Team Practices Group/Retrospectives/2016-03-23

The Team Practices Group (TPG) was dissolved in 2017.

Previous Themes/Actionables

* Action! Kristen volunteers to check with Sara about status of training activities and opportunities (See “[Wmfall] Priorities, initiatives, and classes...”)  Done

* Action! Learn from the past goals as we develop our Q4 goals  Done

* Action! Kristen to follow up with Joady to see if there are official coverage plans for Boryana  Done

What has happened since the last retro? 2016-02-23

• Foundation-level
  • Annual Planning
  • Lila announced resignation (last day 3/31)
  • Katherine was appointed Interim ED
  • Joady was appointed interim Director of T & C
  • Several more departures
    • Boryana left
    • Frances, May, and Floor all announced departures in same week
    • Oliver Keyes
    • Siko Bourterse
  • We had a "snow day"
  • WMF draft strategy was released for review

• Elevator drama in SF
• TPG Staffing
  • Kevin went fully remote
  • Strine announced team shift
  • We found out that we’ll be backfilling a TPG slot (David)
  • Kristen is permanent’d as TPGM
  • Arthur returned(ish)
    • Working to define potential new role in TPG
  • We got a new Overseer (Joady)
  • We talked about possibly moving under Product/Wes in the future
• TPG Planning
  • Finalized draft Q4 Goals
    • We got creative
  • We sent out the CSAT
  • Submitted TPG Annual Plan strategic budget/narrative
  • We talked to several groups for our strategy tests
  • TPG strategy stuff

• Heavyweight/regular team responsibilities:
  • Design Researchers came back from Mexico, and Grace facilitated retrospective
  • Max and Kevin will be TPGing the Reading offsite!
  • Phlogiston
    • Phlogiston broke a lot
    • Joel fixed a lot of Phlogiston bugs from Phabricator upgrade and also from his own stupidity
• TPG Lightweight Engagements
  • Joel facilitated FY2017 Prioritization for WP0 & Partnerships team
  • Joe asked for backlog design help
  • Amir asked for results of Core/Maintenance tagged and looked at Phlogiston reporting and wants Runa to follow up
  • Brainstorming w/Katie Horn
  • Grace helped with Programs Dashboard

Start Doing

(Numbers in brackets are the votes for discussion)

• [1] Follow-up and finishing for Q3 tasks - always be closing. +
• Get something out of TPG work tracking
• [1] Writing down decisions we make in meetings +
• [4] Clarify and articulate whether or not code review conventions are in scope for TPG[4] ++++
• Consistent meeting notes practice followed by all (and documented, and easy, and WMF follows it, and a pony)
• [2] Look for ways to (continually) see forests instead of trees ++

Stop Doing

(Numbers in brackets are the votes for discussion)

• [1] Disorganized naming/date/folder conventions for TPG Drive+
• Schedule overloading (was: 3 30 min TPG meetings in a row is not healthy)
• [5] (Stop) Reanimating ideasl [5]++ +++
  • Lack of clarity around if a decision has been made - could gaining clarity help prevent reanimation?
  • ‘Partial’ decisions being made (partial decisions are WIP)
  • Call out decision points and review decisions made, but also don’t try to make a decision in last 30s of a meeting
  • Next step: Meeting about meetings! Next stepping, decisions, meeting notes [Grace]
• [3] Allowing messy annual planning to go by without helping [3] +++
  • E.g. process coaching: clearer instructions, organizing docs, version control.
  • We have been asked to help with a retrospective
• [4] Maybe reduce the amount of TPG-specific work? [4] ++++
• [2] TPG coding solutions for Phabricator data visualizations (eg Phlogiston)?++

Continue Doing

(Numbers in brackets are the votes for discussion)

• [1] Tea Time!+
• Talking about things like Unconscious Bias
• Weekly grooming as an all-optional meeting
• Combined weekly review/staff meeting seems to work
• [3] Bumblebeeing! [3] ++ +
  • Bumblebeeing with Joel & Researchers/Grace
• Pairing
• Joel’s bumblebee imitation +100
• [4] Talking to other people in the org (customers, Agile Skeppers chats) [4] +++ +
• [1] Tagging? (in phab)--use it more in TPG? +
• [3] Lightweight engagements (like Learning Dashboard) with other parts of org [3] ++ +

Discussion of the top three:

• (Stop) Reanimating ideasl ++ +++
  • Action! Set up meeting to discuss improving meeting practices, including the points below + consistent meeting notes GG
  • Action! Call out decision points: “is this a decision?"
  • Action! Provide time for considered decision-making (eg not the last 30 seconds of a meeting); distinct from next steps
• Talking to other people in the org (customers, Agile Skeppers chats) [4] +++ +
  • Kevin: trying to watch out for opportunities
  • Incorporate into wrapping up strategy
• [4 Clarify and articulate whether or not code review conventions are in scope for TPG[4] ++++
  • Action! Continue convo during IRL (add to etherpad) AWJR
• Maybe reduce the amount of TPG-specific work? [4] ++++
  • Action! Continue convo during IRL (add to etherpad) AWJR

Action Items

• Action! Set up meeting to discuss improving meeting practices, including the points below + consistent meeting notes GG
• Action-ish! Call out decision points: “is this a decision?” (Everyone)
• Action-ish! Provide time for considered decision-making (eg not the last 30 seconds of a meeting); distinct from next steps (Everyone)
• Action! Continue convos (code review; reduce TPG work) during IRL (add to etherpad) AWJR