Hello All,
Over the past few weeks, some of us have been diligently working on a
number of projects on the marketing front. As many of you know, and as
many of you have participated, I have over the last two weeks been
talking to many of us, privately, trying to poll the crowd and see what
those amongst us thought were the best areas for improvement and/or
optimization of the marketing team. Based on that feedback, I've
developed this proposal which lays out those key areas, identifies what
can be improved upon and how we can go about doing it. The solution
pretty much encompasses everything, so I'll just present the 3 key
issues and then what I think is the best course forward. Please note, I
am looking to solicit feedback on this, this isnt like a dictatorial
edict or anything, just one man's thoughts.
As it stands right now, Fedora Marketing is very strong. I make that
statement based on the character of all those involved and the quality
of the discussions which we have. There is a perceived weakness
however, which many attribute to lack of communication. The truth is, I
think that any weakness which exists, whether its lack of organization
or the relatively low amount of traffic on the mailing list I attribute
to an inefficient workflow. So I ask myself, and everyone else, maybe
there is alot of room for improvement and a maybe its just a few small
steps we can take that can have us running at max efficiency?
There are 3 main areas in which we can improve:
1. Better organization and workflow - we know what we need to do, just
that often times we don't know when. Also, records and methods of
tracking are sufficient, sub-optimally efficient.
2. Better and clearer delegation of tasks - we know what we need to do,
just that often times, we don't know who is responsible for it. A large
problem with this also is that some people refrain from picking up
certain tasks because they assume it belongs to someone are afraid to
step on toes.
3. Better coordination with other sub projects and project groups - part
of marketings goal relies on 3 other groups, ambassadors, art and docs.
There are ample opportunities for improving communication, coordination
and collaboration with these three teams, to ensure that we get done
what we need to get done and that they get done what they need to get
done which requires input from us.
The proposed solution:
A better, calendar based, workflow! The reality is that our workflow is
cyclical in nature, it is based on a release schedule and we have mostly
the same, or a majority of similar tasks/milestones that need to be done
for each release. If we shift our current workflow and task tracking to
a similar scheme, it may be easier for us to stay on top of things and
operate more efficiently. It also allows us to have clear "due dates"
for each item, and have it clearly marked with an owner. Right off the
bat I see us knocking out two of our major issues. Plus, clarity when
it comes to responsibility and accountability will facilitate better
communications amongst ourselves. Also, I propose that part of this
schedule system includes 2-3 meetings with members of the other relevant
projects, and this way, anything that hinges on us for them, or them on
us, will be clearly defined, we achieve mutual understanding, and can
delegate those tasks to people in Marketing.
So for example, we start out at T-Minus 6 weeks from the alpha, have
everything necessary from that until the alpha on a grid marked with a
task, date, owner. Same for Beta, same for GA. A Good example can be
found at John Poelstra's Schedule Pages found here
http://poelstra.fedorapeople.org/schedules/f-11/ .
Also, this should all be kept under
https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Marketing/Schedule with trailing
/releasever and an anchor from that main page to whatever the current
release is.
A little bit of refactoring might do us alot of good, but we all need
each other's feedback and each other's help, as a team and as a community!
What do you guys think?
Jack
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