Webmaker/TPS

TPS

• What? Tactical Priorities Syndicate. MoFo leaders who help translate our strategic goals into tactical priorities each two-week cycle.
• Why? A more agile working style, distributed leadership, and short, time-bound initiatives that tie back to our quarterly and yearly goals.
• Who? Friendly MoFos here to serve: David Ascher, Paul Johnson, Chris Lawrence, Geoffrey MacDougall, Cassie McDaniel, Ben Moskowitz, Andrew Sliwinski, Matthew Thompson, Michelle Thorne, Simon Wex
• How? Through weekly TPS meetings. In a collaborative production cycle we design together.
• When? The TPS meets every Monday (time TBD)

TPS meetings happen Mondays, at the beginning and mid-point of each Heartbeat.

Production cycle

• Collaborative production is our goal. MoFos build things. Many different kinds of things -- not just software. Our goal is to work across teams effectively for smart, collaborative production.
• We work in two-week "Heartbeat" cycles. A well-designed, two-week production cycle helps us do collaborative production better. Working across teams with the right mix of cohesion, empowerment and communication.
• The TPS helps design and optimize this cycle. Meeting at the beginning and mid-point of each Heartbeat to prioritize and allocate resources.

How it works

The life-cycle of a Heartbeat:

• Plan on Monday. Small groups and cross-functional teams get together on the first Monday of each Heartbeat. To discuss what their team wants to get done together over the next two weeks. The TPS then meets to review everyone's proposals.
• Communicate on Tuesday. The entire Webmaker tribe gathers on Tuesday. To review and talk about about the finalized list of priorities set by the TPS. Everyone leaves with a shared sense of what we're all working on together that Heartbeat.
• That's it! The rest of the two weeks are your own. You can add on additional meetings or stand-ups as you and your manager see fit. The TPS meets at the mid-point to look ahead and ensure we're on track. And we get together at the end of the cycle to demo and celebrate what we got done.

The result: Fewer meetings, smarter communication, more time to get stuff done.

Overview

• Two-week heartbeats. We work in two-week cycles or "heartbeats." Not everything can or needs to be done in two weeks -- but it's a helpful way to plan and communicate. (Here's a "Hearbeat FAQ" on what, how and why)
• First Mondays. The first Monday of each Heartbeat is special. It's all about planning, brainstorming, and proposing what we want to get done together that cycle. You'll meet in your teams and groups to come up with big ideas and make proposals. It involves a lot more meeting and communicating than other days -- this is where we make sure we're working smart, not just hard.
• TPS meetings. For the TPS group. TPS gets together to discuss priorities for each heartbeat. They filter up your proposals to talk about prioritizing, resource allocation, and how they align with our quarterly and yearly goals. Proposal: these should happen on Mondays. Proposed time: 1pm ET. (Use this Doodle Poll to tell us if that works.)
• Webmaker Now meetings (aka: "Heartbeat Overview" meeting). For everyone working on Webmaker. These happen the first Tuesday of each heartbeat. So we can communicate together as a large group, and pull together a crisp shared story of what Webmaker is working on that heartbeat.
• Demos. Happen every Friday at 4pm ET. These are a chance to show what you learned and got done that heartbeat. Big demos happen at the end of the heartbeat. Smaller works-in-progress at the mid-point.
• Team meetings and stand-ups. These are up to individual teams, managers and groups to design, schedule and format. There's a list in progress here: https://etherpad.mozilla.org/standups

Detail

First Mondays

The first Monday of each heartbeat is special. The focus is on:

• • 1) cleaning up. Dusting off, polishing, pushing to production, or blogging about etc. the stuff you made in the last heartbeat.
  • 2) planning. Proposing in teams and groups what you want to get done in the next one.
  • 3) teeing up success. This is where we take a regular breathe to think, plan, brainstorm and communicate.

Webmaker Now meetings

This is the Heartbeat Overview meeting. For everyone working on Webmaker. The goal is to:

• a) document. one crisp headline what each group is working on. captured in an etherpad before the call starts.
• b) communicate. understand each group is proposing to put on the train that cycle. question. challenge each other for clarity, prioritization and smart resource allocation.
• c) follow up. break into small groups for deeper dives. The above should take about 15 minutes of open plenary. Then we can do break-outs with smaller groups for offline conversations where they're most needed.

TPS Roadmap

[oct3]

• (milestone)

[oct17]

• (milestone)

[oct31]

• (milestone)

[nov14]

• (milestone)

[nov28]

• (milestone)

[dec12]

• (milestone)