On Wed, 2009-02-18 at 18:18 -0500, Jack Aboutboul wrote: > 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? > Right now, I could see something like this as a starting structure: Milestones, based on https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Releases/11/Schedule: FUDCon: * Renew the news distribution network people list to always have motivated people * Cleanup the wiki from the obsolete marketing cycles * Cycle the wiki pages to the new release Alpha Release: * Assign marketing people to Fedora features/developers for the rest of the cycle * Assign marketing people to SIGs for the rest of the cycle Feature Freeze: * Update the features page * Update the talking points Beta Release: * Developer interviews on the coming release? Preview Release (artwork is generally done at this point): * Update the screenshots page * Update the Fedora tour page Final Release: * Spam the world * Have a beer -- Fedora-marketing-list mailing list Fedora-marketing-list@xxxxxxxxxx https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-marketing-list