Earthly

Challenge

Earthly's technical depth and extensive documentation made first-time setup slow, often 30 to 60 minutes of reading, which is too long for a SaaS web app.

Approach

Reduce time and cognitive load by breaking onboarding into clear, goal-oriented paths that map to real user tasks.

Solution

• CLI quick start: install and run a first project in about a minute for an early win.
• Focused 6-step Earthfile tutorial: learn essentials in minutes instead of hours in the docs.
• CI integration guides: provider-specific, step-by-step instructions so users can follow exact steps for their setup.
• Make all onboarding content JSON-driven so engineers can refine wording and steps without UI changes, and the app renders it correctly every time.

Outcome

Users can choose their path, grasp key benefits quickly, and get to a running build faster. Multiple customers gave very positive feedback, including “one of the best onboarding experiences.”.

Challenge

Users needed a clear operational view: which builds are active now, what recently ran, and which satellites (cloud machines) are available.

Approach

Keep the information model simple and surface what matters at a glance, with progressive detail on hover or click.

Solution

• Active Builds panel appears only while builds are running and hides when idle.
• Builds list with hover details for quick inspection.
• Satellites panel shows which machines are available, in use, and their status.
• Header includes links to Slack and a persistent Get Started shortcut for quick access to tutorial sections.

Outcome

A clean, focused dashboard that kept users oriented and reduced effort to find status and next steps.

Challenge

With logs alone, users could not see which targets were cached, how targets related, or where time was spent.

Approach

Replace the single logs view with multiple visualizations mapped to core user questions.

Solution

• Build timeline showing every target with status, caching state, and duration.
• Summary header with total targets, successes and failures, and cache hits.
• On failure, automatically select the failed target to reveal the error immediately.
• Interactive dependency graph with zoom and click-through to a target's detail page.
• Timing view that shows exactly how long each target took.

Outcome

Users could follow build progression, understand caching behavior, and navigate failures and dependencies quickly instead of scanning long logs.

Challenge

Organizations needed clear usage visibility, straightforward access management as teams grew, and a path to self-serve plans.

Approach

Keep configuration minimal but capable: clear usage, simple invitations with permissions, and an integrated upgrade path.

Solution

• Usage overview showing build minutes and member count at a glance.
• Members section to invite any number of users at once, set permissions per invite, and view current members and pending invites.
• Plans & billing: choose a plan and upgrade from trial through a guided flow.

Outcome

Provided a simple way to see usage, manage access, and upgrade plans when needed.