Wikimedia Discovery/Meetings/Interactive retrospective 2016-11-17

Format

 * Glad/Sad/Mad: http://retrospectivewiki.org/index.php?title=Glad,_Sad,_Mad
 * Note that "mad" and "sad" don't have to mean literally angry or saddened. They can be used in a playful way as well.

Previous action items

 * (none)
 * Team Health Check notes from last month were posted:
 * https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Discovery/Meetings/Interactive_team_health_check_2016-10-06

What has happened since the last retro
The last "retro" was 2016-08-31, but the team health check was 2016-10-08 (using https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Discovery/Status_updates as a starting point)
 * Team/vertical/foundation stuff
 * Deb has started integrating slowly into the Discovery Interactive Team as a quasi-Product Manager
 * Erika joined Discovery
 * New CTO
 * Yuri and Julien are attending State of the Map 2016 conference in Brussels
 * Defined KPIs and other interesting maps statistics about how we would like to gather to track and improve maps
 * Note: we had a code deployment freeze this week due to Ops having an offsite. Much of the work completed above will be released next week.
 * Worked on a draft roadmap
 * Community, RFCs, documentation
 * Migrated all map usage from "href" to "service" external data (about 50 pages)
 * Ensure Maps servers can be installed easily (automation + documentation)
 * Added a Request for Comment (RfC) on refactoring Kartotherian to use an established plugin system
 * Started the discussion on the roll out plan/path for Maps
 * Added a Request for Comment (RfC) on support for link text vs fullscreen caption text
 * Document how to use maps directly from JavaScript
 * Request for Comment - All map location names should be shown in the user's language
 * Illegal and unheralded removal of MapSourcesHooks::wfgeoLink function hook on dewikivoyage
 * Code, features, fixes
 * There is now "geoshape" and "geoline" types of ExternalData - one is for polygons (e.g. cities, countries), and the other is for lines (roads, rivers). As always, make sure OpenStreetMap has WikidataID attached to be able to use them.
 * Many minor Kartographer bug fixes
 * Implement static kartotherian service with geojson layer
 * Merge Kartographer with commons-on-osm
 * Deprecate provided by MapSources in favor of Kartographer's
 * Implement first phase of map event logging
 * Ops
 * maps-test* hosts running low on space
 * Maps - move traffic to eqiad instead of codfw
 * Configure new maps servers in eqiad
 * reimage maps-test* servers
 * crash of maps2* servers due to resetting of Cassandra on wrong cluster
 * incident: bad tiles generation, fix, cache invalidation and lots of discussions (which should continue)

What has made you mad?

 * map data (varnish(=) caching +
 * Frustrating that changes to static maps don't show up until cache clears an hour later
 * Ticket: https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T150358
 * Documentation is hard and it's easy to get stuck trying to write
 * I feel your pain! (not that it helps)
 * so do i
 * Documentation and discussions are all over and everywhere - hard to keep track when something new pops up on a new page
 * Lots of discussion around our latest incident on a lot of different channels, but we have not touched the bottom of it yet
 * Much discussion right away, but quieted down after a couple days--seems to indicate a deeper issue within the team
 * testing infrastructure?
 * team positioning / perception by others

What has made you sad?

 * non functional requirements are not getting as much attention as they should +
 * e.g. performance, testing,
 * Not enough shared responsibility across the team?
 * I'm not entirely sure what are the goals of our different meetings (powwow vs phab triage, vs...) **
 * powwow - check who is working on what, if there are any blockers  ( SoS )
 * phab triage - check what we actually have to do (short term plans)
 * Sharing responsibility for facilitating the meetings helped surface a lack of shared understanding
 * We don't seem to have a shared understanding of how we work (phab boards for example)
 * Too many boards for a very tiny team to keep track of
 * Quite a few discussion about speed / velocity / ... this is still opened and we don't have a clear shared understanding +

What has made you glad?

 * we are finally getting precipitation for the first time in about 2 months - snow in Denver!
 * the weather is good in NC
 * Maps roadmap + link?
 * We are spending some time trying to understand how we work (some minor discussion about how we use our kanban(s), ...) +
 * Contributor help with depreciating . RolandUnger really stepped up to help address templates across Wikivoyage
 * We are getting closer to event logging giving us more in-depth usage picture
 * Tabular & Map data is getting closer to launch
 * Yuri is trying hard to share the presidency of our team
 * Number of pages with maps has increased thanks to Commons  (tens of thousands -> millions)

What didn't fit in one of the other categories?

 * so many "gotchas" in creating simple maps (while trying to create a step-by-step guide)
 * Feedback from Legal
 * They have been busy so it has been difficult to get the information/approval in a timely manner
 * Norms not clear about how much to push other teams
 * Trust within the team needs to improve*****
 * Consolidated but more focused roles**
 * We might discuss creating more focused roles where a person is more concentrated in one product/team instead of being spread (e.g. Deb, Chris, GL, Kevin)
 * Roles within the team in general are not entirely clear (PM is shared, communication is shared)
 * GL: It is really difficult to be assigned to multiple teams (e.g. prioritization), but it's also really good (e.g. cross-team learning)
 * Perhaps long-term rotation (e.g. one month) would be better: less context switching
 * We have a lot of questions about how we work as a team. Should we take 10 minutes to figure out how to move forward on that *****

Discussion

 * How can we move forward to improve trust and figure out how the team should work?
 * More communication within the team as there are issues--solve problems ourselves instead of bringing in "parents"
 * If there is a problem like the last crash, let's talk about it
 * Should the team get together to try to define roles, meetings, how the team should operate?
 * One idea is a "Team charter": Clear up expectations, build trust, define roles & responsibilities
 * Not just understand what you're supposed to do, but to commit to them. Commit to each other.
 * Not a set of rules, but a set of agreements
 * Quick poll about how people feel: 2 side thumbs
 * What would be the process to develop a charter?
 * Some team-building, trust-building.
 * For people who aren't spending 100% of their time with the team, clarify their time and responsibilities
 * Resolve gaps in expectations and understandings
 * 2-3 hour process; could be timeboxed
 * Need to bridge eng/non-eng divide--it's affecting our [ability to work effectively?]

Action items

 * Erika will circulate a plan for team charter