Design/Statement of purpose

Background
The design group at the Wikimedia Foundation (made up of UX designers, design researchers, UX engineers, and communications/brand folks) is undergoing a process to define a statement of purpose. This statement is intended to articulate the shared aspirational vision of design at the Wikimedia Foundation, to articulate what it is at a high level the group is attempting to achieve. Once completed, this document will aid in making decisions for the design group such as those in regards to (but not limited to) staffing, organizing, implementing projects, and strategizing.

Community validation and feedback
To date, the design group has come to consensus on an initial draft of its statement of purpose, which they then validated with some of the immediate internal stakeholders at the Foundation (eg product managers, engineering leads, etc.). Now, the design group would like to share the draft publicly in order to: Please provide any questions or feedback on the Talk page. From the design group's perspective, the most important things to validate are: As you review this document, please try to stay focussed on the big picture rather than on wordsmithing - though if you have suggestions on how wording could be improved, those are certainly appreciated as well.
 * 1) Achieve shared understanding and clarity with its stakeholders about their statement of purpose.
 * 2) Collect feedback from community stakeholders to aid in decision making around the final version of this document.
 * 1) The high-level themes they are trying to cover in the statement - are these the right themes? Are they clear and do they make sense?
 * 2) Does the statement itself adequately address those themes?

The period for questions and feedback on this draft will last until 27 November, 2016. After that, the design group will incorporate the discussion here into its decision making on final language for its statement of purpose.

High-level themes
The high-level themes that the design group attempts to address in their statement of purpose are:
 * Fulfilling the Wikimedia vision by being human-centered
 * Rigorous research
 * Accessibility
 * Usability
 * Guided by empathy with users
 * Exercising WMF’s core value of collaboration by being open to community/staff
 * Transparency
 * Collaboration
 * Inclusivity
 * Providing leadership/expertise in design
 * Product life cycle/Proper process
 * Balance thinking big with getting things done
 * Communicate brand consistently/correctly
 * Leading human-centered design (see first bullet point)

Statement
The current copy of the draft statement is as follows:"Design at Wikimedia aims to make the sharing of all human knowledge easy and joyful for everyone.""We make sure that products and communications in Wikimedia projects follow a proper design process. That is, understanding people’s needs and motivations through rigorous research, and exploring innovative solutions that effectively meet those needs.""We operate in an open environment, where transparency and collaboration within the Wikimedia Foundation and the wider community are key."