Technical Collaboration Guidance/Private planning

Ref: T123611

When is it appropriate to plan a product in private?

In a perfect world, all product development, all of it, should occur in public venues. However, there may be concrete reasons to plan a product in private given that this is not a perfect world. This page lists some reasons product planning might be desired, and some comments on whether or not the reasons might be appropriate. These are intended as best practices, not mandates.

Reasons

 * Reason: Draft in private if you truly don't know what you're talking about yet. "Something or another about, I dunno, it should just be easier for people to find stuff" isn't a very useful entry point for collaboration. Post when you're past the point of doodling in the margins of your notes and can explain what you're thinking about in reasonably concrete terms.
 * Comment: This might not be a very good reason. Drafting in public for this reason gives the opportunity for others to contribute to you learning about the topic, and perhaps finding some understanding and concept along the way.
 * Reason: Draft in private when your idea changes every day, or every hour. Post when you've stuck with the same iteration for a week.
 * Comment: Wikis are meant to be updated as often as needed, with relative ease. That's one of the points of using a wiki.
 * Reason: Draft in private when you don't want help. Post when you do.
 * Comment: You want help :) We work in a collaborative environment.
 * Reason: Draft in private if you're talking about real people. Post after you've turned "WhatamIdoing is incredibly annoying and stubborn" into something like "She's tenacious and passionate about her community".
 * Comment: Is your product plan really concerned around one individual or set of individuals? Who is your actual audience? If it is not the people you are concerned with, you should be writing in public to your audience anyway. If your product plan is concerned with one individual or set of individuals, you should be working with them in private or public directly to resolve issues so that planning can be done in public.
 * Reason: Draft in private when you have an idea that needs careful thought. Post after you've determined things like whether Legal will break out in a bad rash, or when you have a reasonably clear explanation of how your potentially good idea differs from a closely related bad idea (or whatever else prompts the need for careful thought).
 * Comment: This is a good reason.
 * Reason: Consider drafting in private when you know that an idea will be popular with core community members, but you're not sure that it's feasible. Post when there's a chance that it could really happen. Nobody likes to have longed-for treats dangled in front of them, only to have them snatched away with "Ha ha, only kidding! It turns out that this isn't feasible after all!"
 * Comment: Consider planning in public, but in a very targeted way to engage those that only really want to be involved for the long term, and bring in others for the potentially important decisions.

Going public
If you have gone the route of private planning, your plan should also include when to go public, with the notion of "the sooner, the better."

Going public will probably need to mention the fact that the plan, or parts of it, have been prepared in private, and consider the need to discuss why this decision was made.