Cross-posting Erik's announcement (from the WMF staff list).
---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Erik Moeller erik@wikimedia.org Date: Mon, Sep 16, 2013 at 9:44 AM Subject: [Wmfall] Editor Engagement Reloaded To: Staff All wmfall@lists.wikimedia.org
Hi all,
I already gave the headline at all-hands, but wanted to officially share some news about our two editor engagement teams.
## Staffing changes
Ori Livneh is leaving the E3 team to transition into a role that will provide him with the structure to better support projects that are used across teams. As Senior Software Engineer, Ori has led the development of several such projects already, including EventLogging, NavigationTiming, and MediaWiki-Vagrant. We’re still finalizing details of his new role and will announce this change separately.
Another change (already in place) is that S Page will be working across Features, with a focus on QA, testing, code review, and documentation. His first task will be working as ScrumMaster with the Flow team, making sure that group has the support it needs as it tackles the thorny problem of improving how discussion systems work on our wikis.
To fill Ori and S's spots on the team, we'll be hiring two full-time Front-end Engineers -- one immediately and one by January 1. Steven Walling and Matt Flaschen will remain in their current roles. The team will also include Aaron Halfaker as data analyst, and Pau Giner is currently working as primary UX designer.
## The name and mandate of our two Editor Engagement teams
The truth is not many people, internally or externally, find the distinction between "Editor Engagement" and "Editor Engagement Experiments" to be clear. The names are too similar, for a start.
To try and address this, we're going to transition to the following:
- Editor Engagement Experiments (E3) is now the Growth team. - Editor Engagement (E2) is now Core Features.
Core Features reflects a focus on building products that engage new editors and keep existing editors coming back. We think of these features as providing an essential framework for positive communication and collaboration between editors. They include things like notifications, discussion pages, and structured profiles.
Growth is just what it sounds like. This team's job is to expand the Wikipedia editor community. The fact that the team’s Annual Plan target is a number of new editors, rather than particular features, reflects an abiding commitment to use data to drive change.
What has changed is that the Growth team no longer focuses on small, disconnected experiments, but instead on lasting improvements to key areas for new users. That means drawing tons of new people into the signup process, showing them how to make their first edits or create an article, and giving them clear next steps that put them on the path to becoming Wikipedians.
We think that these names are much more aligned with the responsibilities of each team. Core Features like Flow and notifications lay the groundwork for a healthy community. The Growth team gives people a compelling reason to join, and shows them how to make their first contributions to the encyclopedia. Together, they work in concert (along with mobile, multimedia, VisualEditor, and more) to provide a modern, cohesive user experience for Wikipedia.
If you want to learn specifics about what each of these teams want to do over the year, check out 2013-14 Goals page,[1] and please do comment. The respective product managers for Growth or Core Features -- Steven and Maryana -- can answer any questions you might have.
All best, Erik
[1] https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Engineering/2013-14_Goals -- Erik Möller VP of Engineering and Product Development, Wikimedia Foundation
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