API credentials has been added (ref. https://gitlab.com/gitlab-com/gl-infra/infrastructure/issues/7823)
- Enable the feature flag:
improved_trial_signup - Update ‘Free Trial’ link for SaaS in Pricing page (https://about.gitlab.com/pricing/) to point to new trial registration url
(3) and (2) can be performed interchangeably, as new trial url will fallback to existing customers portal trial sign up if flag is turned off.