People:removing roadblocks to productivity

Removing Roadblocks to Productivity

Project Overview

Sometimes it feels really hard to get anything done. Broken communication channels, lack of role clarity, teams at cross purposes. Whatever it may be, stuff gets in our way of being productive and having the impact we ultimately want to have.

The purpose of this project is to uncover what gets in the way of our productivity and do something about it (so that people stay longer, do more, do better).

Project Description

Objectives

• Gather, analyze, and prioritize employee survey results by April 2014
• Develop framework to address key roadblocks by May 2014
• Create and assign project owners/teams by May 2014
• Design and implement ongoing process to address roadblocks by June 2014
• Assess progress on removing roadblocks in Nov/Dec 2014

Constraints

Applicable to Mozilla regular employees.
We will look to get input from volunteers when we are better able to identify 'actives'.

Assumptions

• We cannot solve every issue that will be raised.
• Issues will get raised that have minimal votes / are low priority and will not be tackled by this project team. If any Mozillian is interested in addressing it, they are encouraged.
• We are cleared to dig into any issue that's raised.

Deliverables

• Phase 1
  • Launch a simple company-wide survey to understand the ubiquity of each issue raised.
• Phase 2
  • Analyze the findings, group them, and prioritize as necessary.
  • Consider conducting focus groups where necessary to uncover deeper insights.
• Phase 3
  • Develop roadmap and execution plan.
  • Identify key stakeholders and drivers for each main category / action.

Risks

Lack of resources and time will impede progress speed.

Communication

We’ll use the People Team Blog + this wiki as our primary communication vehicle to narrate the project start to finish, with regular updates shared via Yammer and the Project call. In addition, the progress of this initiative will be tracked on our goals spreadsheet.

And you can always find us for more info on the #peoplepeople IRC channel.

Summary Milestones

• Q1 -
  • FEBRUARY -
    • confirm project scope
    • identify consultant for focus groups
  • MARCH -
    • design survey
    • determine best tool for data gathering
    • create and launch survey (open for 2 weeks)
• Q2 -
  • APRIL -
    • grouping/prioritizing results
    • results shared back with the Project
  • MAY -
    • develop larger project plan / framework for accountability
    • assign project owners
  • JUNE -
• Q3 - TBD, depends on results of the survey
• Q4 - TBD, depends on results of the survey

Project Organization

Project sponsor: Debbie Cohen
Project owner: Mihca Anderson
Project managers: Sean Rich, Mihca Anderson, Lawrence Mandel
Team members: Mardi Douglass, Gemma Petrie, Ilana Segall, Amie Tyrrel, Chris Peterson

The People Team is driving the collection and analysis of data. When the roadblocks have been thoroughly vetted, we will identify stakeholders inside the project to own and drive the removal of each roadblock. Essentially, we will give voice to these roadblocks and ignite and support others to act.

Project Documents

Link to project status reports
Link to project management plan