This case study describes how we merged two "software as a service" businesses in a user-centered way
This is a case study of Overleaf and ShareLaTeX which, in 2017
were two established online platforms for LaTeX editing
They were competitors with over 2 million users together
Overleaf and ShareLaTeX were online LaTeX editors, so what is LaTeX?
LaTeX is a document preparation system, which supports for instance citations, cross-references and mathematical equations
Due to this, and the fact that it allows for high-quality typesetting, it's widely used in academia
Authors use LaTeX mark-up code, such as the example on the left
which is then compiled to produce a document like the figure on the right
Both platforms shared the basic core ability of LaTeX editing, but they were different
Overleaf v1 had a rich-text/what-you-see-is-what-you- get mode, friendlier for new users
as well as stronger integrations with journals and publishers
ShareLaTeX, on the other hand, had a lower-latency real-time editor
with additional collaboration features such as tracked-changes
In July 2017, Overleaf and ShareLaTeX announced that they were joining forces
This was an acquisition: Overleaf fully acquired the company and the team behind ShareLaTeX
The goal was to create a single platform: Overleaf v2
We know software mergers come with many challenges. From a UX standpoint, both platforms had established user-bases
These users were proficient with their editor of choice and, understandably, there was some change aversion which we had to overcome
To minimise uncertainty and to make it clear that the new platform was an improvement
we put together a UX strategy to keep users at the center of merger and to provide reassurance
The strategy was based on: frequent communication; iteration; and validation
From a methodological standpoint, we have used a mixed-methods approach
where the different methods worked together, complimentarily
We had two major surveys, pre and post integration
which were used as a cost-effective way of surveying the global user-base
We had feature-specific interviews, to gather in-depth qualitative insight
on how users organise their LaTeX projects
And we also had a private beta, with three phases, each one releasing more features and onboarding more users
We have also conducted a usability test to the core editing functionality of Overleaf v2
Due to the size of the user base, the global pre and post surveys were a key part of our research strategy
The two surveys shared a similar structure so that results could be compared
We asked users how they felt about the merger, on a 5-point Likert-like scale, we had some profiling questions
and finally, a set of open-ended questions, about expectations, what they appreciated about their editor of choice and priorities
The results were positive, the users' rating of their feelings towards the merger has increased from pre to post integration
We have also conducted interviews regarding project organisation features, namely the dashboard and project history
We have identified small improvements to both, but no major changes
Users considered these as a minor part of their overall experience with Overleaf
The editor is where they spent most of their time and this gave us confidence in focusing our efforts in the editor
The usability test was conducted as part of the private beta
It was task-oriented, moderated and followed a concurrent think-aloud protocol
This allowed us to capture the participants' feelings and thought processes
enhancing the qualitative outcomes of the test
No large issues were found. Most of the issues were related to UI changes
namely the placement of certain elements or default options
Although the initial plan was mostly followed, we did incorporate some changes to our roadmap, to address feedback
The first major change was the git integration
Overleaf v1 supported direct git integration
whereas ShareLaTeX provided an integration through a provider: GitHub
The initial decision was to only keep the ShareLaTeX version, as we wanted to avoid maintaining two similar features
However, user feedback revealed that the direct git integration was fundamental to the workflows of some users
so we decided to bring it back
The other changes were related to the editor look & feel
namely the creation of a light theme and configurable source code font options
And, although these change might be easy to dismiss as cosmetic
they do play an important role in user satisfaction and comfort for long editing sessions
The new Overleaf v2 was launched in September 2018, announced via email, blog post and an official press release
We have since reached significant usage milestones
from two million users in 2017, we are now at 7.5 million users
At the same time, Overleaf has also received external recognition and awards.
Internally, the merger was considered a success, with user research being one of its drivers.
Being user-centric is a defining aspect of the company work culture
From a critical standpoint, it is true that, by merging ShareLaTeX and Overleaf, we have effectively reduced competition
However, due to ongoing engagement with users, we are confident
We have an established and happy user-base, who appreciates the convenience and reliability of Overleaf
I'd like to end this presentation by noting that, since at least 2019
this very conference, CHI, has been providing authors with a link to an Overleaf template for paper submissions
This further contributes to a notion of Overleaf as a successful product and a popular choice for LaTeX based authoring
Thank you very much, and I'm looking forward to the live Q&A session