Mobile/QuarterlyReview

Mobile quarterly review on 18 March, 2013.

Slides: Mobile Contributions Quarterly Review, 3/2013 (additional data)
Minutes

The following is based on the framework that E3 used to structure their quarterly review (slide deck here: http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:E3-QuarterlyReview-Jan2013.pdf, with some modifications based on lessons learned from that meeting.

Team intro and Annual Plan goals [Tomasz] [10min]

Who are we?
1. Web [Browser]
  1. Jon, Juliusz, Arthur, Max, Michelle, Maryana, Vibha, Munaf
2. Apps [iOS & Android]
  1. Brion, Yuvi, Shankar, Tomasz
What are our targets for this fiscal year?
1. 1,000 uploaders / month
Review
1. Why we split the teams
2. Which user group does each team target [Use howies slide]
3. How the teams work together. How they work separately.
4. How we harness agile
5. How we handle a geographically distribute team
6. Release process [alpha,beta, stable] and in general how we move fast

Recap of Q1 (Jul.-Sept.) Arthur Richards (talk) [15 mins]

WLM like whoa.

Goals
1. To facilitate contributions on mobile devices (high risk, many unknowns, big fiscal year goals, needed to
  1. High risk, many unknowns
  2. Need to better understand the landscape & tech to fully implement in mobile web/apps
Features roadmap
1. WLM app (primary focus) (http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wiki_Loves_Monuments_mobile_application/Marketing#Screenshots)
  1. Process change (adopting agile mindset and methodologies) helped us pivot very quickly (save for desktop at last minute) and have very quick delivery with minimal burnout
  2. Bugginess of app, mostly related to difficulty of working with Cordova (testing very difficult), plus no dedicated QA support, plus very short timeline
2. Improvements to mobile web in beta
  1. Most significant, improved navigation UI (http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/File:Main-menu-dark.png)
Impact
1. First mobile photo uploads via WLM app
2. Didn't have enough QA in place to catch device specific bugs + PhoneGap framework very difficult to debug
3. Widespread usage, facilitated record-breaking photo competition - Overall: 365606 files, 15000 uploaders, 33 countries; Mobile: 3148 files (~1%), 528 uploaders (~3.5%), 33 countries (100%)
4. Proved it was possible, upload-related plumbing to be reused in mobile apps + web
5. Most important milestones achieved for the quarter Wikimedia_Engineering/2012-13_Goals#Milestones_by_quarter_8

Recap of Q2 (Oct.-Dec.) Arthur Richards (talk) [15 mins]

Readership-focussed improvements to stable along with focus on experimentation around contributory features.

Goals
1. To facilitate contributions on mobile devices
2. Increasing readership
3. Improving internal infrastructure
Features roadmap
1. New mobile nav/chrome pushed to stable for mobile web <need screenshot - use current nav in prod>
2. 'Read in other languages'
3. Experimental contributory features
  1. photo upload (http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Mobile_design/Uploads)
  2. article editing <need screenshot>
  3. watchlists (http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Mobile_design/Watchlist_view)
  4. log in (http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Mobile_design/Sign_in)
  5. account creation
4. UI improvements
  1. cleanup templates
  2. tables
  3. random article
5. Geodata (experimental deployment to enwp) <experimental nearby screenshot>
  1. upcoming 'nearby' feature
  2. Rely on our own services rather than external
6. Added ultra-experimental 'alpha' for mobile web <screenshot of settings page>
Impact
1. Oct: 2.4 mil page views (total) +2%, 1.28 mil (enwp) +2%; Nov: 2.6 mil page views (total) +8%, 1.4 mil (enwp) +7%; Dec: 2.7 mil (total) +5%, 1.4 mil +4%
2. 303 mobile edits and 75 unique mobile editors on English Wikipedia in Q2 - fancy graphs: https://docs.google.com/a/wikimedia.org/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0ApHbVP8ovBVIdC1uTmNPclYtQy1vX3dNRVFyZWoyMnc&usp=sharing (thanks Maryana!)
3. Mobile photo uploads for oct/nov/dec: 0/10/18 (not including WMF employees)
4. much plumbing added for upcoming features
5. some milestones met for internal infra goals Wikimedia_Engineering/2012-13_Goals#Milestones_by_quarter_10
  1. we have not given this as much attention as contributory features
  2. there have been major stumbling blocks with Solr/OSM integration (see 'challenges')
6. milestones met for contribution goals Wikimedia_Engineering/2012-13_Goals#Milestones_by_quarter_8
7. more data-driven; collaborating with E3 (+ event logging) (http://pittsburghjedi.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/LOG-ren-and-stimpy-1552749-1280-1024.jpg)
Challenges - mostly overhead
1. Difficult coordinating with ops team
2. No good staging environment, having to use testwiki (like betalabs)
3. Changes on product team (ultimately a boon)

Recap of Q3: January-March 2013 [Maryana] [30 min]

Goals

1k unique uploaders per month on Wikimedia projects

Features

In production

Watchlist (view and add/remove items): used as a hook to draw in both new and experienced editors into the account creation/login funnel

Login/account creation: enabling users to log in and use contributory features

Login/signup hooks: driving more people into the account creation/login funnel by showing login/signup calls to action from contributory features for logged out users

Add image to lead section of article: one-step process for uploading to Commons and inserting thumbnail image into article

Donate image to Commons: uploading image to Commons from user's Uploads page

Uploads view: view of recent Commons uploads and mobile-friendly file pages

iOS and Android Commons apps: apps that allow power users to upload multiple photos, add categories/custom titles, and share their files to Commons

Prototyped in Beta

Nearby view with upload CTA: view of nearby articles, with upload call to action on those that are lacking images

Impact

Watchlist, login, account creation

X new accounts created via watchlist star, lead image signup CTA, and Uploads signup CTA this quarter

Lead image uploads

X images added to articles (not including Nearby)
X unique users using this feature (not including Nearby)
examples of articles that have been improved by this feature

Donate image to Commons

X images donated
X unique users using this feature
examples of images donated by this feature

Nearby

X images added via Nearby
X unique users using this feature
examples of articles that have been improved by this feature

Total uploads/uploaders

some graphs of upload feature usage by user type (e.g., new/existing users)
conversion funnel from anon -> registered user -> upload attempt -> uploader
qualitative assessment of uploads: what kinds of files did we get?

Successes/challenges

Collaboration with other teams: E3, Analytics, Fundraising, QA – success!

To be discovered!

Plans for Q4 [Maryana] [20 min]

Asks [Tomasz] [5min]

Do we have what we need to meet our goals for Q4? What resources do we need to help us meet those goals?

Video tech at the office is moving at a glacial pace
Dedicated site reliability engineer
Buisness analyst - reducing context switching and responsibility over-burdens on the team
Better recruiting
Better testing env. Espeically for performance testing
Michelle -> Fulltime QA
Analytics [3 big points]

Notes:

Quick recap of Q1/2, focus on recap of Q3, plans for Q4
Do we do WIkiVoyage, account less, etc
How do we get those upload numbers? [Erik]
- If we get the app going, do we run central notice campaign
- advertise the watchlist on the desktop for mobile
- what are our levers for orders of magnitude growth
Tablet based support

For any "asks" that you have (resourcing, guidance, etc.), it's helpful to explicitly say who it's directed at. For example, "We would like to hire an engineer to do X, and we will discuss this with Erik through the Annual Planning process", "We would like you (Sue) to affirm how much flexibility we have in our targets for the next year", etc. So it doesn't turn into a Santa Claus wishlist (because there is no Santa Claus ;-).

Erik