*-- tl;dr --* We share our lessons learned from this year's edition of the Wikimedia Accelerator UNLOCK: Be inspired by our successes and failures of designing and implementing a new program for Free Knowledge! *+++* Dear Wikimedians, dear all, Today we are excited to share with you our core lessons learned from the past year! This year, we finished up the second edition of the Wikimedia Accelerator program UNLOCK <https://www.wikimedia.de/unlock/> [1]. We supported five project teams with brilliantly new ideas for Free Knowledge with coachings, mentoring, and tons of input from experts within our movement and beyond that helped them bring their ideas to life. Throughout the second edition of the UNLOCK Accelerator we made it our mission to evaluate often and experiment continuously as a means to learn from new and previous challenges. In one comprehensive document we would like to share our core lessons learned with you, with the intention of making freely available what went particularly well and what we might change in the future in designing and implementing an accelerator program. For instance, did you know that eradicating a jury meeting for the selection process of the participating teams and going fully virtual ended up not working as planned? And while the participants were much more eager to engage in cross-team setups than last year, it wasn’t the thematic theme of the program (Re)Building trust in the digital age <https://www.wikimedia.de/unlock-blog/rebuilding-trust-in-the-digital-age/> [2] that they bonded over most? We share the full inside scoop of what worked and what simply didn't. We hope to get a conversation going. Perhaps we will also inspire someone who can use our recommendations as a helpful resource in the development of their own work. Download here <https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:UNLOCK2021_Lessons_Learned_ENG.pdf> [3] The basis of this document are 1:1 feedback sessions as well as anonymous surveys with the participants of the program, regular debriefs and retrospectives with all persons involved in the program implementation (e.g. coaches, jury members, organizational and communication team), as well as our own evaluation sessions following each milestone of the program. Enjoy the read and get in touch if you want to learn more! Best, the UNLOCK team (Kannika, Lucia, Mia) [1] https://www.wikimedia.de/unlock/ [2] https://www.wikimedia.de/unlock-blog/rebuilding-trust-in-the-digital-age/ [3] https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:UNLOCK2021_Lessons_Learned_ENG.pdf -- Lucia Obst (she/her) Projektmanagerin UNLOCK Accelerator *We accelerate your ideas. Together we build the future of Free Knowledge.* www.wikimedia.de/unlock <http://www.wikimedia.de/unlock> Wikimedia Deutschland e. V. | Tempelhofer Ufer 23–24 | 10963 Berlin Tel. (030) 219 158 26-0 https://wikimedia.de