Hi everyone,
as detailed by Erik earlier [1], the Foundation is changing its
reporting from the monthly cycle that has been in place since 2008 to
a quarterly rhythm. A main reason being to better align it with the
quarterly planning and goalsetting process that has been extended to
the entire organization since Lila took the helm. The first of these
new quarterly reports is set to come out on February 15, and while the
content is being filled out over the next week, we wanted to provide
an opportunity for the entire community to comment on the planned
structure.
The main objectives and design principles for this report are:
* Accountability: Help our movement and our supporters understand how
we spend our effort, and what we accomplish.
* Learning together: Highlight important internal & external data,
trends and lessons.
* Presentable: Anyone, from volunteer to the executive director,
should be able to present the work of the WMF using this report.
* Reasonable effort: Pull as much as possible from existing sources,
e.g., quarterly review slide decks & minutes.
We have decided that this iteration of the new report will appear in
the format of a slide deck suitable for a 90 minute presentation,
which means that it will need to focus on the highest priorities in
each area, linking to the quarterly review documentation and other
material for further detail.
See the mockup (linked below) for the intended structure, which
includes the following sections:
*Key metrics (expanding the "Data and Trends" section of the previous
monthly reports, adding a red/green/yellow indicator to provide
context on whether each number is seen as concerning, positive or
neutral), and overall insights/takeaways from this quarter
For each priority work area:
*What we said (previously set goals) and what we did (results).
*What we learned (how should the results impact the work going
forward? What insights can the Foundation or the movement take away?)
and concluding with:
*What's next (excerpt of the highest priority goals for the next quarter)
The draft structure (with mocked up content - not the actual report
yet) can be found here:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Wikimedia_Foundation_reports
Please leave comments there. We will try to take them into account
while tweaking the structure further, and of course, this being the
first iteration, we are likely to make many further changes for the
next quarterly report.
Note: This report is going to cover the second quarter of the
Foundation's fiscal year (October-December 2014). The remaining
monthly reports under the old model until September have all been
published by now, you can find them at
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_reports .
[1]
https://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikimediaannounce-l/2014-November/001…
--
Tilman Bayer
Senior Analyst
Wikimedia Foundation
IRC (Freenode): HaeB