Team Practices Group/Retrospectives/2015-12-16

Dec 16, 2015 New Actionables: People interested in Phabricator have not always responded positively

- Folks also generally seem too disappointed in Phab’s reliability (and fixability) to pursue fixes to issues, either because of bureaucracy or because it’s too much of a slog to test out ideas.
No “normal” weeks since before Thanksgiving (October for Kevin) due to holidays, off-sites, etc; will continue until January
Look for new offsite locations DONE
There is still a culture or reacting negatively to good news. Some TPG members feel like they have internalized it to the extent that they anticipate bad reactions.
Registration instructions for Dev Summit announcements weren’t seen by all, so some people (both inside and outside TPG) who probably should be registered aren’t. - KL added to TPG Staff agenda DONE
Dstrine just learned about wikimedia-staff channel in IRC - added more irc information to onboarding wiki page DONE
Some WMF members have misused or disagreed with the “assume good faith” rule - this may be a tea time conversation DONE

What has happened since the last retro (Nov 18)?

New teatime planning spreadsheet
TPG strategy progress
TPG IRL (strategy)
TPG IRL FUN
Kristen starting to take the reins
WMF engagement survey (and results)
Q3 goals planning
Training: Meetings skills for unconferences
Thanksgiving break
Declared Maintenance Fraction pilot done
Made contact with Phacility and upstreamed our requests
Finalized CSAT for Q2
Two more teams started working with Phlogiston burnups
Helped kick off Product Group strategy process
WMF strategy process
TPG Meeting with Lila
Grace took on Designers in lightweight engagement
Design Research Workshop happened

What went well

We met Boryana!
TPG strategy thorough, and effective; increased clarity and shared understanding
Free form editing of strategy in IRL was fun and productive
We closed on the CSAT format really quickly
“I say things, people take notes” - Joel
Great to see everyone in person for the remoties
Teatime spreadsheet seems to be working +1
Conversation around WMF felt way more civil following engagement survey
It was fun getting to know everyone a bit better at IRL!
role playing for strategy sessions was fun and a good way to mix it up
good conversation with Kristen outside the fishbowl at Impact Hub
Many thanks to Kevin for speaking out against continuing to use Impact Hub
It was interesting to see that Joel and I ranked the trust equation components in the same order
Joel totally cracks me up +1+1
Max has good candor and will often say what I might shy away from ← I hope nobody was offended….. - MB ←--no, it’s a compliment :)
Arthur - for taking care of himself and raising awareness of the sabbatical +!
DStrine- we’ve had some awesome interactions and collaborations recently
Post-IRL work happened smoothly, thanks to Strine and self-organizing
Arthur not stressed out about going on leave - Kristen stepping up and team self-organizing
Kona appearances +1
Some of Joel’s regular meetings have been going very smoothly
Community Tech is flying on their own
TPG Q3 quarterly goal planning went well (just in time!) +1
Joel going off SOP at IRL

What could have gone better (highlighting = want to follow up)

People interested in Phabricator have not always responded positively
- Folks also generally seem too disappointed in Phab’s reliability (and fixability) to pursue fixes to issues, either because of bureaucracy or because it’s too much of a slog to test out ideas.
No “normal” weeks since before Thanksgiving (October for Kevin) due to holidays, off-sites, etc; will continue until January
I wasn’t a fan of the public way the Reading Web team got called out on their process… - MB
Major burnout during IRL week - I scheduled or got scheduled too much
TPG Strategy process is running behind schedule
Some WMF members have misused or disagreed with the “assume good faith” rule - this may be a tea time conversation
Last week, in large part due to strategy, knocked the wind out of me -- meetings 9 to 6, 5 days in a row -MB
Kevin was massively stressed out after IRL+WMF Strategy (getting better now)
Arthur made a comment about the MPL Roof and the Mortgage not being a good fit for SF, so I wish that I had picked up on its tone-deafness and substituted a better metaphor
Follow-through on planning the IRL fun left me wanting….
Impact Hub hasn’t really met our offsite needs.
Nervous that strategy might land us at status quo or most status quo-like options
It would have been nice to finish all the strategy possibilities’ barriers and tests, at least at IRL, preferably before
There is still a culture or reacting negatively to good news. Some TPG members feel like they have internalized it to the extent that they anticipate bad reactions.
Registration instructions for Dev Summit announcements weren’t seen by all, so some people (both inside and outside TPG) who probably should be registered aren’t. - KL added to TPG Staff agenda
Dstrine just learned about wikimedia-staff channel in IRC - added more irc information to onboarding wiki page
Max will miss Arthur
- Hail Glorious Leader
Tough period doing “double duty”: current role + current role transition + learning/starting to do new role + new role transition; lots of balls in the air. My burnup chart looks weird.
IRL would have been nice as an offsite away from SF