Team Practices Group/Retrospectives/2016-12-15

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

Previous retro notes

https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Team_Practices_Group/Retrospectives/2016-10-26

New action items

• GG create Phab task T153371 as placeholder to move CSAT conversation forward  Done
• JA will facilitate the next retro (tentatively scheduled Jan 25)
• KS will do any necessary redaction and circulate notes for review and then post on wiki  Done

Previous retro action items

• Joel to add items to offsite checklist  Done OR AT LEAST TRACKED BY A TASK IN PHAB
  • Windows for rooms/better norms around venue needs
  • Prep survey ahead of time
  • Get an admin on your trip?
  • Hacking room

• KL to check if she can share the offsite calendar (to be checked with Wes)  Done
• Joel to reschedule next month’s retro to not be the day before Thanksgiving holiday  Done
• Natalia to edit the notes, send to the team and publish on wiki  Done

Notable Events Since 2016-10-26

• Things that have little or nothing to do with work but which have messed up work
  • Election
  • Exterminators in office
  • Thanksgiving
  • Cubs won the world series (!)
  • Various non-work life turbulence
• Halloween party in office
• TPG Engagements
  • Natalia has teams!
  • Design statement of purpose
    • Some challenges getting the statement finalized were resolved
    • Design Statement of Purpose is on wiki!
  • WMF values process
    • KL/AR sneaky trip to office for WMF Values work
  • Joel/Editing/Trevor/KL status review meeting
  • GG joined New Readers
• Other TPG work
  • TPG IRL
  • Q2 TPG CSAT went out
    • CSAT!
  • Wrapped up Kevin’s engagement with Annual Planning
  • Organizational change meetup - almost whole team attended
  • Phate of phlogiston
    • Survey
    • Discussions … close to decision
  • WMF Movement Strategy internal conversation and planning
  • TPG Values decided!!!!!!! (and published)
    • Kept getting trapped in the Groan Zone until several wolves dragged us out by our tails
• Administrative
  • Changed epics tracking in Phab
  • Changes to regular TPG meeting content/SOP and schedule
  • New quarterly check-in template goes to Production
• Big English (fundraiser)!!
  • Something we (GG) are involved in (but not an “engagement”)
• Vacations
  • GG was on vacation for a week (so was KS)
  • Long stretch with few seven-wolf team meetings

Working Well

• Max: Joel’s dinner
• Max: I like the new epics board, curious about which of the many risk scenarios I thought about ahead of time will actually surface with team members (pleasantly surprised with the warm reception so far, glad it’s not super confusing)
  • JA still happy that Max went ahead and just did it.
    • KS: Advance notice would have reduced stress of phab-spam +1
• Max: I like doing all the work-tracking/goals/standup stuff at the same time (Thursday hour)
• (4)   AR KS KL GG New/ongoing focus on TPG engagement parameters
• Max: Natalia made app teams TPG transition (from Max) super smooth. Lovely having more space to breathe.
• (2)   AR KL Team (TPG) continues to excel at self-organization
• (4)   AR KS KL GG New/ongoing focus on engagement parameters
  • Good excuse for overdue conversation with Trevor re: TPG’s/Joel’s purpose in Editing
  • Having “intake” conversations with teams is working great
• Maybe not a TPG thing, but New Readers is a cross-func proj - let’s talk to each other more
• Doing Light Engagements!  (GG)
• GG thinks that the level of engagement she has with FR-tech is a good model
• Talking about Phab- been good to discuss, vent, listen, share ideas
• Supporting each other in our personal development plans/goals (GG)
• (1)   JA GG likes the EPICs board- thanks, Max! Ditto.+1
• Bringing up challenging stuff with individuals in design engagement (was necessary/helpful)
• WMF Values process synthesis was awesome +1
• Support from KL during tough times
• Feeling positive about impending clarity RE Phate of Phlogiston
• Doing appreciations +1+1
• Seems like we got a lot done despite some big distractions

Not Working Well (including Confusing)

• Max: We (TPG) always have a lot of Epics in progress
  • Max: Should we be building our goals around them? Stop starting, start finishing, etc…
• (3)   GG JA KL Max: Feels like we do a lot of work that isn’t related to our goals and/or epics. Not necessarily bad that that’s the case, but makes me wonder if we have the right goals, or if we have too many non-goals.
  • Max: Example - We are doing a lot of work around the Editing Offsite. It’s necessary but also distracting. Should that work have been a goal?
• Many teams think Phab metrics are at least a little important for other people, but less so for themselves, and 6 of 14 completely reject Phlogiston and/or burnups in general
  • (Disappointing/confusing)
• (1)   JA TPG 11 am PT Thursday meeting conflicts with two different non-weekly meetings (Metrics and Editing/Design KIT)
• GG: Is there a way to turn Tinker reminders off?
• (4) KS KS GG AR Change the CSAT to always on, please!...GG getting tired of CSAT nagging and CSAT itself
• Seems like the coaching clinic prep maybe hasn’t had full-team participation? (prior to the full-team-minus-Kevin meeting)...Feels like a pack thing now.

Other (we’ll fix it in post)

• The new meeting structure - helped when the meeting agendas were ultra-current
  • KS: I’ll save my thoughts for the retro on that specific topic

Discussion

• (4) KS KS GG AR Change the CSAT to always on, please!...GG getting tired of CSAT nagging and CSAT itself

GG: Original reason for CSAT isn’t a reason any more. Quotes can be helpful. I’m interested to hear the survey fatigue results are. We have LE survey. We could approach people directly for deck quotes. I would like to try this experiment. We would have to remind people it’s there.

KL: I want to be careful about accommodating different styles of how people like to be engaged. Some might like the quarterly cadence. I’m intrigued by using the LE survey for embedded teams when we want input.

AR: An original impetus was to generate a metric in Q review (NPS). Do we still need to do that?  With new Q-goal format, do we still care about NPS?

KL: Do we care? Vs. Do we need it?

AR: We could discuss that later. If we need it for reporting, having a regular cadence seems more sensible to me. To have the information when we need it. However, if we don’t need those metrics, then I don’t see inherent value in quarterly cadence of CSATs.

GG: I brought the always-on idea up before. I talked to Abbey and JMo, and they thought it would work, but we would need to remind people. I will get others to weigh in at some point.

KL: An overarching question for me is: What are the best feedback loops that we can build with our customers, for learning, accountability, and keeping the channels open beyond day-to-day. CSAT is an opp to check in on meta goals. Maybe parameters thing could take the place.

KS: I have advocated staggered surveys, so each team maybe annual.

GG: I would be fine going with a LE model, sending the survey when appropriate. I don’t like the nagging, or the end of Q crunch.

KL: I think I could tentatively say that we don’t need it. Would want to check that to be sure. So the question is: What do we need, as a team?

GG: I have gotten better feedback from the LE survey. Not doing CSAT could be cathartic since it was driven by forces no longer in effect.

ACTION: GG will create a phab task to move this conversation forward

• (4)   AR KS KL GG New/ongoing focus on engagement parameters

Everyone was just interested in the topic. No specific expectations of the conversation.

KL: Continuation should come out of the embedded definition.