Getting to 10K

Winning = 10k Mozillians doing shit that matters

What excites you? And what do you want to get done this week?

It’s up to you and your teams to figure out specific answers, but I'm hoping there is a theme around finding the people, the leverage and the asymmetric advantage that we need to succeed. In particular, I'd like us to focus on: getting 10k Mozillians doing shit that matters

The wording was slightly different, but this is the goal that we all signed up for as MoFos this year. We all have specific goals for our teams and projects as well. But this is what we agreed to do together. And, I'm hoping the bulk of what we work on at our All Hands is focused on this goal.

It’s worth saying out loud: a goal like 10,000 new Mozillians could easily be called out as bullshit. Or, at least as not an end in itself. It’s easy for Mozilla to get 10,000 people to put up their hands to say they will do something. Or 100,000. Or a million. But that’s not what we’re talking about here. We're talking about people contributing in meaningful and high impact ways that move us forward on Mozilla's larger goals.

To make this happen, we need to: build a systematic way to 1) invite people to our projects, 2) help them understand how our projects benefit them, and 3) empower them to do things that move our work and their own personal goals forward simultaneously. This may sound obvious. But it’s not obvious. Or easy.

An example of how hard this is: last year with Webmaker, we were successful in getting thousands of people to put up their hands to say ‘I’ll do an event’. But what we didn’t do as well as we might have was coach them on the learning goals of the events, get organizers reporting back and connecting with each other, or motivate them to build out curriculum and materials based on what they did a their events. We got alot of people to put up their hand, but we didn't get many of them 'doing shit that matters' in an enduring way that we can measure.

The good news: we've done a major overhaul of Webmaker in that puts the needs of contributors, educators and other lead users centre stage. Now as these people use Webmaker, they make it bigger and better as they go. If you look at the roadmap, you'll see we’re building an engagement ladder that invites people in through simple contribution, helps them level-up through training, and then empowers them to become leaders who recruit and train more contributors. All of this will make it possible to get get people involved in a deeper and more productive ways that move Mozilla's mission forward. Aka, getting them doing shit that matters.

The good other news: Webmaker alone already has us about halfway to our 10k MoFo contributor target. While this is a sound footing, it's worth noting that some of the people we're counting will 'age out' as active contributors this summer. We'll need to re-recruit these people. And then repeat our success from last summer in recruiting new people. And then we'll need to keep it going through the fall. This is a high bar, but I believe we're on track to reach it.

Of course, Webmaker is just one example of where we need to 'get more Mozillians doing shit that matters'. We need to do this for all of MoFo's work in education, journalism, science and policy. And it's also essential to the success of Firefox, Firefox OS, marketplace, developer engagement, etc. All of Mozilla needs to get better at growing and engaging our contributor community right now, which is why we have a Mozilla-wide goal around contributor growth.

Why is this so important? Because Mozilla can only win if we do things differently. We can't outspend or out build competitors, like most companies do. We have to take an asymmetric approach. We can only win the war of ideas if we build a massive grassroots army of people who are enthusiastic about our vision of the web, who want to tinker and teach alongside us, and who want to show their friends how to do the same. Growing our community, and making sure everyone in it is teed up to be effective, is absolutely central to success.

Of course, it is the bigger picture victories that truly matter: ensuring that the world of mobile is open and trusted like the web; that the future of mobile apps and content is a unfettered as the desktop web is today; and that the billions of people who use the web also know how it works and can turn it into something that makes their lives better.

But, for 2014, for MoFo, winning looks like finding, training and working with a lot more people. Thousands of people will get us it to those bigger ends. It will be the 10k Mozillians that we recruit and get doing shit that matters in the short run.

I encourage you to add this theme to the things you're noodling or doodling about. What are the most important things you're doing to bring in contributors and make them effective? And how can you use this all hands to move those things ahead?

ms

PS. If you're not familiar with our 2014 goals -- or need a refresher -- check them out here: https://wiki.mozilla.org/2014

As you can see, MoFo is committed both to the contributor growth goal (all of us) and to growing the adoption of Webmaker and Open Badges. We should also be doing what we can to support the rest of Mozilla in meeting their goals (e.g. driving Firefox or services growth).

Mozilla Foundation All Hands 2014

From: Mark Surman
To: MoFos

Hey MoFos

Wow. It has been a crazy few months.

As I stop to take a breath and look out at MoFo All Hands, I have to say: I’m excited. No bullshit. I’m excited by the people we’ve been able to gather around our table (that’s you!). I’m excited by the stuff we’re building out right now. And, maybe surprisingly given recent events, I’m excited — and hopeful — about the role that we all as MoFos can play in helping all of Mozilla succeed at putting people of the world back in control of their online lives.

All Hands is an important opportunity to do exactly this kind of reflection: to ask ourselves ‘what am I excited by right now?’ and ‘what do I want to bring to the big picture of Mozilla’s work in the world?’ I encourage each of you to do this in the run up to next week. And to write it down. Or doodle.

I did a little doodling this morning. One of my doodles was this:

This is my simplistic picture of how all the puzzle pieces are coming together at Mozilla. A $25 Firefox OS smartphone. A world of mobile apps and content that is as open, democratic, innovative, creative and unlocking as the wild west of the early web. A grassroots army of Mozillians teaching people and helping them figure out how to get the most out of the digital world they live in. We’re getting closer and closer to being able to shape and impact what the web looks like for people coming online for the first time via mobile — and to bring our values to the table as we do. That’s exciting.

Part of my excitement is that we are all actively working on pieces of this bigger puzzle. We are building the army of Mozillians who will help the next wave of internet users understand what the web can do, giving them a sense of confidence and empowerment. We are rolling out badges and metrics tools to recognize, organize and motivate the contributors at the heart of all that Mozilla does. And we are bringing in new communities and new ideas from places like journalism, science and policy to help shape what Mozilla and the web become. All of this is important.

Of course, the puzzle is much bigger than this and has many more pieces. Getting an open platform into the hands for the next wave of mobile internet users is critical. So is readying the ground for a truly open apps and content ecosystem. And creating the partnerships that get us into the markets where ‘the global internet’ is being shaped and built by those who are coming online for the first time. Others across the rest of Mozilla are doing these things — or at least building the foundations. There is huge potential for all of us at MoFo to look sideways to understand what people across the rest of Mozilla are building, and then figuring out how we work together to fit our pieces into the bigger picture.

This is exactly the kind of thing we do at All Hands: look up to see where we are; what’s working; where the opportunities are; and how we move ahead together. I’m going to send a couple more emails this weekend to further get your thoughts going on things like ‘what does winning look like’ and ‘what are the big challenges ahead’. You’ll also get some email from Gunner on how the agenda will work. Watch for these things as you pack and travel.

In the mean time, I encourage you to doodle. Or go for a walk. Or do whatever you do to reflect. What are you excited about right now? And how do you want to plug that excitement into the bigger puzzle that Mozilla is building?

Looking forward.

- ms

PS. If you’re new to Mozilla and have some time, take a few minute’s to watch Mitchell Baker’s opening talk from the 2013 Mozilla Summit:

http://summit.mozilla.org/summit-videos-are-now-live/

This will give you a good sense of some of the frameworks that shape what we do and how we work.