Reading/Strategy

The Reading department at the Wikimedia Foundation will be formulating its supporting strategy for the.

There will be a series of meetings in August and September 2015 to determine potential strategic positions, enumerate conditions that would be necessary to arrive at those strategic positions, and construct a set of tests to determine in principle whether such necessary conditions can be met in principle.

The strategy formulation approach is based on the work of A.G. Lafley.

The tests will rely upon a blend of prototype testing and quick user surveys. The tests will be implemented and conducted in October and November 2015 (the first two months of Fiscal Year 2015-2016 Quarter 2), with final Reading strategy communicated in December 2015.

The strategy timeline is outlined below. While the core team attending these meetings will be Reading department members plus representatives from Community Engagement and the Team Practices Group, this will be a collaborative and consultative process where we aim to validate and prioritize ideas with the community. After each meeting, minutes will be loaded onto MediaWiki.org and the mobile-l, wikitech-l, wikimedia-l, and wmfall mailing lists will be emailed to solicit feedback on the discussion pages pertaining to the meeting minutes.
 * Week of 3-August-2015: Kickoff. Review of organizational strategy and the strategy formulation approach to be used for Reading. Following the kickoff, a request will be included for community members to provide potential strategic position input through 8-September-2015.
 * Week of 24-August-2015: Quarter 2 feature(s), part 1. Decide potential feature(s) for Quarter 2 (Quarter 2 is October through December, 2015). Review existing state Reading strategy.
 * Important note: we will plan Quarter 2 work with the understanding that a new strategy will not yet have been formulated. We aim to provide a better reading experience for users, but will need to balance our Q2 feature work with our strategy oriented work.
 * Week of 31-August-2015: Formulate potential future state strategic positions. In the following week, continue review of community provided strategic positions. If a determination was made on feature(s) for Quarter 2, finalize details and load to goals page. Construct and review tests that would validate whether strategy assumptions could be met. As an example, suppose one potential strategic position is a growth strategy predicated on virtual reality experiences. One necessary condition for this strategic position is growth in virtual reality devices. An example test may include use of a quick survey to identify whether users plan to acquire virtual reality equipment in the next 18 months.
 * Week of 7-September-2015: Continue review of discussion page submissions for steps 1-3 of the "strategy cascade" described in the kickoff.
 * Week of 14-September-2015: Communication of tests.
 * October and November: Ad hoc meetings and messages as tests are implemented and rolled out and the outcomes measured.
 * Week of 30-November-2015: Department meeting to review test results in whole. Revision of strategy cascade based on test results. Finalize strategy communication plan. Agree on capabilities and management system for new strategy. Review to determine teams or departments that may need additional "cascades".
 * Week of 7-December-2015: Review strategy with Wikimedia Foundation Executive Director and management.

As the strategy will be crystallizing in the early part of December 2015, it will make sense to align Fiscal Year 2015-2016 Q3 goals to this strategy and share those goals around the same time.