Proposal: The New Fedora Marketing

[Steven Moix]

On Wed, 2009-02-18 at 18:18 -0500, Jack Aboutboul wrote:
> Hello All,
> 
> Over the past few weeks, some of us have been diligently working on a 
> number of projects on the marketing front.  As many of you know, and as 
> many of you have participated, I have over the last two weeks been 
> talking to many of us, privately, trying to poll the crowd and see what 
> those amongst us thought were the best areas for improvement and/or 
> optimization of the marketing team.  Based on that feedback, I've 
> developed this proposal which lays out those key areas, identifies what 
> can be improved upon and how we can go about doing it.  The solution 
> pretty much encompasses everything, so I'll just present the 3 key 
> issues and then what I think is the best course forward.  Please note, I 
> am looking to solicit feedback on this, this isnt like a dictatorial 
> edict or anything, just one man's thoughts.
> 
> As it stands right now, Fedora Marketing is very strong.  I make that 
> statement based on the character of all those involved and the quality 
> of the discussions which we have.  There is a perceived weakness 
> however, which many attribute to lack of communication.  The truth is, I 
> think that any weakness which exists, whether its lack of organization 
> or the relatively low amount of traffic on the mailing list I attribute 
> to an inefficient workflow.  So I ask myself, and everyone else, maybe 
> there is alot of room for improvement and a maybe its just a few small 
> steps we can take that can have us running at max efficiency?
> 
> There are 3 main areas in which we can improve:
> 
> 1. Better organization and workflow - we know what we need to do, just 
> that often times we don't know when.  Also, records and methods of 
> tracking are sufficient, sub-optimally efficient.
> 2. Better and clearer delegation of tasks - we know what we need to do, 
> just that often times, we don't know who is responsible for it.  A large 
> problem with this also is that some people refrain from picking up 
> certain tasks because they assume it belongs to someone are afraid to 
> step on toes.
> 3. Better coordination with other sub projects and project groups - part 
> of marketings goal relies on 3 other groups, ambassadors, art and docs.  
> There are ample opportunities for improving communication, coordination 
> and collaboration with these three teams, to ensure that we get done 
> what we need to get done and that they get done what they need to get 
> done which requires input from us.
> 
> The proposed solution:
> 
> A better, calendar based, workflow!  The reality is that our workflow is 
> cyclical in nature, it is based on a release schedule and we have mostly 
> the same, or a majority of similar tasks/milestones that need to be done 
> for each release.  If we shift our current workflow and task tracking to 
> a similar scheme, it may be easier for us to stay on top of things and 
> operate more efficiently.  It also allows us to have clear "due dates" 
> for each item, and have it clearly marked with an owner.  Right off the 
> bat I see us knocking out two of our major issues.  Plus, clarity when 
> it comes to responsibility and accountability will facilitate better 
> communications amongst ourselves.  Also, I propose that part of this 
> schedule system includes 2-3 meetings with members of the other relevant 
> projects, and this way, anything that hinges on us for them, or them on 
> us, will be clearly defined, we achieve mutual understanding, and can 
> delegate those tasks to people in Marketing.
> 
> So for example, we start out at T-Minus 6 weeks from the alpha, have 
> everything necessary from that until the alpha on a grid marked with a 
> task, date, owner.  Same for Beta, same for GA.  A Good example can be 
> found at John Poelstra's Schedule Pages found here 
> http://poelstra.fedorapeople.org/schedules/f-11/ .
> 
> Also, this should all be kept under 
> https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Marketing/Schedule with trailing 
> /releasever and an anchor from that main page to whatever the current 
> release is.
> 
> A little bit of refactoring might do us alot of good, but we all need 
> each other's feedback and each other's help, as a team and as a community!
> 
> What do you guys think?
> 

Right now, I could see something like this as a starting structure:

Milestones, based on
https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Releases/11/Schedule:

FUDCon:
* Renew the news distribution network people list to always have
motivated people
* Cleanup the wiki from the obsolete marketing cycles
* Cycle the wiki pages to the new release

Alpha Release:
* Assign marketing people to Fedora features/developers for the rest of
the cycle
* Assign marketing people to SIGs for the rest of the cycle

Feature Freeze:
* Update the features page
* Update the talking points

Beta Release:
* Developer interviews on the coming release?

Preview Release (artwork is generally done at this point):
* Update the screenshots page
* Update the Fedora tour page

Final Release:
* Spam the world
* Have a beer