Just following up on this: when will the mid-year WMF financials be published with Annual Plan alignment/divergance info? This info is relevant for 2015-2016 planning, and to some extent, the strategy update.
Thanks. (: Pine On Oct 9, 2014 12:18 PM, "Pine W" <[email protected]> wrote: > Thank you Lila. > > Pine > On Oct 9, 2014 11:50 AM, "Lila Tretikov" <[email protected]> wrote: > >> We are planning to do a review of alignment/divergence with the plan mid >> year. That would be the right time for this discussion as we will have a >> good overview/gap analysis at that time. >> >> On Thu, Oct 9, 2014 at 11:37 AM, Pine W <[email protected]> wrote: >> >> > Thanks for the detailed comments, Erik. >> > >> > As someone who spent several volunteer hours reviewing the current >> Annual >> > Plan, I would appreciate getting an understanding of how the change of >> > emphasis to quarterly reviews affects budgets, hiring plans, and >> > fundraising goals. Is that something that you can address or should I >> ask >> > Garfield? >> > >> > Thanks, >> > Pine >> > On Oct 9, 2014 4:44 AM, "Erik Moeller" <[email protected]> wrote: >> > >> > > On Thu, Oct 9, 2014 at 10:26 AM, Pine W <[email protected]> wrote: >> > > >> > > > I'm sure a Board member, Lila, or Erik will correct me if I am >> > mistaken, >> > > > but my understanding is that there is internal agreement at Board >> level >> > > > that the Product side of the org needs some systemic changes, that >> Lila >> > > was >> > > > chosen with the goal of making those changes, and that some changes >> are >> > > > already happening. >> > > >> > > There's agreement at all levels that we want to continue down the path >> > > set by Sue back in 2012 [1] for WMF to truly understand itself as a >> > > technology and grantmaking organization. That path led to where we are >> > > today: >> > > >> > > 1) As part of the ED transition, Sue recommended (and the Board >> > > accepted the recommendation) to seek an ED with a strong >> > > technology/product background, and we hired Lila Tretikov as Sue's >> > > successor who matches those requirements. >> > > >> > > 2) In November 2012, I recommended that we prepare for building out >> > > new functions for UX and Analytics, and prepare for dedicated >> > > leadership for Engineering and Product. Sue accepted this >> > > recommendation. I hired Directors for UX and Analytics in 2013, >> > > followed by Community Engagement in 2014, and finally we hired a VP >> > > Engineering last week to complete the process. >> > > >> > > 3) To better account for the need to learn quickly and adjust course >> > > as appropriate, we introduced quarterly reviews in December 2012 [3] >> > > and increasingly reduced the specificity of Annual Plan level >> > > commitments while increasing the focus on metrics and accountability >> > > in the reviews. >> > > >> > > 4) On the technology and product front, many improvements to process >> > > and support infrastructure have been implemented in the last couple of >> > > years, including but not limited to: >> > > >> > > - Development of MediaWiki Vagrant as a standardized dev environment, >> > > to reduce failure cases due to developer environment inconsistencies >> > > - Improvements to continuous integration infrastructure for PHP unit >> > > tests and QUnit JavaScript unit tests, and increased focus (but not >> > > nearly enough yet) on automated tests, especially for newly developed >> > > features >> > > - Introduction and continued improvement of BetaLabs as a staging >> > > environment for all commits, increased use of automated end-to-end >> > > browser tests and QA testing by humans to catch bugs and regressions >> > > prior to production rollouts >> > > - Introduction and use of various tools for measuring the impact of >> > > features, including EventLogging as a standard instrumentation >> > > framework for measuring feature usage, dashboards for visualizing >> > > usage, WikiMetrics for analyzing editor cohort behavior, Editor >> > > Engagement Vital Signs for understanding system-wide user behavior, >> > > analysis of pageview data using Hadoop (just rolled out), etc. >> > > - Highly specialized automated testing frameworks for specific >> > > projects, e.g. Parsoid round-trip testing and visual diffing (!) to >> > > detect dirty diffs or output problems >> > > - Introduction of design research as a discipline in the UX team >> > > (through hiring of Abbey Ripstra as User Research Lead) and >> > > incorporation of user studies in a much more systematic way across >> > > products >> > > - Community liaisons dedicated to key products, responding to user >> > > feedback and helping Product Managers understand more complex >> > > community needs >> > > - Continued shortening of release/deployment cycles; significant >> > > improvements to deployment tooling, rewriting our legacy "scap" tools >> > > to increase the ability to monitor and reason about deployments; >> > > introduction of daily "SWAT" deploys to quickly release fixes, etc. >> > > - Introduction of various infrastructure tools that help us better >> > > analyze/profile issues, including logstash for log analysis, increased >> > > use of graphite for performance metrics collection and various >> > > front-ends for visualizing those metrics >> > > - Shift towards loosely coupled services, addressing the difficulty of >> > > maintaining and improving our highly monolithic codebase (examples >> > > include Parsoid, Citoid, Mathoid, and the new Content API in >> > > development) >> > > - Introduction of Beta Features framework to stage features for early >> > > adopters >> > > >> > > 5) The changes Lila has pushed for since we started include: >> > > >> > > - Greater focus on quarterly prioritization and a "rolling roadmap" >> > > rather than a fiscal year view of the world >> > > - Increased emphasis on understanding the needs of different user >> > > personas at all cycles of software development, including through use >> > > of qualitative and quantitative methods >> > > - Reducing velocity of user-facing changes (esp. on desktop) to >> > > increase focus on foundations (platform/process improvements) that >> > > ultimately will enable us to move faster and more effectively >> > > - Documenting product development methodology on-wiki and establishing >> > > a clearer social contract (to reduce the reliance on RFCs/votes >> > > regarding feature configurations) >> > > - Surveying the needs of current users to more systematically balance >> > > projects that serve future/new users vs. projects that serve the users >> > > we have today >> > > - Improved communication channels for community engagement to make it >> > > easier to understand what major projects are currently in development >> > > and how to provide feedback >> > > >> > > This already means, effectively, that the commitments in the Annual >> > > Plan developed during Sue's time should be taken with a big block of >> > > salt at this point in time -- we're slowing down the deployment (not >> > > development) of big user-facing features like Flow and VE as much as >> > > needed to ensure that we incorporate user feedback, data and >> > > qualitative research into the product development process >> > > appropriately and spend sufficient time on the technical foundations >> > > for these projects. >> > > >> > > The quarterly prioritization alone has been, IMO, a huge improvement >> > > that's already paying off. In the "Annual Plan" view of the world, >> > > it's unlikely that we would have prioritized a project like HHVM the >> > > way we did, because we were generally stuck on the priorities set for >> > > the whole year. But it was very clear that this project would provide >> > > huge benefits to our users, and I'm glad we were able to call it out >> > > as _the_ top priority for Q1 and give the team the space to really >> > > focus on getting it done (almost there now, starting to serve reader >> > > traffic [4]). >> > > >> > > Our draft Q2 top priorities (not yet posted on-wiki, but discussed in >> > > the metrics meeting last week) are consistent with the above, with the >> > > main user-facing push being on mobile web/apps and editing >> > > performance, while the other priorities are more >> > > platform/process-related. Once again, we're continuing to work on VE / >> > > Flow, but focusing more on fundamentals (performance, architecture, >> > > testing, use case analysis, etc.) than accelerating deployments. >> > > >> > > My focus over the coming days is to flesh out the details for the Q2 >> > > priorities, and then shift to putting more effort in documenting and >> > > refining product development methodologies and processes on-wiki. On >> > > the engineering side, there's plenty of process/infrastructure >> > > improvement to do as well. From my point of view, continued >> > > improvement to test coverage and CI/testing infrastructure, developer >> > > tools, profiling/instrumentation, staged roll-out support and >> > > strengthening of architectural leadership are the big pieces for >> > > coming months, but I'll let Damon speak to his focus areas as he gets >> > > the lay of the land. >> > > >> > > Erik >> > > >> > > [1] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Sue_Gardner/Narrowing_focus >> > > [2] >> > > >> > >> https://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikimedia-l/2012-November/122663.html >> > > [3] >> > > >> > >> https://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikimedia-l/2012-December/123088.html >> > > [4] https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/#/c/165004/ >> > > -- >> > > Erik Möller >> > > VP of Product & Strategy, Wikimedia Foundation >> > > >> > > _______________________________________________ >> > > Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: >> > > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines >> > > [email protected] >> > > Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l >> , >> > > <mailto:[email protected]?subject=unsubscribe> >> > _______________________________________________ >> > Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: >> > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines >> > [email protected] >> > Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, >> > <mailto:[email protected]?subject=unsubscribe> >> > >> _______________________________________________ >> Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: >> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines >> [email protected] >> <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/[email protected]> >> Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, >> <mailto:[email protected]?subject=unsubscribe> > > _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, <mailto:[email protected]?subject=unsubscribe>
